GOP gerrymandering delivers disproportionate representation

>> at home for staying with us this hour. over the summer, this past summer, republican governor rick snyder of michigan signed a bill to expand the use of telemedicine in his state . his new law requires that insurance companies have to pay for treatment that you get via contact with a doctor through like a web cam or otherwise online. it's telemedicine . governor snyder was so excited to sign this thing. he said at the time telemedicine offers an incredible opportunity to easily provide health care to michigan 's elderly, disabled, and rural communities. i applaud the legislature's initiative to use technology to save lives. the bill got unanimous support. governor snyder signed it with his big happy statement about how awesome this was going to be. he was so excited. yay, telemedicine . telemedicine , you are the future for michigan . you are saving lives. that was this summer. tonight that same governor snyder is poised to sign another law in michigan that would ban the use of telemedicine in that state . specifically for one type of medical care . it's the same type of medical care provided at clinics in michigan that governor snyder is poised to single out for brand-new deliberately intrusive, deliberately hard to comply with regulations that everybody knows are designed to shut those clinics down, with red tape that is designed just for that purpose. governor rick snyder likes to be seen as an anti-regulation guy. but not for this. the shutdown the clinics regulations, and the anti- telemedicine law that governor rick snyder in michigan is poised to sign after these bills race through both houses of the michigan legislature during this lame duck session , both of these target abortion rights in michigan . if fully implemented, they're expected to likely shut down most of the abortion clinics in michigan . governor snyder is hard at work on that now. while he is at it, the jobs, jobs, jobs governor is also poised to sign a law that would ban any insurance policy in michigan from covering abortion. no insurance coverage for abortion unless you would die without getting that abortion. that is the only exception. so if you are raped, if you are raped by your father or your uncle, if you're the victim of incest, tough luck. you can hold a bake sale or something. governor rick snyder is poised to ban your insurance from covering that cost. jobs, jobs, jobs. and also because obviously it was the message of the last election, michigan republicans are now moving a bill in the legislature to ban sharia law in the state . because, well, obviously president obama is a secret muslim, or so says the bill's republican author in michigan . all of this stuff is being passed and signed or debated in michigan this week, after state republicans there passed their monumental legislation stripping union rights in the state . with no warning and no debate after an election in which they did not say that was what they were going to do. that surprise attack legislation passed in such a breathless hurry is there are now lawsuits in the state whether the bills were passed illegally, in contradiction of the state 's sunshine laws . they're also trying to figure out whether the new union-stripping laws in michigan will apply to workers who work for the state government , or if they only killed the unions in the private sector. but the reason that governor snyder has been able to do all of this in such a hurry, the reason he was able to make the 180 he pulled on stripping union rights, for example, the reason he is able to purchase saul the anti-abortion and the anti -- sharia law legislation is because he can, right? michigan republicans are moving full steam ahead with whatever they want. they've got control of both houses of the legislature. they've got the governorship. even after they come back next year for the next session, even after this election, which was not very kind to republicans , including those in michigan , they're still going to have control of both houses of the legislature. they're still going to have the governorship. they are steaming right ahead. republicans can do whatever they want in michigan , now and for the foreseeable future, because obviously, as you know, michigan is a red state . a red state , michigan . that's why republicans get to say what happens there. see? red state . see how red a state michigan is? see how republican they are? michigan voters statewide picked democrat barack obama by almost 10 points over republican mitt romney in the presidential race . which technically at least makes michigan a really blue state at one level, at the level where all of michigan 's voters are voting on the same race. i know it looks weird that michigan is so blue in one way and so red in another, but i think that it looks weird because it is weird. i think it's weird by design. look at this. in the last election, hen they voted for new lawmakers in the michigan state house, more people in michigan voted for a democrat than voted for a republican. more people voted for a democrat. but even with more people voting democratic, the michigan house ended up with more republicans in it than democrats . so in one sense, republicans lost. they lost in the very traditional sense that they got fewer votes. but republicans won what counted, which is control of the house, which is why they are now taking away union rights and abortion rights , and they can ban sharia law if they decide that's a fun and important thing to do. the same thing happened when it came time to elect members of the u.s. congress from michigan . more voters in michigan cast a ballot for a democratic member of congress than cast a ballot for a republican member of congress . and it was by quite a lot, by a couple 100,000 votes. oorm, more michigan voters wanted to send a democrat to congress to represent them than wanted to