Multipartist

The United States House of Representatives contains 435 seats. The Constitution allocates one Congressional seat for each of the 50 states, leaving 385 seats open for apportionment calculation. Congress determines the exact calculation method; however, the United States Census always serves as the objective basis for Congressional apportionment among the 50 states.

Gains and losses, appearing in the map, refer to changes between the 2010 and 2020 apportionments. The power shift took effect starting with the 2022 election.

A dinner guest saw my neighbor’s Gadsden flag flying outside our window. She was horrified that someone would display that racist banner. Her disgust surprised me. The bright yellow flag means different things to different people; but, I never associated it with racism. Sure, racists poached the flag over the past few years while the statues, flags, and other objects reflecting their supremacist ideology were lawfully removed. Still, the banner does not belong to them. The Gadsden flag is two dimensional, but it has many sides. One side it displays is the growing rage seeded in discontent. Discontent and rebellion is sewn into the Gadsden flag’s very fabric.

Our political duopoly erodes compromise and cooperation in Congress and reduces civility among all Americans.  Increasingly, political parties cycle between majority dominance and minority obstruction. Neither party has much incentive to cooperate or compromise, because the cycle continues when the pendulum of power shifts.

Political Parties Did Not Exist

In the beginning, the American political landscape was void of political parties. In 1789 the first federal congress was formed. Sixty-five House members and twenty-six Senators were sent to Federal Hall in New York City (i) to represent the landed men (ii) who elected them. The newly elected President, George Washington, formed the first American administration. This all took place without involvement or interference from any political party.