[fvc-wat-disc] Hard to remember this describes a democracy

[Jennifer Ross]

The Economist Intelligence Unit is a good analytical arm of the Economist
magazine.  Here, they are reporting on Trump and impeachment.

Second, Congress is highly polarised. There are various measures to assess
the ideological positions of Democrats and Republicans, but according to
the DW‑Nominate estimate, produced by two academics, Keith Poole and Howard
Rosenthal, Democrats are drifting towards more liberal positions and
Republicans, especially, towards more conservative ones. The two parties
now sit further apart than at any point since the survey began in the
1870s. Polarisation matters because it means that the parties are less
likely to co-operate on any given issue, including impeachment. In our
view, this means that House Republicans are less likely to vote Mr Trump
out. (It also means, we think, that Democrats are more likely to push for
impeachment, but we do not believe that they will have this opportunity.)

This is because of our third reason: we expect Republicans to hold on to
their House majority at the November 2018 mid-term elections. The party
holds 238 seats, with 218 needed for control. This sounds like a relatively
slim advantage, especially given that governing parties tend to lose seats
at the mid-terms. But gerrymandering and redistricting mean that few House
seats are genuine contests. According to the Cook Political Report, only
23 seats are considered "highly competitive". Political polarisation also
makes it more likely that seats will not shift from one party to the other,
as the ideological change required would be greater. Unless there is a
major, broad-based swing against the Republican Party over the next
18 months, the Republicans will be in a strong position to keep the House.

http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=1655471549&Country=United%20States&topic=Politics&subtopic=Forecast&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTm1ZMVlXSmhNekZtTnpjMSIsInQiOiJiZmowbDNCSE9ZTU9xK1gzOUZmWjg5VExkWE1zWlJCUnN1WmhtS0RlWHNDc212TUVuQXU3dmg1TEV2RlpsVHdiamVWWFZjR3JYbkZHSXFlRlNmNTJ5U052NnZcL01OSXU4bXp0R2RiTmx1TXdyQ2swbWlwb3FGZU5KRGFCTkc2aUsifQ%3D%3D

But yet this kind of destructive hyper-partisan behaviour, caused by the
electoral system, is "serving us well" and something else would be
"radical."  Okay, yes, in Canada we aren't quite here yet--but we only have
less than 100 years to go by straight number of years as a country--and in
the real world we are only a decade behind.

Jenn



-- 
No other Western democratic country concentrates as much political power in
the hands of one person as Canada does with her Prime Minister.
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