republican gerrymandering

It's so hilarious seeing the right wing response to criticism if gerrymandering. "see the Democrats do it also."

Then they just stay silent when federal propsals for banning it are discussed.

 

What is the ethical way to draw a district?

 

All squares except within a certain distance from state borders.

 

The way that doesn't take power away from minorities in an attempt by the party in power to maintain control.

View attachment 7287

 

in a way where me and two other friends who all live 10 minutes apart in south central austin are not each within different congressional districts. my district goes from south central austin and wraps around the east side of san antonio. another friend lives 10 minutes from me in south central austin and their district goes to stone oak in north san antonio and another friend lives 10 minutes from me in south central austin their district goes out to fredricksburg.

 

Would such a design ensure a ratio of representatives proportional to the partisan split of the state?

i.e., would such a scheme ensure a state that votes 60% D has 60% D reps?

 

So you want majority minority districts? But how minority concentrated is too much?

And geographically "square" districts certainly wouldn't guarantee any desired number of minorities.

 

Would it not be better to group by like political beliefs rather than geographic proximity?

A congressman in a 70-30 district represents the preference of more voters than one in a 50-50 district.

 

Since I'm sure you didn't view the attachment before... I want districting that isn't racist in origin like the current GOP redistricting in Texas.

 

so you want them drawn based on race, not geography?

FWIW, achieving the racial proportion you desire would likely not result in more D seats (you would overconcentrate your D votes to meet some racial metric).

Personally I find the desire to be represented by someone of like complexion to be a racist view.

 

No I want them drawn in a way that is equitable. You can't look at those numbers and think it's OK unless you're a white racist.

 

im less worried about ensuring any partisan ratio for districts than i am about ensuring that a geographic area is fairly represented. in other words, we dont have situations like mine i described above. or some of the ridiculous boundaries we've seen like crenshaw or some of what i saw on that illinois map.

i dont think political breakdown should even come into play. i dont think ethnic/racial should either. but i do think we should all be able to recognize that its wrong to draw maps that deliberately dilute the voting power of certain races and ethnicities.

and we should all have a problem with how austin was chopped up by the republicans. 4 of our 5 current reps are republicans and that was done deliberately. i dont believe political party should come into play, but when a city that is 60% registered democrat only has 20% of its reps being democrat than something is clearly wrong.

i know republicans in texas hate all things austin, but if you truly believe in representative democracy than you should recognize that chopping us up so there is not one district fully within the austin metro area is wrong.

 

My point is if you're trying to achieve racial quotas, geographic "squareness" of the district, and partisan breakdown of the reps statewide, it can't be done.

Ultimately what Ds (and Rs) care about is the latter, the former are just a pretense.

 

no, you obtuse dumb a**. draw them with no desired outcome in hand and those %'s will skew close to what they are. which is fair. stop being again so obtuse. unless someone doesn't have two brain cells to rub together they will able to see through your comment and it's a waste of time.

 

geographic squareness is not realistic, but a fair boundary line that makes sense and better represents people of a given area is. we already have geographic boundary lines established in the form of county and zip codes. base congressional districts off those.

for the sparsely populated areas out in west texas and the panhandle i could see grouping counties together to make a district. for large metro areas you could do it so a single district is made up of a group of zip codes. there would certainly be adjustments of some of the boundaries to ensure roughly equal numbers in each district, but to me this would be the most logical and fair way to do it. political affiliation or race does not come into play.

 

A 50-50 district makes it more competitive and would bring about better candidates. What you mentioned is why we have career politicians...

 

The ethical way to draw districts is whatever the opposite of the midget pirates district is.

 

Gerrymandering leads to unopposed candidates, which leads to extremists getting power, which leads to bad government.

We need less Gym Jordans in government and