Barter
2/26/2018 11:17:20 am
Watch the video and then read the article. Are the criticisms of the current redistricting problems legitimate? What are some solutions?
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Braxton Neeley
3/6/2018 08:16:30 pm
Personally I find it pretty hard to say the criticisms aren't legitimate with the mountains of evidence across the U.S against both parties practice of gerrymandering. As for some solutions All 50 states could like Arizona and 20 other states have independent entities drawing district lines.(though even then those people have personal views and bias) or the only other solution I see is the supreme court striking it down on the equal protection clause but that's a big step that may not happen however the biggest reason nothing will happen is because the people who benefit from it are who would pass laws to stop it so they have literally the opposite of incentive to do so they would be reducing their own power
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Terik Steele (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
2/28/2018 07:06:03 pm
Someone would be hard pressed to deny that Gerrymandering is a legitimate concern in many states, espically for the people who representation is being stripped away. When districts skew the actual political make up of a state, state legislators no longer represent their state. Instead the legislators represent the party which has the unfair, gerrymandered advantage. This is not our democratic ideal. The most probable and likely solution, gerryfixing, would be to take away the power of drawing districts from the state and giving it to an unbiased, independent committe. I think it would be cool if we did a voting across and entire state, and the top 11 (in AZ for example) with the highest votes get in. A solution like this is highly unlikely to happen however, and much more difficult to implement. Unless the Supreme Court rules that Gerrymandering is a preach of the equal protection clause of the 14th admendment, I'm doubtful any significant change will happen. Why? Because state legislators will have zero incentive or be forced to if not.
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Gabriela Galaz
3/2/2018 01:59:59 pm
I completely agree that it is impossible to deny that gerrymandering is an issue in many states. And as you stated this needs to change as it does go against our democratic ideals. And you do have a good solution but as you say its highly unlikely because it seems to be difficult to get both parties to agree to anything these days.
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Aaron Reyes
3/2/2018 09:02:12 pm
Assuming that both parties were not so divided it's obvious that both parties like to use gerrymandering as a tool for attaining power. So I think the real problem with gerrymandering is that we would be asking congress to limit it's own powers by their own doing.....again. And if we were politicians ourselves why risk your almost guaranteed continued incumbency?
Mariah
3/7/2018 09:04:00 am
I agree that it will not be fixed accordingly because so many support it. The people are outspoken because those in power are acting undemocratic like Gaby said.
Drew Raymond
3/3/2018 04:04:03 pm
I would agree that there is almost no chance of change if the Supreme Court rules that gerrymandering is legal, because not only will politicians not want to change it, but they will have a Supreme Court ruling to back them up. So really the only thing that could affect it now would be this Supreme Court case, I would think.
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Gabriela Galaz
3/2/2018 01:56:09 pm
It is obvious that there are problems with the current system. People have more than enough reason to be upset with the way district lines are drawn as there is substantial evidence that can lead us to believe that they are rigged to favor one party over the other. In states where one party outnumbers another has more seats held by the minority party. Some solutions as mentioned are to turn the district drawing over to third parties who do not have a partisan bias. Even with lawsuits and third parties, it is possible nothing will change because it is incredibly difficult to find someone who is completely unbiased.
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Drew Raymond
3/3/2018 03:58:29 pm
That is true, there is almost no one who doesn't have some political opinion. I also hadn't thought about the effects that lawsuits could have on it. There is the case on gerrymandering in the Supreme Court right now, which I would guess is the most straightforward way (with the least opposition) to ban gerrymandering.
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Barter
3/6/2018 01:14:33 pm
Hard to think that Congress would vote to end it.
Terik Steele
3/4/2018 09:33:12 am
I 100 percent agree. People have a genuine, and legitimate reason to be angry about gerrymandering. Its a disgrace to our democratic ideals. And its disheartening, but true, that solving this issue isn't going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination.
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Austin Olsen
3/4/2018 10:18:19 pm
There's definitely something wrong with our system and people should be very upset with how this systems been going. Since its difficult to find a completely bias person what they should do is they should get equal amounts of democrats and republicans to come up with a game plan for the new district. Hopefully they would be able to compromise.
