Demography? Democracy? Where do they meet?

We live in a largely rural region. Some local farmers are still harvesting corn. Most cornfields are down to stubble. Bean fields look like they've been shaved and covered with tan felt. Haven't noticed any Winter cover crops coming up yet. Lack of cover, snow or crop, leaves soil vulnerable to the winds we've had the past few days. Will this weather pattern bring a bumper snirt [snow + dirt] season soon? It's forecast to get colder over the next week or so, but no mention (yet) of significant snow. Maybe political snow jobs will have to do for now.

Minnesota has 8 Congressional Districts

We often write here about bioregionalism. Perhaps the time has come to start thinking about Bioregional Democracy. After the last presidential election, and some recent votes by some of Minnesota's members of congress, we're thinking more and more about whether we live in a representative democracy. For today, we'll just outline some examples of the kinds of things that leave us scratching our head.

We frequently mention that we grew up in Massachusetts, one of the six New England states. The area of Massachusetts is 10,565 square miles. Massachusetts had an estimated population in 2016 of 6.8 million people, represented in Congress by 9 members of the House. We now live in Minnesota, which has an area of slightly less than 87,000 square miles, about 8 times the size of Massachusetts, with a 2017 estimated population of 5.6 million people, represented by 8 House members. Each state's House members represent about 700,000 to 800,000 people per member. Here's where things seem to us to go awry. We now live in Minnesota's 8th congressional district which, by itself, has an area of 27.5 thousand square miles and a population (2016 estimate) of slightly less than 700,000. Both Minnesota and Massachusetts are represented by 2 senators. But, based on area, shouldn't Minnesota have more than 2 senators. Or, maybe the Eighth Congressional District should petition for separate statehood?

Massachusetts has 9 Congressional Districts

Looking at the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election and comparing that with the electoral college vote, there's clearly something else out of whack. Clinton received 65,853,625 votes (48.0%) compared to Trump's 62,985,106 votes (45.9%), yet the popular vote loser received 306 Electoral College votes compared to the popular vote winner's 232 EC votes. That makes about as much sense as Massachusetts having 2 senators to represent 10.5 thousand square miles and Minnesota's CD8 having one quarter of a senator to represent 27.5 thousand square miles. I'm not convinced that replacing the electoral college is a solution,  but I am certain that the system we now have is broken. I wish more folks were commenting on that than on the latest Tweets from #45. Whatever happened to our priorities? Have we declined to the level of Rome's bread and circuses? Might Walt Whitman have been too optimistic?

                     For You O Democracy

By Walt Whitman

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,

I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,

I will make divine magnetic lands,

                   With the love of comrades,

                      With the life-long love of comrades.

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,

I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks,

                   By the love of comrades,

                      By the manly love of comrades.

For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!

For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

Source: Leaves of Grass (1892)                                             

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.