send a republican to represent them. guess who is actually going to congress to represent them? ah, yes, republicans . michigan 's congressional delegation will include almost twice as many republicans as democrats , even though more people in michigan picked a democrat when they voted for congress . republicans got nine seat and the democrats got five. what has happened in michigan is not some sort of miscounting of the votes. it is not a mistake. it is weird, quite deliberately, and weird by design. elected officials draw up new districts for electing members of congress in state legislatures every ten years after the new census. well, republicans were in charge this time around in michigan , so it was the republicans who drew up the maps. and so republicans got themselves pretty good advantage. they got to decide how to clump voters in certain districts, how to divide voters in other districts so the election could produce the maximum number of republican candidates that conscience and the federal justice department would allow. that same dynamic at work that we saw in michigan , that same deal that played out there, it played out in other states too. it maid out in wisconsin , where republicans were also swept to power in the 2010 elections, just in time for drawing up the new maps. wisconsin , of course, voted for president obama for a second time. voted for president obama by a lot. also in wisconsin more people voted for a democratic member of congress than voted for a republican one. more wisconsin voters want a democrat representing them in congress , but they are getting more republicans anyway. next month wisconsin is going to send five republicans to congress and three democrats . same kind of deal in virginia . republicans took full control in virginia in time for drawing up the new maps after the census. and in november, in this election, virginia voters again picked president obama . now, by a margin of 70,000 votes, just 70,000, should it be noted that more virginians wanted a republican member of congress than a democratic one. it was very close. but there were 70,000 more votes for a republican member of congress than a democratic member of congress in virginia . but the resulting virginia congressional delegation not close. look at that. it basically evenly divided in the state . but they're sending eight republicans and three democrats to congress , more than twice as many republicans as democrats . also, in pennsylvania , where republicans took total control of that state in 2010 in time to draw up the new maps, well, pennsylvania picked barack obama for president again this time, and again picked him by a lot. and more voters in pennsylvania wanted a democrat for their congress person. but pennsylvania will send 13 republicans to congress next month and only five democrats . how about ohio where republicans won the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature in 2010 . hey, it was big year for republicans in 2010 , right? this time around ohio quite memorably voted for president obama . that made karl rove crazy. ohio went for obama. even so, there were more votes for republicans in ohio congress there in congress there. narrowly speaking, republicans had the edge in congressional votes from ohio voters, narrowly speaking. but look what they're sending to congress . look at that. not narrowly speaking. three times as many. ohio is going to send 12 republicans to congress and just four democrats . and that is why all these blue states which went blue in 2008 and again in 2012 ended up with dyed red legislatures, with state houses that are under total republican control and will stay red no matter how blue the state gets for the foreseeable future. mother jones made this great-looking graph for us the other day. you can see that they weighted it. you can see for every vote it takes to elect a republican to congress in each of these states, you need this many votes to elect a democrat. because they've confined all the democrats to democrat-only districts. so it doesn't matter how much you run up the score there. it's more difficult for democrats to win in these states. the climb is steeper for democrats and their supporters by design, by the design of the republicans who drew up the districts. imagine if we picked the presidency this way, right? you can imagine what the country would look like if we picked the presidency using these same gerrymandered districts, right, that combined all of the democrats in one little designated democratic district so all the rest of the districts in the state could go republican. imagine if you didn't just pick state legislatures that way, and you didn't just pick congressional seats that way. imagine if that is also how you picked the presidency. republicans have been imagining that. since the election, the republican secretary of state in ohio has floated the idea of ohio picking the presidency the way it picks its other elections. in virginia , a republican state senator in virginia is proposing doing the same thing. last year in pennsylvania the republican senate majority leader proposed doing the same thing. this year he proposed another version for how to do the same thing, using the same gerrymandered system that elects republican majorities no matter how the vote goes, essentially. imagine if we picked the presidency that way in the same what they we pick these state legislatures in these congressional seats. how we draw congressional mats and legislative seats is politics, right? it's played by both sides for the advantage of their side whenever they can. what is different now is that republicans are talking about crossing a rubicon here that has never been crossed before. and in these states, there is not necessarily anything to stop them. this is not just going to be how we decide who goes to congress . if they get their way, this will be forever. how we decide who goes to