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Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

uglygerry.com

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Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#141

Post by blackflame7000 »

LocalPCGuy wrote: post #136
core-questions wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it interesting that folks will justify gerrymandering when it's built to support a minority group, unless that minority group is the one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation?

That is because what you are referring to as "one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation" does not need any help in making sure they have representation. One, they are not (currently) a minority and two, they have the vast majority of the power in this country already. So no, it isn't interesting.

I'm confused about why being a minority means you need more help? Are they not as capable as the rest of us? Why do you think they are so disadvantaged as to require special education and assistance? I mean we're not talking case by case basis here, your sentiments were clearly blanketed statements.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#142

Post by mikeash »

labster wrote: post #19
yholio wrote: post #2

In case it's not entirely clear, the font ridicules the practice of gerrymandering: toying with electoral district borders so that the results favor the incumbent while corralling the voters of the adversaries. So extensive is this practice that the resulting shapes can approximate any letter of the alphabet. Quite readable too.

Except that it uses non-gerrymandered districts from California, where elected officials are not allowed to draw the lines. So any statement is lost, but I guess it’s a fun art project.

The contrast just serves to further emphasize just how fucked up some of these districts are.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#143

Post by hammock »

schoen wrote: post #89
hammock wrote: post #83

Reminds me of the butterfly alphabet: https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/archive/Vm4Dpv... Sad there are no examples of the font in a sentence though. Is it readable? If it was the point would be stronger.

You can download the OTF font file from the bottom of the page and try rendering text in it yourself. I made a sample for you at https://imgur.com/TjqUYQt

Awesome, thank you!

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#144

Post by mikeash »

legitster wrote: post #45
tunesmith wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More competitive? Or more representative of the overall population? Because those two things are at odds. Say you have a state that is split 55/44, and has nine districts. Do you want nine districts each at 55/44, meaning 9-0? That's more competitive, but less representative of the state. Or do you want five districts for one, and four for the other? That's more representative of the state, but less competitive. Redi…

This is SUPER important. People think redistricting is a panacea, but it actually sounds like a super tough nut to crack. Even states that have non-partisan districting enshrined in law are going through their own controversies and it doesn't (at first blush) appear to be solving anything. 99pi/538 did an excellent series on the topic I would recommend.

This seems like a “perfect is the enemy of the good” sort of thing.

Yes, drawing good districts is really hard. Non-partisan redistricting doesn’t solve everything.

But surely it’s a hell of a lot better than allowing whatever political party is in power in a particular year to draw districts to their own advantage, allowing them to rule long after they lose the support of the majority?

You’ll sometimes end up with minority rule in any district based system, but at least it’ll be accidental rather than intentional and self-perpetuating.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#145

Post by BookmarkSaver »

Spivak wrote: post #39
jascii wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite sure I follow you, could you elaborate?

One of the arguments in favor of the electoral college is that it boosts the voice of people who are in areas with lower population density. This is to ensure that minority interests are respected and taken into account by presidential hopefuls. Without this protection the voices of people who live outside the 5 major metropolitan areas simply wouldn't matter and candidates would have no reason to listen to their iss…

>One of the arguments in favor of the electoral college is that it boosts the voice of people who are in areas with lower population density

Why should people get more say because they live more spread out? Why do 100k people living across the countryside get more say than 100k people living in a city?

If 5 million people live in a city and 2 million people live in the countryside, the people in the city should have 5 reps to the rural 2.

Density is a completely arbitrary metric to use. Why not use race? Why not income levels? Why does density demand electoral privilege but no other metric?

The only actual answer is "status quo". They are overrepresented now, so there is a retroactive justification that somehow balanced representation is "unfair", when in fact it is only "unfair" because it is less than they already have.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#146

Post by jandrese »

tombert wrote: post #66
TremendousJudge wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...just do away with districts entirely? why are they needed?

I'm not sure what you're suggesting. Individual districts are going to have problems the the rest of the state or country don't know/care about. Having a representative for these districts makes sense. For example, in my district (Brownsville in Brooklyn), we have an almost tragically poorly-ranked school system, due largely to bad funding and high crime rates in the area. I don't expect someone from Midtown Manhatta…

That's not a great example because really the school budget should be set at the state level and distributed evenly to every district based on student headcount.

