If that happens, I would suspect that either a large group of blue dog Dems would shift over to the new Republican party or the progressive wing would split off to the left and the two center parties would merge. It would take a decade or so, but our winner take all system pushes for an equilibrium of 2 nearly equal parties.
A witness in one of Sidney Powell’s lawsuits in Michigan, testified that he had proof of fraud in Edison County. There is no Edison County in Michigan, nor in any other state.
Apparently ol’ Mitch has a new proposal for coronavirus relief.
It’s pretty skinny but also includes this:
The McConnell bill also reintroduces a Republican plan to allow diners to claim a tax deduction on their meal expenditures, a provision pushed by the business lobby but viewed skeptically by economists and some Republicans.
Really? Is he really saying that people with expense accounts being able to tax deduct their meals will somehow provide coronavirus relief?
The overall problem is that, based on long-term data (17 years) from Gallup, although Republican Party membership (affiliation as reported to a pollster) is in decline, so is Democratic Party membership. Ever so slightly more, even.
When I chart these numbers (using the whole set, going back to '04) in a spreadsheet and project the trendline 10 years forward, the estimate is that Republican affiliation will be around 22.1%, Democratic 24.9%, leaving half the country identifying as Not.
Which, quite frankly, seems reasonable. So how can we expect a quarter of the country to put up a strong fight against a fifth of the country when half of the country looks at both of them thinking, “What a bunch of Bozinskis; how did we get stuck with that sad lot?”
…
It’s been 199 days since the House passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, and 61 days since the House passed their compromise $2.2 trillion bill, both of which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to consider. He has instead offered a few “skinny” proposals filled with poison pills, which he knew Democrats would reject, to allow his Republicans to say they tried to do something before the election.
…It does not provide any funding for state and local governments. It includes just one month’s worth of extended emergency unemployment insurance for both gig workers and for regular workers, but does not include any extra weekly benefits above normal universal income (UI)—no $600/week bump. Not even the $300/week bump that was in the September skinny bill from Republicans. It provides exactly $0 in direct stimulus payments. It does not extend the federal moratorium on evictions. It does not extend student loan payment forbearance.
…It doesn’t not raise the limits for SNAP benefits. It does include $300 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program small business loans because of course it does, even though it hasn’t really worked. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.) It tosses in $100 billion for education, $31 billion for vaccine distribution, and $16 billion for more testing.
It ends unilateral lending authority for the Federal Reserve and Treasury with any unspent funds, meaning President-elect Joe Biden won’t have any of that available. It creates barriers for people trying to qualify for unemployment insurance, making them jump through additional hoops with short deadlines, which he calls “guardrails against fraud.”
…
My bold.
A preview of the next four years.
But wouldn’t that leave us with three – Progressive Left, Centrist and Rabid Right?
But can the sane center party consistently keep the support of that middle 55%?
Why, that would be downright deplorable !
OH MY GOD!!!
The Deep states reach is so vast it dissapeared a whole county!
It really is not a linear continuum, or even a planar distribution like that chickenshit “political compass” thing. The (current) 38% Neither is not “the middle” in the sense that the middle is typically portrayed.
A non-small fraction of the Neithers are the true Left that views Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as useless turds who will maintain the status quo and quietly, skillfully facilitate megacorporatism and the increase of the wealth gap.
Another significant fraction of the Neithers are the Objectivist Glibertarians who are dissatisfied with the Republican Party’s inadequate support for “freedom” and rugged individualism.
And then there are others who are all over the map. Most of us have concordant wants and needs and only really disagree on how to attain betterness and stability. It is the loudness of the R noise in our ears that makes it difficult for us to talk to each other and work shit out.
You might be right with a purely linear fit, but given how far these data go back, that might not be the best way to approach the data. It is doubtful that trendlines stayed the same over the last 17 years. Looking more locally with a loess fit, it appears that the upward trend independent party affiliation stopped around 2014 and is now trending slightly downwards, with Repubican affiliation trending upwards, and Democratic affiliation being flat.
(Unfortunately I need to figure out how to upload and share images before I can show a trend.)
The conservative justices are ignoring the rules during Supreme Court questions, and barrel over the liberal justices and the Chief Justice.
And it’s not as though Alito is new and unfamiliar with the traditions of the Court.
Trumpism rears its lard-encased head again: me do what me want, me no care about courtesy or tradition!!!11!!!
Yeah, it was rude, but it’s a clear sign of the times to come. Why have arguments anymore? 5-4 or 6-3 on damn near everything that benefits the GOP or disadvantages Democrats and/or people of color. The ‘4’ will alternate between Gorsuch and Roberts, but will rarely if ever be both for 4-5 the other way. If the Dems can win both GA races and don’t pack the Court, then Joe Biden (assuming he gets there) will be the last Democratic President. He might already be.
On another forum I frequent, and apparently on Reddit’s “The_Donald” (which I do not frequent) the right are now floating the idea that there is no evidence that the election even happened let alone election fraud.
I expect that claim to arrive here soon enough…
I’d be interested in reading that discussion
You’re gonna need a bigger foilier hat.
Reddit shut down The_Donald in June 2020 because even too much craziness for Reddit (which is a LOT), but I’d be interested in where you are currently reading that the election never happened. Maybe I can find the alternate reality where I didn’t put on those 12 pounds since March. 
Foilier alert!
I’ve definetly caught the covid 19 lbs.
I’ve lost 25 pounds since March. I am no longer going to the office, where there were free snacks.