Gerrymandering

glennmagusharvey

Gerrymandering, Texas-style: http://www.swingstateproject.com/showComment.do?commentId=255634

Yeah, it's happening again.  Once a decade, plus anytime legislators feel like it.

Yes, you read that right.  They're cracking Travis County--in other words, Austin--five ways, connecting the pieces with extremely Republican areas in the suburbs and beyond, basically ensuring that the Republicans will control all of it.

And other similar stuff.

Edit: Changed title to remove specific mention of Texas and also changed category to "politics".

glennmagusharvey

NOTE: The map has not been implemented yet, and might not even be approved.  So don't go flying off the handle yet.

That said, don't expect something that much better, since the Republicans control both houses of the state legislature, as well as the governor and lieutenant governor positions.

snowbull

< Republicans control both houses of the state legislature, as well as the
governor and lieutenant governor positions.>>

Now in what sort of scenario would this not get passed?

GLORIOUSLeader

Yeah! Gerrymandering, biznitches!

I want my portion to look like Poseidon fighting a giant wombat. 

glennmagusharvey

^ Want to make it happen?

Do it yourself!  Come to Dave's Redistricting App and make a map of your own state with (1) the correct number of districts, AND (2) an embedded picture of Poseidon fighting a giant wombat.

Or, if your state is huge, pick a smaller state.  Note that your districts need not be U.S. House districts but could be state senate or state house/assembly districts.  Just go check out Wikipedia to see how many districts you need.

GLORIOUSLeader

I just realized that my neighbor lives in a different district than I do. 

AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE

glennmagusharvey

What state are you in?

(Remember that these aren't the official Texas maps, BTW.)

GLORIOUSLeader

New Jersey. 

Vorpy

Do you live in Texas GMH?

glennmagusharvey

No.

I almost did over a decade ago though.

CommandoDude

Of course they would do it. 'Cours, it's even worse because none of those republican politicians actually represent their voters.

LouieW

glennmagusharvey,
If remember correctly, about five or six years ago controversy over Texas state Republicans' redistricting plans actually led to Democratic legislators fleeing to Oklahoma (similarly to what happened in Wisconsin earlier this year). I guess a lot of Democrats thought that plan was particularly bad since it did not take place after a census year so it seemed more obviously political.

I like the idea of switching to nonpartisan commissions for determining districts (like what Iowa has), but I guess that such a measure would probably require a majority party to willingly give up that power and I doubt that kind of thing would happen in most states, including Texas.

Of course, I am not necessarily that knowledgeable about redistricting so that kind of thing might actually have happened in many states already.

Nyktos

@GloriousLEADER: It's kinda trippy walking down a street and seeing different a completely different set of signs on each side. Both my school and my house are near streets like that.

Tnu1138

This is why we need a Revolution every generation.

Icalasari

^ Just often enough to keep the politicians scared?

Deboss

If we just want them scared, we don't need a full revolution, just a couple of assassinations on a regular basis.  Who ever assassinates the most politicians get's two votes.

BaronGrackle

^ So the only people who run for office will be those who either aren't afraid of death, or who are fairly confident that no assassin has a chance of succeeding?

Hmm... a government run by supervillains and retired soldiers. I know which party I'm voting for.

Tnu1138

Vote Supervillian! I say we arrest and lock up every pollitician as soon as they get elected in to office.

GLORIOUSLeader

Supervillain? Politician? What's the difference?

/knows that many are not corrupt and actually want to improve our society and way of life

Chagen

"Politician" is actually considered profanity in French.

glennmagusharvey

^^ Well, for what it's worth, there also are a lot of people who run for and serve in public office because they actually want to do good things.

And in reality, politicians are generally neither chaotic stupid evil nor godly good.  Most of them are a mix of good and bad intentions.

LouieW > I like the idea of switching to nonpartisan commissions for determining
districts (like what Iowa has), but I guess that such a measure would
probably require a majority party to willingly give up that power and I
doubt that kind of thing would happen in most states, including Texas.

Actually, Iowa has it even stricter than that--all district lines MUST be drawn along county lines.  Obviously this doesn't work for all areas (for example, Queens County in New York contains multiple congressional districts worth of people within its borders), but anyone with half a brain can come up with variations on this theme.

glennmagusharvey

The North Carolina legislature has just gone with this:


I'll leave you to the nightmares of a tendril'd monster snaking into your neighborhood.

The_Edge

^^Holy shit! Seriously! Link?

GLORIOUSLeader

@ 4 & 12

glennmagusharvey

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gis/randr07/District_Plans/PlanPage_DB_2011.asp?Plan=Rucho-Lewis_Congress_3&Body=Congress

Yeah, I know.  bree_tightlip.jpg

The_Edge

Thank you!

So I guess I live in the 12.

GLORIOUSLeader

I want to shove the North Carolina Congress's Rucho in its Lewis. 

glennmagusharvey

(You mean General Assembly.)

GLORIOUSLeader

Well, no.

You see, Nebraska is for LOSERS! 

nohaynicklibre

Lol it looks like an erection/duck head

glennmagusharvey

That yellow district (1) looks vaguely like Blackmore's shadow-puppet.

IJBM: Someone in the North Carolina General Assembly is possessed by Dracula.