US Census

Our 18th Century Political System No Longer Works In The 21st Century!

Ronald 10 Comments

The Founding Fathers of the late 18th century created a political system that worked for a long time, despite many crises.

Sadly, it no longer works when one realizes that we have a system where land counts more than people, as in the US Senate!

The top NINE states in the 2010 US Census had a combined population which is a majority of the nation—California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan! So two Northeastern states, three Southern states, three Midwestern states, and one Western state are where the population is most concentrated!

Also, the next eleven states,in total, have over 25 percent of the total population. So that means TWENTY states have over 75 percent of the entire population of the country in their midst!

Also, if you add states 21-30, it adds another 15 percent of the nation’s population, and that means 90 percent of the country is in 30 states, while the other 20 states have less than ten percent of the entire population combined!

Also, 70 percent of the American population lives on TWO PERCENT of all of the land of the country!

Despite this, we have the 30 percent of the population living on 98 percent of the land, and 41 states out of 50, having the ability to dictate most actions of the Senate, and the House of Representatives!

And 30 states, having less than 25 percent of the total population, can, in theory, block action, or bring about action through the filibuster, in the Senate, with their 60 votes!

There is no immediate or long range solution to this reality, but it is important that people realize that the Founding Fathers, as brilliant as they were, could not, possibly, conceive how the nation would change over 225 years!

The Loss Of The Anthony Weiner Congressional Seat In New York: Its Meaning

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The 9th Congressional District in Queens and Brooklyn, New York, was represented in the past decade by an aggressive, outspoken Democrat named Anthony Weiner, who was noticeable for his fighting spirit against conservatives, the Tea Party Movement, and the Republican Party. He made a lot of news with his confrontations on the floor of the House of Representatives in the past few years.

But Anthony Weiner also had a fatal flaw, not unique to him among politicians, and that was his private sexual drives, which led to him putting text and pictures of his naked body on Facebook and Twitter, erupting in a scandal which forced him to resign in June of this year.

Now, as a result of his antics and stupidity, a district which was Democratic controlled since 1923, has gone to the Republican nominee, and it is being interpreted in different ways.

Let the author point out that this district was the one in which he resided for 15 years before his move to Florida in 1989, and he lived specifically in the community known as Fresh Meadows in the Flushing area of Queens County.

The thought that MY district is now represented by a Republican is hard enough to take, but the issue is its meaning!

Some would say it is an aberration, and a reaction against Anthony Weiner himself, as a similar situation with an upstate New York district, traditionally Republican for a very long time, went to the Democrat a few months ago after a similar sex scandal.

It should also be pointed out that this district will disappear due to the mandated change in district lines for all members of the House of Representatives after reapportionment of seats with census results now in, and therefore, the whole district will be divided among others, with New York losing two seats in the House of Representatives. So the new Republican, as much as if the Democratic candidate had won, is unlikely to be able to stay in Congress more than one year. In fact, since Weiner was personally not well liked in the New York delegation, he probably would have been thrown into a primary against a fellow Democrat in a newly established district, with a good chance of being defeated, without the scandal which unseated him!

Having said all that, some see the defeat as a repudiation of Barack Obama on the economy.

Others see it as a repudiation of the stand on Israel and the Palestinians that Obama and his administration have promoted, seen at least by Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, a large portion of the Jewish population of that district, as anti Israel.

Still others see it as a repudiation of the Democratic nominee, who while Jewish, supported gay marriage in the state legislature, something that Orhodox and Hasidic Jews loathe with passion!

Does this mean that the general Jewish population is ready to abandon Barack Obama and the Democrats nationally?

The answer is who knows, but while it seems highly doubtful that large numbers of Jews will vote Republican, it is certainly a warning to Obama and the Democrats to work hard to convince Jews that Obama is NOT working against Israel’s interests, that they will fight for more jobs, and at the same time, NOT back off on gay marriage and gay rights!

Orthodox and Hasidic Jews have the right to be against gay marriage, as much as many Catholics and evangelical Christians, but that does not mean that their personal prejudices should deny equality in all ways to gay and lesbian Americans! This needs to be seen as a civil rights issue!

Since the percentage of Jews who are Orthodox or Hasidic is small, and since most Jews believe in the New Deal and Great Society programs that continue to be defended by Barack Obama and his party, this election, most likely, is simply an aberration!

The Census Undercount And Its Possible Effect On The Future

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A crisis has arisen in the US Census Bureau, as the top four states in population, plus Number 14 (Arizona), are in danger of being under counted in the once a decade census count which determines federal aid to the states, reapportionment of seats for the US House of Representatives, and the number of electoral votes the states have for Presidential elections in 2012, 2016, and 2020.

California, Texas, New York and Florida, along with Arizona, also, coincidentally (or is it that? ), have the highest number of Hispanic or Latino residents. One has to speculate that the growing crackdown on illegal immigration, accelerated by the new Arizona law, may be influencing people of Latin American heritage, whether legal or illegal, to be afraid of government, and be unwilling, therefore, to cooperate with government and fill out any government forms.

Of course, the push by Tea Party Movement people, and Republican members of Congress, such as Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, to make people feel fear of government intrusion, could also be having a deleterious effect on cooperation with the census.

But as things stand now, New York and California are in danger of losing seats, and Texas, Arizona and Florida might not gain additional House seats, and in the process, all five states could have less influence on Presidential elections than one would expect, considering their tremendous size and impact on the nation as a whole.

Instead, Minnesota, Oregon and North Carolina could gain extra House seats and electoral votes, because those states have a higher participation rate than the five states mentioned above.

The next two and a half months will determine the final results, as Census workers fan out to try and gain cooperation in these five states and elsewhere.

One must point out that ALL people living in the country are supposed to be counted, including illegal immigrants, but the Census looks in danger of a greater under count, percentage wise, than ever in recent history!