Almost every day my mind boggles at just how this cretinous charlatan became POTUS. I lived there for 4 years and I know they can be pretty gullible, and just when I thought they’d excelled themselves by electing Dubya, they go ten better and elect this fraud. Somebody posted a vid of the fire chief asking Trump if this had changed his mind about climate change. His response was, “No, we’re gonna have great climate”
26 or 35 senate seats contested in 2018 were Democratic. So the Republicans picked up either 1 or 2 senate seats despite being swamped in the popular vote for the senate. The Democrats picked up at least 39 seat house seats, and theoretically as many as 44 (which were all at stake) and 7 state governorships. It was a blue wave mitigated only by the fact that 3/4 of the senate seats at stake were Democratic, I'd say.
Thanks. Looked but not found any reporting of the vote percentages. Those couple of seats the reds (bizarre colour allocations) picked up in Senate are important though. Means less difficulty getting Trumps increasingly bizarre picks through for one thing. Also, if, as you say, the Democrats swamped Republicans, how did they lose a couple of seats. I get they were unlikely to progress, but to go backwards is disappointing (from a Democrat point of view) surely?
In retrospect, blue wave and swamp may be too strong. The facts include the Democrats won the popular vote for the House of Representatives by 7.1%, and they picked up 7 governorships and (coincidentally) won control of 7 state legislatures. Last I heard, they won the popular vote for Senate by 12,000,000 votes, though that number is problematic for a number of reasons. They lost a seat or two due to having 29 seats to lose versus Republicans having only 8 seats to lose. Since senators serve 6 year terms, only one third or so are up for election every 2 years. Even if you win the total votes cast for senators by a wide margin, you will probably lose senate seats in total if you defend 29 seats and your opponents only defend 8 in separate elections, due to the law of averages. The Democrats won 27 or 28 out of 37 elections, but needed to win 29 to hold their ground. It was what is known as a bad Senate map, one of the worst ever--but also played a big part in the 12,000,000 vote Democratic plurality. Other factors which minimized Republican losses include gerrymandering, in which House districts are shaped to help one party win more seats, and restrictive requirements for voting, including few and poorly staffed polling places, which have the effect of reducing voting by minorities and the poor, as they're intended to do--not to mention a system of senatorial representation in which Wyoming has as many senators as California, despite having less than 1/80th the number of people. So considering Trump lost the popular vote by 2.5 million votes, the real winner in 2018 was unrepresentative government. I like blue for Democrats, as they are closer to Tories than to Labour. Red for Republicans makes sense now if you still associate red with Russia, as I do.
Fascinating, thanks for the full reply. The electoral abuses make the news even over here. For example the Governorship where - what we would call the returning officer - the person overseeing the election was actually the Republican candidate (due to him being the current Lieutenant-Governor if memory serves). The votes in Texas, Georgia and Florida (although lost) were triumphs for the Democrats. I'm beginning to wonder whether Trump was being entirely honest when he suggested he'd done really well.
I remember the first time i went to the states in the 70’s - my first wife was American. I remember hearing these preachers on the radio ( the Jesus loves you, but he’ll love you more if you give us some money ones ), and laughing my arse off that anybody could be so gullible as to send these charlatans money. My wife informed me that her parents ,who were from the south originally, sent money to one of them. I was speechless with incredulity!...
"There'll be no doubt in your mind, you'll believe everything I'm saying, if you wanna get closer to him, get on your knees and start paying". Not a big fan of Genesis or Collins, but they were spot on with that one.
I remember that as well. "Send us a check and we will say a prayer for you!" I thought,he's got to be kidding.....but....no!
BBC News - Ivanka Trump used personal email for White House business http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46271021 Poor girl - it's a witch-hunt!! How or why would she have ever known the rules before her father entered office? It's not as if he made a big thing of this in the campaign. Oh wait............... I'm guessing he won't be calling for her arrest.
