Cornered and Dangerous

How to Handle a Rabid Animal

There’s an argument circulating that the Republican Party is a “wounded animal.” As one GOP representative argued, “we all learned from our parents that you don’t corner a wounded animal.” If Democrats push too hard, the argument goes, if they force legislation through on a very thin majority, ignore the other party, and, worst of all, if they do away with the filibuster, then the consequences could be dire, even dangerous. Let this wounded animal out of the corner to go heal itself, we are advised.

Having lost the Presidency and the Senate, and in open warfare with itself, the GOP appears unlikely to survive in the form that we’ve known it these past 50 years. Nobody wants, or needs, another explanation of how the Republican Party, losing voters but still able to win elections, remains as influential as it is. Their formula is simple and well understood:

EC + VS + O= P (Electoral College + Voter-Suppression + Outrage = Power)

This formula, based as it is on 3 well-rooted variables, will ensure that the GOP’s loss of influence will be as slow as it is inevitable.

The best minds of our day have for decades been making the argument against our outdated electoral college. Amendment of our constitution to eliminate this corrosive institution is highly unlikely due to the support of Republican states. Progress towards a National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), provides some hope for a workaround, but that effort won’t provide the relief…