If the end goal is to have eliminate gerrymandering in your district, and you’re a Democrat, if there is a way to amend the State constitution and make the changes semi-permanent, then they should do that.
But if you don’t have enough political power to do that yet, but you can re-district, then they should gerrymander so that their own side is favored. That will make it more likely that Republicans will be on board for eliminating gerrymandering next time it comes up for State-wide vote to amend the constitution, for instance. If all they do is play fair when they’re in power, and the other side uses it to win more power, then that’s not a smart move at all.
Implementing gerrymandering is bad. It is a direct attempt to undermine the will of the voters.
This is exactly what the Republicans did.
It’s bad, Jesus.
Saying, “but we are the good guys, so it’s ok for us to undermine democracy to strengthen our position” makes you NOT the good guys.
If your message can only win in an election where voters are disenfranchised, then that means your message needs to change. It doesn’t mean you are entitled to disenfranchise the voters who aren’t voting for you.
You might be right. I just think that seems like a recipe to always have gerrymandering. I think in order to get rid of it, you have to convince the other side that it’s a bad thing, and I’m not sure you can do that by being the good guys.
Well it’s the same old problem of playing chess – you go knight takes bishop, he clubs you to death with the board.
Basically, if there are enough votes on the ‘good guys’ side to reward being ‘good guys,’ then you squeak by. The fairest-possible districting should, one hopes, reflect that. If not, maybe democracy is fucked anyway. There is really no way that the buck doesn’t ultimately stop at the electorate.
California (and a few other states) has and independent commission that determines district line. The process of selecting commissioners is rigorous and scrupulous. Every state should adopt something similar (and automatic voter registration and mail balloting–which we also have.)
Ballot dump happening at 7pm tonight in Arizona. These ballots are expected to favor McSally, and this is what analysts are saying her performance will need to be to have a shot
