Tom Toles for June 13, 2017

Yes, it’s their country. They paid for it. Sucks doesn’t it?

Gerrymandering is indeed a root cause of our political dysfunction nationally, because it provides an entree into politics for individuals with an extraordinarily narrow range of experiences and perspectives. Thus we end up with knuckleheads like Steve King & Louis Gohmert in the US Congress.

But both parties have been equally ruthless in their use of the techniques of gerrymandering. What is needed is a way to force each state individually to put in place a non-partisan panel to re-draw legislative districts at each census. Some states have done this. California was the last I remember, but there have been others.

It is an unfortunate maxim about humans that if you give us the power to do {fill-in-the-blank}, then we will do it at every opportunity. Never mind the assurances, from any individual or group, that they will exercise this new power with the utmost restraint and concern for human rights and the advancement of mankind. Horse Nuggets! It will be like a child with a new toy that he loves. He will find any opportunity to play with it.

No they stole it fair and square

GERRYMANDER: DIRTY DOIN’S – {a rhyme}

Gerrymandering’s not jerry-rigging,

but carefully-crafted democracy-reneging.

Districts’ boundaries deliberately meander.

This irritates us Democrats; – it raises our dander: -

It despicably distorts the People’s voices

when we vote against Republicans’ choices.

========

A CITIZEN PAUSES – {a limerick}

The Rightists are less and less sensible,

and more and more reprehensible.

A citizen pauses

in applauding their causes,

‘cause their causes are indefensible.

======

CACOPHONY – {a rhyme and a coda}

We peruse the news perturbed

that the Right has our world disturbed

by cacophonies never abated.

Our ears are yuugely frustrated.

Our hopes are hobbled and curbed

by stupidity’s stupid quintessence

in the Rightwing’s noisy presence,

their decibels loud and reverbed.

… Coda:

With pliers we should cut the wires

of their mind-pounding amplifiers.

=======

And at one time we thought that politicians were afraid of computers, data, and statistics, but here we see that if they can be applied to their self-interests the fear vanished.

Too bad there isn’t a way to turn having clean air and water, renewable energy, an educated, future-proof workforce, a congress and president dedicated to serve “we the people”, and equality for all, into self-serving benefits to politicians.

Even Eldridge Gerry is embarrassed!

Ohio tried to do redistricting a decade ago. They held a contest and the entry that was judged most representational was from a Wisconsin Republican legislator.Of course, no action was taken.

There is a technique which would destroy the effects of gerrymandering; multi-member districts using the single transferrable vote method. Its leveling effect can still be overcome, so its important to have an even number of members; IMO the optimum number is 4.

Some results of this technique:

There are effectively virtual districts overlaid on one another. The shape and (intentional) voter imbalance are mooted.

No votes are thrown away; once the winning percentage has been reached, remaining votes are directed to alternate choices.

Minorities have a better chance of winning. In a 4-member district, the winning percentage is 20% (+ 1 vote).

No party primaries.

OK. For the last couple of weeks I haven’t been able to see any of the political cartoons. I’ve written to GoComics, and they haven’t been able to solve the problem. I use Comcast and Windows 10 for Home. If you have the same problem, please post hear and I’ll come back tomorrow to collect the messages. OR, contact GoComics directly.Bless you!

As I said above, I can’t see the cartoon, but gerrymandering is a way for the politicians to choose the voters instead of the voters selecting the politicians.

Here’s an idea…STRAIGHT LINES!! Bet they never thought of THAT!!!

You have to cheat when you are the minority party.

who gives a rats butt- both parties do it, and will likely continue to do it.

CGP Grey has a great YouTube Video on gerrymandering:https://youtu.be/Mky11UJb9AY

Here in Wisconsin, we good-government types cast wistful eyes on the genius of our nabor to the west, Iowa, where they have an impartial, non-partisan redistricting commission do the job instead of whichever party happens to control the state legislature in years ending in “1”.

For all its contemptible faults, one of the worst things about the dreaded gerrymandering is that it has turned the noun “primary” into a verb: politicos are scared to death to be “primaried”!

You can call it Gerrymandering, you can call it whatever you want. Cheating is still cheating!

At one time, the purpose of drawing bizarrely shaped districts was arguably to achieve a more equal representation by the people. That idea has since been proven inoperable. One ‘tiny’ example: support for background checks for firearm sales averages about 90% among Americans and has for years – Laura Ingram’s beliefs, to the contrary. And yet Republicans continue to oppose “the will of the people!” So, obviously, gerrymandering does not allow for more equal representation but, in fact, simply allows for concentration of power for one party or the other. And since it’s not about equality but merely concentrates power, what we REALLY need is State-wide Representative elections for the Federal House of Representatives and non-partisan court-controlled determination of state voting districts. It is ABSOLUTELY stupid to allow a ‘handful’ of ‘farmers’ to have as much voting power as an entire city! (obviously the ‘farmers’ have a differing view on this subject, but not a logical one, for the most part!)

If we only had someone to represent “we the people” in Washington …

" …

Across the board, voters dislike “gerrymandering.” Robust majorities of Democrats (81 percent), Republicans (70 percent), and Independents (67 percent) agreed that politicians should no longer be able to “draw non-competitive districts for themselves,” which would help ensure that “more elections are competitive and more politicians are forced to work hard to represent their constituents.”

Gerrymandering has likely become a proxy or stand-in for many of the things voters see not working with representative democracy—that individual votes don’t really count and that the people who are able to win office are benefiting from the rules of the game more than they are representing the people. So, it’s a good gauge of public distaste for the status quo. But gerrymandering is just one of a web of rules that work together to prevent voters from electing leaders that look and think like them. Rather than focusing on redistricting, which invariably leads to questions of who draws the lines and how, we think that taking the map and pens out of people’s hands entirely is probably a better solution—namely, by focusing not on the size and shape and make up of districts but switching to multi-member districts.

…"

http://www.sightline.org/2016/10/25/poll-us-voters-positive-about-democracy-fixes/

Since gerrymandering has helped Republicans, they are not only accepting of it, they are proud of it.

Russian interference helped Republicans win the election, so they are totally accepting of it. No reports yet on whether they are proud of it.

I repeat, all states are already divided. Redrawing new boundaries is totally unnecessary.

They’re called counties.