RUSH LIMBAUGH (AND DANIELLE PLETKA): MATH IS HARD!

Here's how Rush Limbaugh was scaring your right-wing relatives on the radio today:

If the Democrats win, ... that’s the end of democracy. It’s the end of the two-party system. We’re gonna have a one-party government that is going to devote itself to eliminating all opposition. That’s what’s at stake. If they win, I think the Republican Party essentially ceases to exist.

One of the first things they will do is grant statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, and that will give them four Democrat senators. They will never lose control of the Senate.

Okay, let's imagine that Democrats succeed in obtaining statehood for D.C and Puerto Rico. Let's say those new states reliably elect two Democratic senators each. Does that mean that Democrats "will never lose control of the Senate"?

No -- in fact, if you were to add four Democratic senators to the Senate right now, Republicans would still be in control. The current makeup of the Senate is 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and two independents (Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine) who caucus with the Democrats. So the Democratic caucus is 47 senators; 47 + 4 = 51.

Which is less than 53.

The Senate after the 2016 elections had 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and the same two independents caucusing with the Democrats. Add four Democratic senators and you would have had a Senate with a 50-member Democratic caucus and ... 54 Republicans.

You were saying, Rush?

They will never lose control of the House. They will pack the Supreme Court with who knows how many new justices, and they’ll all be left-leaning justices. And it won’t be take them long to do any of this. And after they’ve done it, there will be a one-party state.

Okay, let's talk about the House. Let's assume for the sake of argument (even though it's highly unlikely) that Democrats could rapidly win statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C., and that all their subsequent House members were Democrats.

To simplify matters, let's imagine that this change didn't come with a plan to thoroughly overhaul the makeup of the House. Let's assume that we'd just add a few extra House seats for the two new states.

The Census Bureau estimated that Puerto Rico's population in 2019 was 3,193,694. That's a little less than the population of Utah (3,205,958). Utah has four House members.

D.C.'s population in 2019 was 705,749 -- a bit less than the population of Alaska (731,545). Alaska has one House member.

So imagine this change adding a whopping five Democrats to the House. Will Democrats "never lose control of the House"? Let me remind you that the House elected in 2016 had 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats. The House elected in 2014 had 247 Republicans and 188 Democrats. Do I need to do the math for you? Five additional Democrats would not have tipped the balance in those years.

But what about the Supreme Court? It now has five members appointed by Republican presidents and four members appointed by Democrats. A recent proposal by a coalition of progressive groups recommended that the Court be expanded "by at least two seats." Two seats? If a Democratic president could add two seats right now, that would tip the balance from Republican by 1 to ... Democratic by 1.

Or as Danielle Pletka calls it in a much-talked-about Washington Post op-ed, "an increase in the number of Supreme Court seats to ensure a liberal supermajority." A "supermajority"! Of one!

And by the way, Joe Biden doesn't even support the idea of packing the Supreme Court.

Limbaugh continues:

The United States will be a one-party government....

Everybody thought that the election in 2016 was the election of a lifetime. This one is too, maybe even bigger. The Democrat Party has become full-fledged Marxist radical left. They do not believe in opposition. They don’t believe in debate. They don’t believe they should have to win minds and hearts. They don’t believe they should have to persuade anybody. They don’t believe that there is legitimate opposition.

So they’re not going to have debates, they’re not going to have any circumstance where they could lose politically. They believe in a one-party-dominating government. And it’s what they’re going to set up as quickly as they can.

You'll hear this from your right-wing relatives, and probably from quite a few "respectable" pundits, including some moderates. Many people will believe this scaremongering -- because math is hard.