.... now we need to move to the next line of defense (electing conservatives!!!!!!).
********************************
I did my part .... supported and voted for David Brat!! :-) A lot of us are STILL smiling every time we think of Cantor being gone (not that there aren’t enough like him still left). Now ... if we can only do something about Timmy “The Eyebrow” Kaine and Mark Warner. Terry McAwful just promised Hildabeast, at a fundraiser, he’d “deliver” Va’s electoral votes for her - would like to see that NOT happen as well.
: )
Here’s what the schemers have in mind for killing off conservative strength (the Left’s bench is empty and their local and state organizations aren’t supplying new socialist blood). So.......”fair vote.”
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2779/1
“...........Population migration across the past few decades has re-colored the nation into blue urban districts and red rural districts, introducing a structural bias favoring Republicans even if up through 55% of the popular vote goes to Democrats. For the party in a district whose general election victory is all but a foregone conclusion, primary elections increasingly favor extreme candidates whose voters are more likely to turn out than moderates. With primary turnout declining to all-time lows in most states in 2014, it leaves this key power to our most partisan voters. Once in office, representatives feel loyalty pressure to vote along party lines, as the winner-take-all dynamic plays out even further. Consequently, these basic structural attributes happen to be conferring outsized power onto the far right.
........... A fair and elegant solution addresses the structural flaw through the creation of multi-member “super districts” assembled from, say, three to five adjacent single-member districts. A recent Washington Post editorial, “Blending red and blue,” concurs. With multi-member districts, the contentious issue of geographical district boundaries simply goes away because the district boundaries themselves go away.
A further structural refinement called Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) enables voters to elect their super district representatives as a group by ranking them in order of preference. RCV gets rid of the need to resort to strategic voting to game the two-party system and expands the power of voters elect a representative. With RCV voters simply vote their true preferences, thereby eliminating any fear of “spoiling” or vote splitting among similar candidates that may undesirably benefit a dissimilar candidate. Every vote counts, and voters are no longer constrained by where they live but are free to engage by how they think. FairVote has created an excellent infographic and website that help explain multi-member districts and RCV.
Many city governments in the United States, including Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Oakland, have already successfully implemented RCV. Meanwhile, Maine will hold a referendum next year to adopt RCV for all congressional and state elections.
Multi-member districts and RCV find broad support among both progressives and conservatives. See, for example the recent article by self-identified conservative and National Review writer Reihan Salam, “The Biggest Problem in American Politics: Forget gerrymandering. Here’s what we need to fix to ensure truly fair elections.” And the recent op-ed by self-identified progressive Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation magazine, “We Need a Fairer System for Choosing House Members.”.............................