Coffee talk

[BGDave]

The system makes it so the only people who could change it stay in power. Therefore, it will never change. It irritates me way more than it probably should. Primarily because I am gerrymandered to death. My neighborhood is districted with a large swath of farmland all the way to Zanesville (an hour away). 1 mile north, 1 mile south and 4 miles west of my house are all different districts. I have no say in what those officials do for my town. But I can stand up to what happens an hour away.

The foxes are watching the henhouse there.

That is crazy.

 

[forty_three]

That is crazy.

I touch three congressional districts getting to my grocery store.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Gerrymandering scares me the most. I don't think we will see a Democratic majority in either House or Senate in our lifetimes.

Agreed. I wish one party - I don't care which one - would finally stand up while they're in charge and say "you know what, this is going to hurt our party short term, but the country will be better off long term, so let's do it" and sign a law mandating that all re-districting be done by non-partisan means, preferably automated.

I hate how gerrymandered my state is where, votes for Republican and Democratic candidates for Congress are pretty even most years - I think somewhere in the 53-47 range this year but don't know the exact tally - and yet Republicans hold a 10-3 advantage in our Congressional delegation.

To me, that is not representative of the will of the people and is a complete affront to the principles of the Constitution.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Not familiar with the Wyoming Rule.

Off to Google !

Essentially it's the most reasonable proposal for expanding the size of the House. The original proposal that didn't make it to the Constitution was to have automatic triggers that would have ensured that the number of people being represented by each member didn't get out of control. IIRC the original ratio was to be set at 20K:1, with triggers to move to 30K:1 and eventually up to 50K:1. For perspective, I believe the current ratio is somewhere in the 650K:1 range.

A 50K:1 ratio would make it pretty much unmanageable, since you'd have to increase the size of the House to something like 6,000 members.

So to make it more reasonable, the Wyoming Rule was proposed, which would take the smallest state by population - currently Wyoming - and set that as the base size for each Congressional district. So instead of having to allocate a fixed number of seats based on population percentages, which gives a benefit to smaller states like Wyoming and the Dakotas, the number of Reps each state would get would be based on how many multiples of Wyoming's population each state has.

It's not a perfect system by any means. For example, how do you handle rounding? If one state has 1.55x the population of Wyoming, do they get two, but a state with 1.44x the population only gets one? The general principle is to make it more representative for larger states like California and Texas who would benefit the most (I think they'd gain something like 12 and 10, respectively) but where the people of those states currently have a significantly lower level of representation compared to other states. As a I said, not perfect, but a step in the right direction, IMO.

(Sorry for the long post, there's probably a Wikipedia article on it that's not much longer)

 

[forty_three]

Agreed. I wish one party - I don't care which one - would finally stand up while they're in charge and say "you know what, this is going to hurt our party short term, but the country will be better off long term, so let's do it" and sign a law mandating that all re-districting be done by non-partisan means, preferably automated.

There was a ballot initiative to do just this very thing in Ohio. A non partisan committee to evaluate the districts annually.

It got taken off the ballot for the last presidential election, and made it's way to the last midterm ballot. Where less than 25% turned out because there were really no races of consequence. Didn't make it's way back on for the primary or this election either. Two biggest opponents were Kasich and Portman, which says a lot I suppose.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

 

[dash]

I touch three congressional female staff getting to my grocery store.

Better nip that in the bud, Mr. Trump.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

There was a ballot initiative to do just this very thing in Ohio. A non partisan committee to evaluate the districts annually.

It got taken off the ballot for the last presidential election, and made it's way to the last midterm ballot. Where less than 25% turned out because there were really no races of consequence. Didn't make it's way back on for the primary or this election either. Two biggest opponents were Kasich and Portman, which says a lot I suppose.

It's always a situation of the party not in power screaming for it around here. For years the Dems were in power in NC and the Repubs were screaming for non-partisan re-districting.

Then they took control of both houses in 2010 and suddenly the screaming is coming the other way and it's the Repubs that are ignoring it.

At some point it's going to flip back and the screaming will start again. Lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseam.

 

[forty_three]

It's always a situation of the party not in power screaming for it around here. For years the Dems were in power in NC and the Repubs were screaming for non-partisan re-districting.

Then they took control of both houses in 2010 and suddenly the screaming is coming the other way and it's the Repubs that are ignoring it.

At some point it's going to flip back and the screaming will start again. Lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseam.

I learned this lesson when my daughter was 7 and my son was 2. It's only unfair when you lose.

 

[dash]

My daughter said to me last night that this isn't the first time Trump has kicked a black man out of his house. Holy heck, they grow up fast.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

My daughter said to me last night that this isn't the first time Trump has kicked a black man out of his house. Holy heck, they grow up fast.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

 

[forty_three]

My daughter said to me last night that this isn't the first time Trump has kicked a black man out of his house. Holy heck, they grow up fast.

#dasheskid2020!

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

And now lets check in with Don Cherry, shall we?


Somewhere, Ron Maclean is staring blankly at an antique gumball machine.

 

[dash]

But hey, if you're a right wing kook entertainer, you're my kind of guy - Let's Go!

 

[jstewismybastardson]

lol ... who knows what u.s. voters (and the world) are gonna actually get

 

[dare2be]

lol ... who knows what u.s. voters (and the world) are gonna actually get

So you're saying we've been duped???

 

[jstewismybastardson]

So you're saying we've been duped???

HEEL TURN!!!


Jim Ross : BAW GAWD THATS DONALD TRUMPS MUSIC ... AND THATS ALSO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTYS MUSIC!!!

 

[dash]

HEEL TURN!!!


Jim Ross : BAW GAWD THATS DONALD TRUMPS MUSIC ... AND THATS ALSO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTYS MUSIC!!!

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Vince McMahons head metaphorically subs in for Murica here