America voted for a democratic congress.

[MoonchildCA]

I don't know if this has been posted here yet, but it is major news to me, and Americans need to be aware of it. The whole meme that America wants a republican congress is a lie.

I knew their gerrymandering was a problem, but I did not realize the extent of it, or the impact it had on this election:

"Why Americans actually voted for a Democratic House
By Ian Millhiser on Nov 7, 2012 at 4:21 pm

Although a small number of ballots remain to be counted, as of this writing, votes for a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives outweigh votes for Republican candidates. Based on ThinkProgress’ review of all ballots counted so far, 53,952,240 votes were cast for a Democratic candidate for the House and only 53,402,643 were cast for a Republican — meaning that Democratic votes exceed Republican votes by more than half a million."

[link:http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/07/1159631/americans-voted-for-a-democratic-house-gerrymandering-the-supreme-court-gave-them-speaker-boehner/?mobile=wt|

[AndyTiedye]

1. It's So Gerrymandered We Can't Get the House Back Until 2020

and even then only if we kick butt in the state elections in 2018.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

2. 2022

2020 will be the census, redistricting won't come into play until 2022.

[Bucky]

4. You forgot Texas

A state lege can regerrymander whenever they feel like it. Tom DeLay taught us that. His goal was to racialize politics in Texas. He came damn close.

[AndyTiedye]

8. Does That Mean we Can UnGerrymander Sooner?

[Savannahmann]

9. We wish.

The districts are drawn by the State Houses, which were Rethug in 2010 thanks to the Tea baggers. The Rethugs knowing that there was a good chance they wouldn't win in 2012, went and did something unexpected. Normally, they try and increase their majority by deluting their own districts to make them narrower, and in the meantime put more into play. This time, they did it different. They redrew the districts to give a majority of the house safe Rethug seats. That means, until 2020 and the next legal redraw of the districts, which will affect only a few states, we are stuck with a possible Rethug House no matter how batshit crazy those fuckers are. Their plan was to give up on Blue areas, and isolate them while giving fewer Rethugs serious challenges to their leadership of the House.

No, as far as the House is concerned, we're fucked for the next two, or four, or possibly eight years. If the Tea Baggers manage to control the State Houses again in 2020, we could well be fucked for a generation. Those bastards are holding the whole nation hostage, and it's a fucking disgrace.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

3. Pretty meaningless stat

since votes only count within a district.

[Bucky]

5. It's far from meaningless. It's powerless, but full of meaning.

[MoonchildCA]

6. Yes. Exactly.

[gulliver]

7. It's no longer the People's House.

Republicans have subverted it. Gerrymandering is just another way Republicans try to deny people equal protection under the law.