It is kinda bonkers that we have exactly the same number of reps now (pop >340 million) as we did in 1929 (121 million)

but I wonder: can winner-take-all be "banned" and if so wouldn't that have a similar (if smaller) effect?

Thanks Mike!!! The paper is super interesting and nicely written; put those together and you have catnip for me :-)

I laughed out loud and boy that felt good

Omitted:

To the tune of "Take the Money and Run" by Steve Miller Band

Nice first paragraph

but wait we'll need their [checks notes] 522 followers

deleted, tragically

Gift link (hope this is okay, Tom)
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

And now the part that we all need to hear:

"Americans have learned that guardrails are easily destroyed. Restoring them will take time—because they have to be repaired by each of us, one person at a time, making small but important decisions about how we want to live."

"...it is to remind people that Hegseth is acting like a teenager and trying to distract Americans with idiotic slurs about fat soldiers because Pete Hegseth is terrible at his job.

Like most things that require some adulting, this approach is emotionally unsatisfying."

"The right answer now to the faux-macho silliness of someone such as Pete Hegseth is not to produce clever memes and nicknames for the secretary of defense..."