What's Wrong With This Picture

James Madison believed that "In a large republic, so many interests would exist that no single interest was likely to become powerful enough to form a majority, capture the government, and serve itself at the expense of the whole."

Madison was way off on this one. That very thing is occurring now. Consider this, Republican voters comprise a small percentage of all voters (28%), yet Republicans now control the US Congress, hold the Presidency, are a majority in the Supreme Court, hold a majority (64%) of Governorships around the country and are majority (70%) in state legislatures.

So why aren’t “so many interests” preventing the Republicans from gaining control of our federal and state governments since they are a minority (by registered voters) political Party?

The answer is, primarily because of the political, two Party system; a duopoly in government. The plurality system of voting, gerrymandering of voting districts, the Supreme Court decision in “Citizens United,” allowing big money to buy elections, the Republican Senate blocking a sitting president’s nomination for a Supreme Court vacancy for most of his final year in office and the archaic Electoral College deciding elections, rather than election by majority vote.