Demand, meet Supply

Amidst some disenchantment with both major political parties, the chart above shows, when looking across the 50 states, the share of votes earned by candidates that were not either Democratic or Republican has fallen significantly for U.S. House of Representative elections since 2000.

It has been five years since the economic crisis of 2008. A recent Gallup poll conducted in August shows that 58 percent of Americans working full time or part time believe they are making markedly higher amounts of money. The poll did not define what "a lot" or "a little" meant, but left it up to the respondent to decide for themselves. In other words, people differ in what "a lot" of money is.

A quick glimpse through the Drudge Report the other night brought up quite a few articles focused on racial issues. While I know that Matt Drudge lives for controversy, I still had to wonder whether this was indicative of our nation as a whole. I am always hesitant to write about racial incidents given my background (white, middle-income, small town/suburban). What in the world do I know about it? I grew up in a relatively homogeneous community, and I live in one today. Still, I am concerned.

NEW YORK - Today hundreds of people gathered in front of a McDonalds on Fifth Avenue with thousands more expected to join in over 50 cities.  The LA Times reports:

The rallying cry in the 1770’s was “Taxation Without Representation”.  They fought a war over it and THEY won.  But we are still losing.

In Pennsylvania, many counties have a bizarre system to guarantee representation of a minority party.  The counties have 3 commissioners and have written the laws to stipulate all 3 cannot be from the same political party.  On the face of it that is fine and good.

However, in practice, this needs some tuning.  The reality is voters can only vote for 2 commissioners.

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