That's what the GOP wanted to end, isn't it?

And this Supreme Court, won't they just approve gerrymandering as part of GWB's "ownership society"? And money is free speech? If money is free speech you can spend all you want on gerrymandering.

This is about the right of the rich, privileged, and powerful to undermine one-man one-vote for the benefit of the rich and powerful.

Hell, they'll probably support hiring private corporations to draw the boundaries! It's a money fest!

Where are the other republicans currently in Congress? Having lunch or dinner on our dime?

They used gerrymandering to elect Repugs, creating districts where they were guaranteed reelection in disproportionate (rigged)
districts. It's blowing up in their faces as the "reasonable" Repugs face the greatest challenges not by Dems but from the Far Right
in those gerrymandered districts. There is no more the opportunity for "bipartisanship" (no matter how cosmetic) in those districts.
So Repug zealots rule.

Last edited Thu Sep 7, 2017, 10:58 AM - Edit history (1)

The GOP has been gerrymandering for decades. Now that they have the voting districts the way they want them, they want to make it illegal to change them back.

If they're willing to return the districts to where they were in 1995, sure, I'd say that would be alright. Right before Newt's bullshit "contract with America" in the mid 90s would be just fine, thank you. After that, the GOP put the pedal to the metal on gerrymandering, and they haven't slowed down since. Now that everything's the way they want it, they want to show the American people (the ones that are paying attention anyway) how magnanimous they are by promising to end gerrymandering. That's mighty big of them.

BULLSHIT They know they're going to get killed in the 2018 mid-terms, and the districts would start being realigned to a more fair and reasonable position. Well, if there's one thing the GOP HATES it's a fair and reasonable playing field. In my opinion this is a Trojan Horse, and I'm hoping our Democratic leaders examine this very closely before opening the gates to let it in.

That's just one man's opinion. Your mileage may vary.

It seems most everything they are putting forth is to help them not lose everything in 2018.
Sneaky, selfish, careless, liars.

These guys do NOTHING out of the goodness of their souls, or for the good of the country. When I saw this headline, my first thought was "those guys really don't like their own shit used against them" I think they see the writing on the wall. They must think the next couple of elections are lost, giving the dems the right to redraw the districts in 2020. They're happy with them just the way they are, thank you very much. It's all part of KKKarl Rove's "permanent Republican majority".

.... governor Kasich didn't say one word.

If it's wrong now -- and they're acknowledging that it's been a problem with demonstrably negative results -- then it's been wrong for the last 20-30 years.

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Gerrymandering has been so uncommon in Canada since the early 60s that I doubt that most Canadians who don't follow US politics even know what the word means.

More info on how Canada handled the problem is at this link https://www.vox.com/2014/4/15/5604284/us-elections-are-rigged-but-canada-knows-how-to-fix-them

would never go for that. Leave it up to sources beside themselves? Why, one of those people might be a Democrat, or a minority! I think you get my drift. I really don't think they'd go for it, but I've been wrong before.

It's hard even to imagine that - not knowing what gerrymandering means. We're stuck in it like quicksand with a side of epoxy.

As a leftist Canadian, I tend to use the site as a counter balance to the conventional US news sources. And I usually don't post anything that isn't directly relevant to Americans. That said, I do have some ideas for a couple of big multi part posts but I will have to run them by the mods before I even start. I have too much work left over at the end of the day to invest that much time in something that isn't wanted.

Seriously, we need some sort of impartial formula, something that requires the most compact possible district or some other mathematical construction that completely takes all demographics out of it so that every district is competitive.

have some sort of independent, or mostly independent, process to draw up districts. It's primarily red states that go to the extremes.

I mean, if California wanted to follow NC or PA as examples, they could probably squeeze 5-6 more Democratic seats into their delegation, if not more.

district to look like a salamander