Theoretically, representative democracy is a process by which candidates for elected office accurately assess people’s biggest concerns and develop popular plans to fix the problems. However, politicians from both parties, especially Republicans, seem to prefer radical and novel redistricting schemes so that they don’t have to convince anyone and can still win.
Let Them Eat Gerrymandering
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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I’m pretty sure did this one yesterday.
We need congressional action or constitutional change to remove the states’ ability to gerrymander. Non-partisan map drawing commissions and/or multi-representative districts with proportional representation and/or pretty much anything other than what we have … needs to happen now.
The simplest fix? Just like how you cut up a kid’s birthday cake: One person cuts, the other person chooses which of the two gets the slice. Have the Skub Party carve up the map, but let the Anti-Skub Party color in the districts.
Robert A. Heinlein mentioned in passing in one of his books that one method of election might be “Anyone who gets X number of votes because a representative.” Say you had 200,000 Anti-Skub voters in the state of Moronika, and for every 50,000 votes a particular candidate got, he’d be a representative. Doesn’t matter where you live in Moronika. As long as the Anti-Skub Party gets the word out correctly, they’re getting four representatives. So wherever you live in Moronika, your Anti-Skub vote mattered.