Dirt-y Politics

Commenters on another site where this cartoon appeared accused me of “playing the race card” with this one. I have to try very hard to put myself in the mindset of someone who thinks the Republicans’ sudden interest in changing the way electoral votes are apportioned in certain swing states has absolutely nothing to do with race. This post by Jamelle Bouie in The American Prospect gives a nice rundown of the problem. As Bouie points out, the end result is a gross distortion of the popular vote that privileges the land:

In addition to disenfranchising voters in dense areas, this would end the principle of “one person, one vote.” If Ohio operated under this scheme, for example, Obama would have received just 22 percent of the electoral votes, despite winning 52 percent of the popular vote in the state.

Fortunately, it looks like that plan may be fizzling in my old home state of Virginia.