Wounded Bear
Wounded Bear's JournalNo. I don't want to become them...
Several states have rather fairly determined districts. In my home state, WA, the 9 congressional districts are pretty reasonable. Just looking at the map, you can see how the uban/rural split works out. The district boundaries don't wander around like a snake pit.
The re-draw in Pennsylvania looks pretty reasonable, too.
It can be done. You can't totally eliminate gerrymandering, maybe, but you can mitigate it if you try. In WA, they have a 3-position panel that outlines the districts, 1 Dem, 1 Repub, and 1 judge (who is hopefully non-partisan).
Turning the Dem party into a bastardized "anti-Repub" party just furthers the evil. We need representation of the people. Even Dems should have to go out and present their platform and policies and get them elected in the court of public opinion.
Just a (hopefully) positive reminder...
Trump won in 2016 based on laser thin margins in 3 swing states based on massive voter suppression and electioneering efforts.
I leave out gerrymandering because that in itself would not have a huge effect on the Presidential race, though it would possibly steer people to the polls in partisan fashion.
Thankfully, the judicial system has maintained some resistance to the more egregious actions of the Trump admin. We've won a couple of the lawsuits around districting, and hopefully there will be more.
These recent indictments at least verify, legally, that there was Russian interference and meddling. Even Trump has been forced to admit that in tweets today. He's still denying the 'collusion' of course, but he's been pushed a step back. If this swings a million votes nationwide, it could have a significant effect. Even if it just softens some of the Trump support, it is a good thing.
We still outnumber the Deplorables, and we still have right and justice on our side.
GOTV!
In some ways, Trump may just be the tip of the iceberg...
The entire high-end real estate market and international finance needs purging. That's where the swamp gets filled from. Real estate is looking like a favorite way to launder money. American organized crime has well known connections to the building trades and has been a source of RW maligning of unions for decades. Perhaps much of that is deserved regarding those industries. We know that the Teamsters have had their brushes with the RICO laws in the past.
I don't want to start bashing unions, I support organized labor, but like any organization, the larger they get the more opportunities for corruption. My major concern right now is international finance and how Trump has used those channels to launder money for the Russians. The rest of this should come after that. I'm thinking of the Iceland scenario, where some bankers go to jail and the international banking community gets told to clean up their act or get out.
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Gender: MaleCurrent location: Kent, WA
Member since: Thu Aug 27, 2009, 08:55 PM
Number of posts: 58,620
