The suburban slaughter in the midterms, therefore, can be attributed
to three things: motivated college-educated white women who put their
fears about women’s issues and health care over economic and national
security; both college-educated white women and men who are personally
offended by Trump’s personality and rhetoric; and redrawing of district
lines to include these groups to curb Republican advantages.

It’s uncertain if Trump can do anything to attract these voters.
Probably not. That ship has likely sailed. The best he can do is shore
up his base for the next election. The rest of us—conservative women in
particular, who don’t vote by feelings and unfounded fears—need to step
up. It falls on our shoulders to educate our suburban sisters about the
role of government in their lives, the dangers of government-run health
care, and the lies of feminism regarding “inequalities” in America.

What’s Behind Educated, Suburban Women Flipping To Democrats

Source: spockvarietyhour

No Matter How You Vote, The New Congress Won’t Represent You

armedandgayngerous:

bigwordsandsharpedges:

hominishostilis:

laliberty:

One of the most foundational assumptions behind modern democracy is that the elected officials somehow represent the interests of those who elected them.

Advocates for the political status quo flog this position repeatedly, claiming that taxation and the regulatory state are all morally legitimate because the voters are “represented.” Even conservatives, who often claim to be for “small government” often oppose radicalism of any kind — such as secession — on the grounds that political resistance movements such as the American Revolution are only acceptable when there is “taxation without representation.“The implication being that since the United States holds elections every now and then, no political action outside of voting — and maybe a little sign waving — is allowed.

This, position, however, rests on the idea that elected officials are truly representative. If taxation with representation makes government legitimate — as some argue — then we must first establish that the government’s claims of representation are believable. …

For centuries, this myth of representation has served to quash opposition to government abuse, and to claim that submission to government is “voluntary.” It’s time to abandon the myths.

Huh. Interesting read, but I guess the question I have is that if a representative democracy is unable to keep up with the sheer number and diversity of constituents, what’s an alternative that does?

Balkanization, maybe? Regression to a confederacy of 50 individual states?

🤔

The Art of Life | The Z Blog

At the Mencken Conference, I made a point to some big brained people,
a point I’ve made here many times. That is, if a reasonably aware and
smart person in the 1970’s had fallen asleep, like Rip Van Winkle, and
woke up in our age, he would assume the Soviets had won the Cold War.
After all, we have adopted the aesthetic of the Soviets. Our cars all
look the same and come in black, white or shades of gray. Our buildings
are sterile, utilitarian structures. Our high and low art is purely
ornamentation, rather than imitation.

Living as we do in this age, we don’t often notice this, but we live
among the ruins of the culture that made the West. That culture is dead
and has been dead for a while. It’s why our creative side does not
create much of anything. The other day a high end art auction featured a
work that self-destructs. That was probably the closest thing to art
created by a modern artist in several generations. Otherwise, it is all
pointless nonsense that says nothing about life. At best, it matches the
decor and provides a tax break for the owner.