When we set out to look at far-right extremism in Upstate New York, we had a few basic questions. First, we wanted to know the status of the far-right movement here. What do people believe in? What groups and militias have been active? We found that all...
The reps are based on geography. They have districts. They’re supposed to represent those people. The Senate less so, since that’s two people for the whole state, but that’s a problem for any state that’s not fairly homogenous.
I don’t really have a good solution that doesn’t make some heavy changes to the us government. But within the current constraints, I think cities frankly matter more.
Side note: I’ve been reading about how people’s minds change. It turns out that when someone encounters a fact or statement that challenges their group status, like “cities matter [and the suburbs don’t]” above, the brain typically reacts similarly to how it responds to a physical threat. Pretty much no one responds to that kind of thing with a cool rational head. The brain desperately looks for security, even if it has to fall back on “no, fuck you.” I do it, too. Makes debate hard.