Judge Rules Florida Illegally Redrew Districts To Benefit GOP

[edhopper]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/judge-rules-florida-gop-illegally-redrew-districts

Ya think?


Now someone here should chime in how gerrymandering hasn't given the Repugs overly large majorities in State and Congressional reps.

[djean111]

1. Silly! It is the fault of us stoopid Floriduhians and, um, Ralph Nader!

Also - just because a Dem president can be excused for not doing stuff because his hands are tied by the GOP Congress, we simple Florida Dems should have figured out how to smash the guv, the legislature, and the courts here in sunny Fla. Oh, and how to stop Miss DNC, Debbie Wasserman, from supporting a GOPer if they are bestest friends.

[yeoman6987]

3. I hope these lawsuits don't go national

Maryland did the same to add Democratic seat and quite frankly I am glad. I don't want what is happening in Floida to affect blue states eventually. I think we need to be careful.

[OriginalGeek]

4. Well if it's wrong here

it should be wrong there. And I believe gerrymandering is wrong.

[yeoman6987]

5. Do we go back to county seats

If you live in Duvall Couty, you have one Representative period. Maybe that is better. I don't know.

[OriginalGeek]

6. I wish I could tell you

I know I'm not smart enough to figure it out. All I know is it seems wrong to sit there with a map and carve up districts 20 miles long and 10 feet wide in spots,* meandering through the land hitting the areas that historically vote one way or the other but have nothing else really connecting them. Whoever is in charge gets to do the carving so they stay in charge. Maybe I'm naive but it's just plain cheating to me.

I'd start with making squarish districts with size determined by population so that, as much as possible, areas are equally represented by voters who live near to each other. More densely populated areas will have more and smaller districts. Let the chips fall where they may. If we blue folks are blue enough and really in the majority we should see a lot of blue. (That's the part that should illustrate how not smart I am. lol)



*most likely exaggeration but maybe not ridiculously far off.

[Android3.14]

7. Let's avoid hypocrisy

Gerrymandering is antithetical to democracy, regardless.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. I'll give you a good example of how it might change things.

In my city, the west side is composed of 1 to 1 ratios of Democrats to Republicans. On the east side, that number is 1:2, favoring Republicans. Yet, at election time, the entire city generally goes to the Republicans.

I'm not saying that a Democrat hasn't gotten through. But the Democrats who do make it through turn out to be a product from the Island of Dr. Moreau. One of them was on record saying that she didn't mind having affordable housing inside the city limits, but she always envisioned spreading those kind of homes around the city, instead of centralizing them in one multi-family development. Talk about diluting the power of people who have common interests.

Another was an incredibly corrupt individual who even backstabbed Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer. So, redistricting is a good start, but someone really needs to look into the mindset of the local individuals who call themselves Democrats in my area.

[joeglow3]

8. Welcome to politics

Where I live (Nebraska), we are one of two states that allocate out our electoral votes. The Republicans tried to change it to a winner take all after one district went to Obama. We fought to resist that and won.

Ironically, the Republicans fought to have California fight to adopt the Nebraska model and the Democrats successfully fought to resist. Sadly, as much as I love politics and my party, this highlights how hypocritical almost all politicians and both parties are.

Politics as usual......