http://newyorker.com/printable/?talk/041115ta_talk_hertzberg
November 19, 2004
THE NEW YORKER
Talk of the Town
Blues
by Hendrik Hertzberg
<excerpt near end>
In Thursday's Times, a front-page news analysis argued that "it is
impossible to read President Bush's reëlection with larger Republican
majorities in both houses of Congress as anything other than the
clearest confirmation yet that this is a center-right country--divided
yes, but with an undisputed majority united behind his leadership."
That is certainly true in institutional terms. But it is not true in
terms of people, of actual human beings. Though the Republicans won
nineteen of the thirty-four Senate seats that were up for grabs last
Tuesday, for a gain of four, the number of voters who cast their
ballots for Republican Senate candidates was 37.9 million, while 41.3
million voted for Democrats--almost exactly Bush's popular-vote margin
over Kerry. When the new Congress convenes in January, its fifty-five
Republicans will be there on account of the votes of 57.6 million
people, while the forty-four Democrats and one independent will be
there on account of the votes of 59.6 million people. As for the
House, it is much harder to aggregate vote totals meaningfully,
because so many seats are uncontested. But the Republicans' gain of
four seats was due entirely to Tom DeLay's precedent-breaking
re-gerrymandering of the Texas district lines.
<end excerpt>
Michael