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Originally Posted by dobbles
There is certainly merit to this line of thinking. However, it may also be flawed. The reason the tea party holds a ton of power despite having a limited amount of actual representatives is that they have shown that they can take down republicans in primaries. So when you factor the gerrymandering that makes republicans so safe in the general election, their biggest threat comes from the far right not the left.
I just don't know if even this giant s%&t show of an administration is bad enough to make republicans abandon their base. As long as they can deflect onto their core messages about abortion and guns, they can keep their people happy. While going centrist and talking about jobs worked for Trump in the presidential election, these congressmen don't have the same worries about actually having to deliver on what was promised.
I still worry that until the fundamental flaws in the American electoral system are fixed (gerrymandering, electoral college, campaign finance, lobbyists, etc) that there is no hope for either party to act in their constituents best interest.
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Any democrats in Gerry meandered districts should join the Republican Party just to participate in the primary process. Getting mainstream republicans into office and creating primary pressure from the centre is the only way to limit the tea party power