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Originally Posted by Gregor-y
It's because of a number of things.
A couple of misleading statements here.
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1. The House of Representatives is elected through rules that allow states to develop their own boundaries for a number of representatives based on their population. State governments typically draw boundaries to retain their own party's dominance in the national body. This was also done with the US Senate (through in those cases it was often the state government that chose their senators) until direct election by all voters in the state was passed as a constitutional amendment, forcing all states to use this standard.
This is true.
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A number of states that have a few or no Democratic representatives actually had more people voting Democratic than Republican across the state, but retain Republicans because of how boundaries are drawn.
This is misleading because both parties do it. I live in Maryland which is heavily democratic overall. There are two regions which lean more Republican - western Maryland and the eastern shore. The Democratic legislature has redrawn boundary lines to essentially disenfranchise those voters and to try and ensure that every one elected from Maryland is a Democrat. So lets be clear about BOTH parties playing dirty.
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2. The Republican party has a number of its own rules, one of which is not to disagree when voting. This means if there's disagreement as there is now, all Republicans feel the obligation to support their party, similar to other country's parliamentary systems. Most of them don't agree with the current path but are politically unable to vote any other way.
Um,you haven't noticed that the Democrats do the same thing? I'd also replace the word "most" with "many" in your last sentence.
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3. Republican intransigence is actually a new thing. Other than once in the 1990s no party has intentionally held up the workings of the entire government as a means to forward a particular agenda. Republicans can't accomplish anything through voting because they don't control enough of the Senate and of course could not override the President, so they have decided it's better to destroy the livelihood of workers, veterans, anyone receiving assistance, Most receiving assistance will continue to do so. anyone going on vacation to a park, anyone needing a passport or visa and all their associated families and businesses in order to announce their opposition to a particular law. Short of seceding over the fear of eliminating slavery there's not a lot of precedent for what's happening at the moment.
Partly wrong. There will be little or no impact on those receiving assistance or those needing passports or visas.
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So yes, this is a Republican problem caused by Republicans. They've been digging themselves into a hole for years, and are now just lashing out in frustration. Kind of like Al Shabaab over in Somalia. After steadily losing support it's being whittled down to the psychotics that want to destroy everything just to prove how right they are.
Completely wrong. The problem was caused DIRECTLY by BOTH Democratic and Republican congresses who spent more money than they took in over many years. If there was no debt there COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE A DEBT CEILING CRISIS.