Why Do Convicted Felons Register As Democrats Over Republicans By A 6 To 1 Margin

What do you think of the fact that 20,000 Republicans voted for a Nazi in Illinois?

There’s an old Woody Allen line that “80% of life is showing up,” and the Republican candidate in question, Arthur Jones, proves this point perfectly. Jones is one of those “perennial candidate” types who runs for any office he can—whether local, state, or national—not because he thinks he has any chance of winning, but rather, because he likes attention and gets a free platform for his odious views.Usually, crackpot candidates like this get a very small percentage of the vote and go down in primaries. However, this time around, Jones got lucky. Specifically, he chose to run for Congress in a district (Illinois 3rd) that overwhelmingly favors Democrats, to the point where a Democrat, just by being able to walk and chew gum at the same time, can expect to receive 70%+ of the vote. Indeed, there has not been a Republican in this district in more than 40 years. Given this reality, no qualified Republican felt like spending time and money to be a sacrificial lamb in November, which is understandable. However, this left Jones running unopposed for the Republican nomination. In fairness, as the cited article notes, the state and national Republican Parties publicly condemned Jones and his candidacy, as did numerous other organizations; Jones will get zero financial support from the GOP and will almost certainly lose by an enormous margin in November. But for now, he gets his long-sought moment in the sun.Ultimately, the fact that Jones received 20,000 votes doesn’t mean much. Again, short of his opponent announcing that he’s a pedophile serial killer who burns flags in his spare time, there’s no chance in hell that Jones will be elected to Congress. But the 20,000 votes don’t say much about the GOP, either. I’m sure that of that 20,000, there are perhaps a few hundred people who are sympathetic to Jones’s extremist views, but I suspect that the vast majority of voters are uninformed people who just checked the name of the only Congressional candidate on their primary ballots. Had Jones won a contested election, this would be cause for alarm, but the fact that an unopposed candidate won an election is expected, and not an indication that the Illinois GOP is turning into Nazi sympathizers. If anything, the only thing this election proves is that there are too many people out there mindlessly voting for candidates without conducting due diligence.

Why does Texas vote so much for Trump and Republicans considering there are so many Mexican immigrants there?

The thing is, Texas has one of the widest demographic gaps between the actual population and the electorate. It is one of the five states where non-Hispanic whites form a minority of the population. Of the others, three (California, New Mexico, and Hawaii) are Democratic strongholds. The other, Nevada, is a swing state that leans towards Democrats. Meanwhile, Texas is the opposite, a ruby red Republican stronghold. Below, red states have 50%+ minority populations while pink have 40% or more.Despite the fact that non-Hispanic whites are just 45% of the population, they cast 62% of the ballots in 2016. Part of this is because Texas has a large undocumented population, which isn’t eligible to vote. However, Hispanic voters across the country, even those who are citizens, typically turn out in low numbers. While white and black voters usually have above 60% turnout in presidential years, only about 40% of Hispanic and Asian voters show up. Midterm elections exacerbate this gap further, when voters are even more disproportionately white, wealthy, and educated. But because of the large undocumented population in Texas, Hispanic turnout in this state is even lower than the nationwide average of 40%. This isn’t unique to 2016.Another factor is that Texas Republicans simply cater better to the Hispanic community. While national Republicans typically get destroyed with this demographic (Clinton won them 65%–29%), Texans perform better. In 2014, Greg Abbott received 44% of the Hispanic vote while cruising to victory. Rick Perry scored in the mid to high 30’s, except in 2006, an unusual four way race. Before him, George W Bush achieved a virtual tie with his Democratic opponent among Hispanic voters in 1998. To make Democrats competitive statewide in Texas, they will need to both raise Hispanic turnout and claw back some of the vote share among this group too. However, the 2016 election offered another boost in the form of educated white voters turning against Donald Trump, allowing Hillary Clinton to post the best performance by a Democrat in twenty years, even as she performed worse nationwide than Obama.

Why do people constantly say “Trump lost the popular vote?” What makes it relevant if he won the overall presidency anyway?

Trump lost the popular vote by around 3 million people not counting Green Party etc.If you give every Senator credit for half the population of their State then the Republican Senators represent 41 percent of the US population.In the US House there were about 2 million more people voting Democratic for US House than voted Republican. Gerrymandering is the reason for the Republicans controlling the House. Example Austin, TX is Democratic stronghold so the Republicans who control the Districting split it into 7 different Congressional Districts to dilute the Democratic vote.Having a minority vote in all three branches because of gaming the system and ten trying to force your beliefs on the majority doesn't sound like Democracy to me.The big elections next year are not the House. Yes the Dema will pick up seats and if the Republicans can't hold majority in the districts they drew then game is over. The big elections next year are Governors and state legislatures . Next year,s election will decide who draws the lines for next ten years.key states to watch will be Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, Massachucetts. New Jersey will probably go Democratic this year. In all the party switch states having a Democratic governor who can veto the redistr map will make the districts more balanced if not more winnable for Democrats.We are seeing the high water mark of Republican ascendancy and they are fumbling the ball. There is a minority of a minority trying to I,pose their will on the majority. They already change the Senate rules so that a majority of their 41 percent of the population is all that is needed confirm a Supreme Court Justice.The rules are changed and in future when the majority of the people are once again in control of the country the Republicans should not complain. After all they are the one who changed the rules so the minority could impose its will. The majority will use the rules the Republicans made.What angers everyone is the majority did not elect these people and they act as if they have a mandate to force their agenda down the throats of the majority.

It seems that the most popular political stance is liberal. From where then do Republicans gain the power?

Well, here on quora, liberal thinkers are probably overrepresented compared to the general population. Because Quora is also overrepresented with folks with higher education, and probably similarly overrepresented with those holding the “openness” personality trait, both of which are correlated with liberal politics (in America).However, Democrats typically hold a registration and identification edge against Republican when strict party identification (and not ideology) is asked of the general population. The fact that Republicans do as well as they do is still an anomaly.There’s a wide variety of reasons this is how things play out, many of which are not nefarious. An example is that the most Democratic eligible voter demographics (young, low-income, nonwhite citizens) tend to vote at lower frequency than Republican demographics (elderly, middle-income, white citizens). Another is that the ineligible to vote population who answer surveys (e.g. felons in certain states, immigrants) tends to identify Democrat more than Republican.There are some nefarious reasons that lead to Republican overrepresentation as well, some longstanding and some relatively new. An example of the former is that the federal election system favors voters in more rural states, providing them with greater numbers of Congressmen and Electors than urban states by design. Since rural voters tend to favor Republicans right now, that is an edge. An example of an “innovation” that leads to Republican overrepresentation are the recent voting restrictions that have been passed in closely-divided Midwestern and Southern states, which typically put additional burdens on typically Democrat leaning demographics to “prove” their voting eligibility (e.g. Requiring college students to vote at their parent’s address rather than their dorm’s, or requiring photo IDs at polling stations that aren’t easy for nondrivers to obtain, or straight-up closing polling places in african-american neighborhoods).So really, it's a combination of circumstance, the current playout of historic inequity, and active attempts by the Republican party to gain undue advantage.