My friend Miri posted this link on Facebook. Go click on the link and take a gander. Don't worry, I'll wait. Can you imagine if this really happened, if Congress demographically represented America?
There would be 218 female legislators, not just 91.
81 of our representatives would be from a party other than Democrat or Republican. These third parties don't seem so counterculture when you look at it that way, right?
This isn't a surprise, but most minority groups are very under-represented. There are 44 African Americans, 27 Hispanics, 10 Asian, and 1 American Indian. In this truly representative Congress, there would be 20 more African Americans, 59 more Hispanics, 15 more Asians, and 4 more American Indians.
All of the major religions are very well-represented. The thing that caught my eye in the religion section is that 70 representatives would be unaffiliated with a specific religion when in reality no current representatives are. I don't think this one is good or bad necessarily, just interesting.
The other examples, however, give a glimpse as to what is wrong with politics right now. It's mostly a mens' game for many reasons I won't go into here. A game for wealthy, white men. Go ahead and say I'm wrong all you want, but that's how I see it and this illustration just proves it.
As for having a "third" party, I'm becoming more and more open to it. Not everyone fits squarely into the Democrat or Republican label. I have to say it makes me mad when the candidate I liked loses and the pundits say it's because so-and-so took just enough votes away. I don't know how to fix the system so that another party can be more viable, but it would be nice.
1 comments:
I still think this graphic is so fascinating. I absolutely hate the voting conundrum where the candidate you REALLY want is from a third party, so you can't decide if you should vote for that person or for whichever one of the two "real" candidates actually has a chance at winning.
Honestly, the more I watch the political process, the more I wonder about our system... Because it just doesn't seem to work. It's the most dysfunctional organization I can imagine; if people in any other field behaved the way politicians do, they would all be fired. But politicians aren't fired. They're re-elected.
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