MSNBC host Joy Reid on Saturday said that rural Americans pose a "core threat to our democracy" because 70 percent of the population is expected to live in the 15 largest states in 2040.
Her comment came in response to a column in the Wall Street Journal in which author Gerald Seib discussed American government and various global threats confronting democracy. Seib used projected population change to argue that many urban Americans will be underrepresented in the Senate in the coming decades.
"Because of the way the Electoral College works, two of the past three presidents first won office while losing the popular vote. And David Birdsell, dean of the school of public and international affairs at Baruch College, notes that by 2040, about 70% of Americans are expected to live in the 15 largest states. They will have only 30 senators representing them, while the remaining 30% of Americans will have 70 senators representing them," Seib wrote.
Reid quoted MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin's tweet, which cited the figures from the Wall Street Journal, and said the rural minority's level of representation constitutes are a "core threat to our democracy." She said rural Americans will continue to "have disproportionate power over the urban majority."
This is the core threat to our democracy. The rural minority -- the people @JYSexton just wrote a long thread about -- have and will continue to have disproportionate power over the urban majority. https://t.co/fzBHaZ9kzR
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 26, 2017
She went on to call for the "abolition of the Electoral College" and said that it would be a good start to dealing with the disproportionate power of rural Americans.
That and the abolition of the Electoral College would be a start.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 26, 2017
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson pushed back against Reid in a blog post on Sunday and said that her comment was "both striking arrogance and striking ignorance."
This is not the first time that Reid has criticized rural states and voters, claiming that they have an unfair advantage over urban areas.
Sure they do. One rural vote is equal to many thousands of urban votes. More here: https://t.co/U3x04xrEBa https://t.co/BU2W8NYA4E
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 26, 2016
The United States has been utterly exposed. We are a racially and regionally polarized, male-dominant, rural-urban hybrid. Myths busted.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 9, 2016
People please. Your ethos is now running the United States. We are run by your rural, right wing Christian "values" and Ted Nugentian ethos.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 4, 2017
The EC is a relic always designed to let rural states whose economies depended on slave labor rule over the centers of trade and commerce. https://t.co/KtqQhiPbVM
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 28, 2017
Stories like this are a reminder that like the Electoral College, America is structured to give rural, former slaveholding states dominion.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 22, 2017