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Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

delaney.house.gov

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Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#41

Post by mabbo »

IncRnd wrote: post #38
noobermin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how that is hilarious, it shows a little character in being willing to reign in a system that even got you into power.

It's more likely the other way around, showing very little character by using the rules of the game to his advantage to get into office and changing the rules of the game to stay in office.

But surely if he's in a gerrymandered district, passing these rules would make it harder for him to be re-elected? He's shooting himself in the foot to do the right thing.

I can respect that.

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#42

Post by chongli »

mobilefriendly wrote: post #20

This is hilarious because Delaney was first elected in a gerrymandered district created specifically for him, the state legislature literally looped in his house by two blocks. http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/cct-arc-acca0c6c-9aa4-5159... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Delaney_(Maryland_politic...

Tu quoque. [0] One of the most powerful fallacies in politics. Shuts down countless reform attempts. Loved by the corrupt.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#43

Post by IncRnd »

CalChris wrote: post #10

We have gerrymandering at every level, but first with the States. Why does Wyoming have two Senators and California have two Senators? We have 12% of the population of the US. Wyoming has 0.18%, smaller than DC. Of course, this continues with the House and the Electoral College. Et cetera. However, there is no incentive for Wyoming and ND and Alaska and ... to fix this. No Taxation Without Representation? Sure, but t…

>> Why does Wyoming have two Senators and California have two Senators?

The answer is that the US is not a Democracy, and the Senate was created to limit the short term vacillations of the people.

When you think of representation in the House, think of representation of the States. The United States of America not the United People of America.

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#44

Post by elihu »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #33
thatswrong0 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't just need a Constitutional amendment, we need a new Constitution. Uh you can achieve that via amendments. And just who is going to write this new Constitution? > Washington is entirely a function of the rules that are set by the Constitution. And all of the Supreme Court precedents that have bent the hell out of the document such that it's hardly the same document that it was 200 years ago. States could ,…

Seriously. The last Constitutional Convention was convened to amend the Articles of Confederation. It wrote a new system of government. If you don't like our elected leaders, understand that a constitutional convention means giving them, as a convention, absolute power to do anything.

Not really; if the convention proposes an amendment that isn't ratified by 3/4ths of states, things stay as they are. Even a constitutional convention has checks and balances. (Historically, states have used the threat of a convention to force congress to act on issues where they were dragging their feet.)

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#45

Post by JadeNB »

kerkeslager wrote: post #22

I'm not sure how this would end gerrymandering. Setting up a committee to handle districting doesn't solve anything. If I remember correctly, didn't someone finally come up with an algorithm which evenly divides populations such that average distance from the average location of the district residents is minimized? A law which mandated use of that or a similar algorithm for district boundaries would actually help. Ju…

> If I remember correctly, didn't someone finally come up with an algorithm which evenly divides populations such that average distance from the average location of the district residents is minimized?

I had a colleague (mathematician) who suggested presenting district-ers with a dramatically distorted map of the region to be districted in which neighbourhoods were unrecognisable, and all that could be seen was population density. One could gerrymander such a map all one pleased, but with (presumably) no better than random chance of thereby accruing a benefit, and random risk of suffering a detriment.

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#46

Post by afinlayson »

mabbo wrote: post #41
IncRnd wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more likely the other way around, showing very little character by using the rules of the game to his advantage to get into office and changing the rules of the game to stay in office.

But surely if he's in a gerrymandered district, passing these rules would make it harder for him to be re-elected? He's shooting himself in the foot to do the right thing. I can respect that.

We need more of this kind of thinking. For example Trump should want a Russia prob instead of watering down sanctions as he is quietly doing. This is how governing is suppose to work, instead of what ever the hell you call the current state of affairs.

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#47

Post by mburns »

mozumder wrote: post #25
baron816 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't just need a Constitutional amendment, we need a new Constitution. People act like the Constitution we have came down from the heavens in a beam of light. But it was written by a bunch of guys who had never lived in a real democracy before. In fact it was written at a time when there pretty much hadn't been ANY democracies in the whole world for two thousand years. We've had two hundred years of experience an…

Works for me, we absolutely need a new constitution. The current one obviously is completely failed (an entire industrial-scale Civil War? REALLY?!) Too bad we need 3/4 states to nullify the current constitution before we can establish a new one via another constitutional convention.

Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

How is starting from scratch preferable to passing 3 or 4 amendments in the current system to address the largest issues we've struggled to fix over the decades?

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#48

Post by Aloha »

mobilefriendly wrote: post #20

This is hilarious because Delaney was first elected in a gerrymandered district created specifically for him, the state legislature literally looped in his house by two blocks. http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/cct-arc-acca0c6c-9aa4-5159... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Delaney_(Maryland_politic...

See Chester Arthur - a man who had benefited extensively from the spoils system, helped put it out of existence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_A._Arthur#Civil_servic...

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#49

Post by ouid »

baddox wrote: post #40
ouid wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're misunderstanding, I think. It's not that it isn't by design. It's that the design principle is stupid.

I think you mean that you don't like the goal this design principle is intended to achieve.

No, I said precisely what I meant.

Re: Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections

#50

Post by Aloha »

baron816 wrote: post #12
zeckalpha wrote: post #3

I feel like most of these changes would require a constitutional amendment.

We don't just need a Constitutional amendment, we need a new Constitution. People act like the Constitution we have came down from the heavens in a beam of light. But it was written by a bunch of guys who had never lived in a real democracy before. In fact it was written at a time when there pretty much hadn't been ANY democracies in the whole world for two thousand years. We've had two hundred years of experience an…

Why do you think we need a new Constitution?
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