Democratic House Candidates Now Have A Nearly 1.2 Million Vote Lead Over The Republic

[TruthOut10]

The day after the election last month, ThinkProgress took a preliminary tally of the total number of votes cast for candidates for the House of Representatives. We found that, despite the fact that Republicans won a commanding majority of the seats, the American people cast more than half-a-million votes for Democrats. This number was based on early tallies, however, and it was especially likely to undercount many West Coast states that had less time to count ballots.
More than a month after the election, the Democrats’ popular vote lead expanded significantly. Based on current tallies, Democrats now lead Republicans 59,343,447 to 58,178,393 in total votes cast for their House candidates — meaning that the American people preferred Democrats over Republicans by nearly a full percentage point of the total vote. Yet, despite clearly losing the popular vote, Republicans will control nearly 54 percent of the seats in the House in the 113th Congress.

Democratic House Candidates Now Have A Nearly 1.2 Million Vote Lead Over The Republicans | ThinkProgress

 

[Stephanie]

thinkprogess

 

[chikenwing]

yet here we are today

 

[tinydancer]

Ahhhh, you are bringing out the argument that almost caused a civil war up here.

Interesting how you progressives link up internationally.

FYI to conservatives. When the Conservatives won the election a few years back, the three opposition parties that lost tried a coup.

They banded together and said that in total they won more votes than the Conservative Party. And tried to form a government led by the losing parties.

I know this meme very well.

The Liberals led by Stephen Dion, The NDP led by Jack Layton and the Parti Quebecois led by Gilles Duceppe actually tried to overthrow the duly elected Conservative Party by forming a coalition and using the "we got more votes in total than you did" line of reasoning.

It was wild. If Prime Minister had not prorogued the government and let cooler heads prevail, we in Canada would have had an all out civil war.

Conservatives, beware this line of reasoning. Be aware that it is a tactic the new left is using.

And crush not only the reasoning, but to be sure, crush the person spouting it.

ETA: some of you might know the Parti Quebecois as Le Bloc.

 

[konradv]

Ahhhh, you are bringing out the argument that almost caused a civil war up here.

Interesting how you progressives link up internationally.

FYI to conservatives. When the Conservatives won the election a few years back, the three opposition parties that lost tried a coup.

They banded together and said that in total they won more votes than the Conservative Party. And tried to form a government led by the losing parties.

I know this meme very well.

The Liberals led by Stephen Dion, The NDP led by Jack Layton and the Parti Quebecois led by Gilles Duceppe actually tried to overthrow the duly elected Conservative Party by forming a coalition and using the "we got more votes in total than you did" line of reasoning.

It was wild. If Prime Minister had not prorogued the government and let cooler heads prevail, we in Canada would have had an all out civil war.

Conservatives, beware this line of reasoning. Be aware that it is a tactic the new left is using.

And crush not only the reasoning, but to be sure, crush the person spouting it.

ETA: some of you might know the Parti Quebecois as Le Bloc.

Isn't it common in parliamentary democracies for coalitions of parties to form governments when one party hasn't received a majority? I take it that the Conservative party won the majority of seats, despite not getting the majority of votes. Is that the case? If so the PM was in the right, though he'd have a weak government and should, IMO, bring in a minority party. You make this sound like it's something new. Really it isn't, it's business as usual.

 

[blastoff]

...Yet, despite clearly losing the popular vote, Republicans will control nearly 54 percent of the seats in the House in the 113th Congress.

Democratic House Candidates Now Have A Nearly 1.2 Million Vote Lead Over The Republicans | ThinkProgress

The technical phrase for this is...Tough shit.

 

[tinydancer]

Ahhhh, you are bringing out the argument that almost caused a civil war up here.

Interesting how you progressives link up internationally.

FYI to conservatives. When the Conservatives won the election a few years back, the three opposition parties that lost tried a coup.

They banded together and said that in total they won more votes than the Conservative Party. And tried to form a government led by the losing parties.

I know this meme very well.

The Liberals led by Stephen Dion, The NDP led by Jack Layton and the Parti Quebecois led by Gilles Duceppe actually tried to overthrow the duly elected Conservative Party by forming a coalition and using the "we got more votes in total than you did" line of reasoning.

It was wild. If Prime Minister had not prorogued the government and let cooler heads prevail, we in Canada would have had an all out civil war.

Conservatives, beware this line of reasoning. Be aware that it is a tactic the new left is using.

And crush not only the reasoning, but to be sure, crush the person spouting it.

ETA: some of you might know the Parti Quebecois as Le Bloc.

Isn't it common in parliamentary democracies for coalitions of parties to form governments when one party hasn't received a majority? I take it that the Conservative party won the majority of seats, despite not getting the majority of votes. Is that the case? If so the PM was in the right, though he'd have a weak government and should, IMO, bring in a minority party. You make this sound like it's something new. Really it isn't, it's business as usual.

Oh I really should have given you a link so you could understand our system better. My apologies.

A minority government was formed with Harper at the helm of the country as Prime Minister. The Liberals formed the Official opposition party. As you said, this is the norm.

But what transpired was distinctly out of the norm. All the opposition parties tried to oust the Conservatives from power by forming, how can I put this nicely, a coalition of losers.

And claiming that together all the opposition parties had more votes than the Conservatives.

No guff. That's how they tried to play it.

A coup d'etat if you will. Now the Liberal party came to their senses, smelled smoke, knew their house was on fire and got rid of Dion and moved Ignatieff into place who then began to work with our PM.

I used to be a full fledged member of the Liberal Party up here (hell's bells when I was just a kid I campaigned for Trudeau) I still had good friends and connections who told me they were appalled at Dion's actions.

Why? Quite simple. This attempted coup could be repeated incessantly. They understood that at any given time in the future, even if it were the Liberals winning, a coalition could and would be formed by the losing parties making any and all election null and void.

This will give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Former deputy prime minister John Manley asked that Dion resign immediately, saying it was incomprehensible that the public would accept Dion as prime minister after rejecting him a few weeks earlier in the general election.

Manley also said that a leader was needed "whose first job is to rebuild the Liberal party rather than leading a coalition with the NDP."

2008