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ArcticStones's avatar

Papal Conclave set for 7 May.

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Marcus Graly's avatar

The conclave has approximately one elector per 10,000,000 constituents. Congress, for comparison, has one per 780,000.

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Kildere53's avatar

If Congress had one Representative for 10,000,000 constituents, there would be only 33 members of Congress.

Now the question is, would Democrats have a majority? WA, AK, and HI combined have just about the right population, and that would be a Dem seat. Dems would have 4 seats from California. The CO/NM seat would probably be swingy, depending on what else is in it. Chicago would have a deep blue seat. MI, GA, and NC would each be a swing seat. MA/VT/NH/ME would be a Dem seat, NYC would have two Dem seats, Philly would have a Dem seat, and Baltimore/DC as well. Maybe a couple of swingy seats elsewhere, like MN/WI (or South Florida, if Dems ever recover there)?

I'll have to do a more thorough analysis if I ever have time.

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Andrew's avatar

MN-WI would be cute but is almost 12m people. Makes sense to cut off agricultural Western/Southern MN and give it to the Dakotas/Great Plains district, which would equal out MN/WI to a Lean D seat that probably has the most shoreline of any district.

From googling, looks like AK beats MN for total shoreline when it comes lakes and oceans, but if you throw in rivers, then MN is the top state. IтАЩm not a whatever profession who determines that but shoreline to me says we next to water and enjoying the benefits. If I wasnтАЩt so sore from doing yard work, I would have went for a walk downtown Mpls which is built around the MississippiтАЩs only waterfall. ItтАЩs nothing grand and not natural anymore but it is like damn, that hydropower did all this.

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Kildere53's avatar

I didn't think of that! You're right, keeping Wisconsin whole and adding in the Twin Cities metro area makes more sense than trying to keep Minnesota whole, which creates a very awkward split of Wisconsin.

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Jacob M.'s avatar

An interesting website I stumbled across that I haven't seen mentioned here (if it has my bad): https://collegeofcardinalsreport.com/

You can look at bios of all the cardinals or just those who might be the next Pope. The bios even talk about those who might be progressive or conservative or more likely to carry on the legacy of Francis. You can also view where the cardinals stand on certain issues like ordaining female deacons, blessing same-sex couples, making priestly celibacy optional, focusing on climate change, etc. You can also see which cardinals will be voting versus non-voting.

Not Catholic myself, but it was just interesting, almost like doing candidate research.

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Paleo's avatar

Erdo is the one to avoid. Zuppi and Tagle would be best.

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Henrik's avatar

Still think itтАЩll be Parolin but weтАЩll see - could def see Zuppi getting it

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rayspace's avatar

Amazing to me as a Catholic that the U.S. media has spent so much time relaying the feelings of conservatives about the conclave/next Pope. The amount of attention Catholic conservatives can get for themselves here is astounding. They're a very annoying rump group who is great at PR.

There's no way a conservative (Erdo, Burke, etc.) becomes Pope. If 90 of the 108 Cardinals Francis appointed stick together, they can elect whomever they want, and it won't be a right-winger. My guesses are Parolin or Tagle.

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Henrik's avatar

Yeah, it really misunderstands the global Church. Erdo might have a chance - Burke has virtually none.

If the Cardinalate want to split the difference they could go with Besungu, whose closer to the Franciscan line than most African prelates

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Henrik's avatar

What a remarkably thorough website!

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Wolfpack Dem's avatar

The "Conclave" book was really good. Somebody summarized it as "Mean Girls, but for Cardinals" and that's...not wrong!

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ArcticStones's avatar

Like with Billy the BardтАЩs "Hamlet", I only saw the movie.

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Wolfpack Dem's avatar

I haven't seen a movie in the theatre since "Django Unchained." I am a very weird mammal.

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ArcticStones's avatar

You have been to the cinema more recently than I have!

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Henrik's avatar

I only saw the movie and it was def like that. Heard itтАЩs very faithful plot wise though. I was impressed throughout - and it had a truly WTAF ending that genuinely caught me by surprise

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