You do make a valid point that many issues are local and that could be lost in a system where the party is focused at the state level instead of the local level. Proportional representation systems are prone to having this issue for example.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#147

Post by mikeash »

munk-a wrote: post #33
TomK32 wrote: post #14

This needs to be coloured in shades of Blue and Red.

Both parties are equally terrible when it comes to gerrymandering, I, thankfully, vote in a state that is one of seven that has absolutely solved gerrymandering for all time... Vermont - it's hard to creatively draw districts when everyone is in the same one.

It should be obvious that you can’t trust any political party with the power to decide who their own voters will be. It’s not a partisan issue. If Republicans are doing it more in recent years it’s only because they’ve had more opportunity.

I’m not usually a “both sides” sort of person, but in this case it’s like putting a steak in front of a dog and expecting them not to eat it.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#148

Post by InTheArena »

core-questions wrote: post #129
the-pigeon wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also district shaping is more complex than you might think. For instance some distracts were purposely built around a minority groups neighborhoods so that they would have a representative. If you made the districts purely based on grids then the group would be too small to have any representative. Which maybe is the wrong solution. But you get funky district shapes for all sorts of reasons that are not the corruptio…

Isn't it interesting that folks will justify gerrymandering when it's built to support a minority group, unless that minority group is the one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation?

This is exactly how the current wave of gerrymandering began. The mandate to create "majority-minority" districts led to the concentration of districts that favored minorities (Democrats) but at the same time created two or three districts with sizable (but not insanely so) Republican districts.

From the Atlantic:

"But just in time for the redistricting in 1990, some enterprising Republicans began noticing a rather curious fact: The drawing of majority-minority districts not only elected more minorities, it also had the effect of bleeding minority voters out of all the surrounding districts. Given that minority voters were the most reliably Democratic voters, that made all of the neighboring districts more Republican. The black, Latino, and Asian representatives mostly were replacing white Democrats, and the increase in minority representation was coming at the expense of electing fewer Democrats. "

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#149

Post by agjm »

swebs wrote: post #11
yholio wrote: post #2

In case it's not entirely clear, the font ridicules the practice of gerrymandering: toying with electoral district borders so that the results favor the incumbent while corralling the voters of the adversaries. So extensive is this practice that the resulting shapes can approximate any letter of the alphabet. Quite readable too.

There's currently a push to take it to the supreme court so it can be stopped once and for all. Archive link because the Baltimore Sun doesn't like Europe: http://archive.is/a3mMR

I think the Baltimore Sun probably likes Europe just fine - what they don't like are self-contradictory rule sets that can cost them $20,000,000+ on top of the cost of achieving "compliance."

'Sarah Toporoff, a Massachusetts native who works in Paris for the Global Editors Network, which promotes newsroom innovation, raised similar questions. She said U.S. newsrooms “are a benchmark for digital innovation” — and it’s important that their content be available in Europe.'

'It is naive and wholly irresponsible to think that U.S. news holds no relevance beyond U.S. borders...'

Perhaps, then, Europe should've had some international discussion about their hyper-aggressive legislation, to try and prevent this situation. I am dumbfounded that anyone thinks the U.S. corporations are to blame for not spending millions to comply with a foreign law from countries where they have no legal representation.

Preventing that sort of 'taxation without representation' is something of a popular idea over here.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/08/more-than-1000-u-s-news-si...

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#150

Post by runarberg »

commanderjroc wrote: post #138
runarberg wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes a system is so bad that the only reform is a revolution. Incrementalism is simply an unrealistic option in many cases, including voting reform (and climate change)

I doubt that a revolution in the USA would go so well considering the military hardware that some state police departments have. Even, a political grass roots revolution would be unsuccessful as many people are resistant to change and would not back it. Incrementalism is the best approach as it slowly changes people and doesn't get their defenses up from the get go.

I’m definitely not talking about a revolution in a sense of violent overthrow of the government. I’m merely talking about revolutionary changes to the voting system. More specifically how the votes are counted towards each representative. I don’t have a source for this, but I think most Americans would actually be quite happy with the idea of switching out the election system for something objectively better.
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