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Mariah
3/7/2018 09:06:18 am
I agree. Not much can change because those who are supposed to make it happen wont. I believe that a solution would be allowing independent and nonpartisan groups create districts, and set laws that prohibit political bribes to these groups.
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Aaron Reyes
3/2/2018 08:56:32 pm
I believe that the arguments against gerrymandering are completely legitimate and those people have every right to be upset. After all how is it fair that states are not being proportionally represented it undermines the whole purpose of the House of Representatives and representational view. Yes it's true that technically representatives are indeed representing the interests of their constituents but does any of that matter if the peoples votes are being divided unfairly so that the majority rules over the minority in a almost tyrannical sort of way? The worst part of gerrymandering is that it supports tyranny of the majority and that's not fair. I think a possible solution would be to have a 3rd non partisan party draw the district boundaries or to have the courts take on that responsibility. However it is very unlikely that anything will change unless the Supreme Court exercises judiciary activism which would be bold and risky and another point why on earth would legislatures push a bill that would limit their abilities to draw the lines for themselves. Like for christs sake that like asking Gavin to kill a guy and then force him to turn himself in because it's "the right thing to do."
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Terik Steele
3/4/2018 09:38:11 am
That's a great analogy 😂😂. I agree completely. I totally overlooked the tryannity of the majority, which is a great point, another injury of the gerrymandering system.
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Drew Raymond
3/3/2018 03:55:24 pm
I would say that the current concerns of gerrymandering are legitimate and there is evidence of it in several states. Some solutions could be splitting up the districts based purely on population, and not factoring which members of what party live in a certain area at all- or the district lines could be drawn by independent legislatures, but there is some concern among Republicans that the people who form these "independent legislatures" have some party preference themselves. Nothing might change because obviously, politicians don't want gerrymandering to go away. They use it to their advantage when they don't have very strong numbers in their home state, to project like they do. Politicians will probably argue against new redistricting rules because of this.
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Toscya Williams
3/3/2018 11:40:59 pm
I agree with Drew here. Although there a numerous amount of solutions available to diminish the use of gerrymandering, they probably will not have an affect in the nearby future. Democrats are making the claim that Republicans are redrawing the lines I'm their favor, yet they would do the same thing to garner some more votes and control. It truly is a political tool neither party want to have taken away completely.
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Austin Olsen
3/4/2018 10:11:33 pm
Splitting up based on only population is a very good idea, it to bad all the politicians got they're special agendas, or they would of done that in the first place, hopefully something gets ruled that what's going on here is not fair to the voters and is suppressing speech.
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Angelise Garcia
3/7/2018 07:31:35 am
I agree with Drew. The politicians do not want to fix gerrymandering because of the benefits they receive from having districts that are mostly in their favor. If it is going to be fixed, I think that the best solution would be to leave the politicians out of creating district lines.
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Toscya Williams
3/3/2018 11:37:24 pm
The criticisms made against the current redistricting problems are completely legitimate. Recently, awareness surrounding the issue of gerrymandering has increased due to the large majority of votes that go the the Republican party who drew the lines to begin with. It's like a form of cheating; by manipulating the district boundaries, Republicans hinder the proportional representation of communities, which goes against the aspect of our democracy. There's are many possible solutions to solve this problem: getting signatures, petitioning, voting, self organizing, amending the state constitution, and giving independents the power to redraw the lines. Unfortunately I doubt that gerrymandering will be solved any time soon due to the fact that the courts would have to decide it's legality and our bicameral legislation is extremely divided at the moment due to Democrats and Republicans being unable to agree on anything
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Austin Olsen
3/4/2018 10:05:08 pm
If something does change regarding the gerrymandering problem I believe it would most likely be a slow and difficult process. If commissions were able to form they should have equal amounts of Democrats and Republicans to be able to compromise over how the districts are redistributed. Since 2/3 of state legislators are in control of the Republicans, its not very likely that they will just give up they're advantage they've got going on unless some sort of legal action can take place. At one point the Supreme Court gots to come into play and either rule for or against the biased gerrymandering. You'd think they would rule against it, but last time they only ruled that if it was targeting certain voters based on race it was unconstitutional. Hopefully they add on to that a little more soon.
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Angeline Garcia
3/7/2018 06:19:59 am
I agree that changing the issue will be a long process simply because the polititians it favors will be oppose to fixing it. If change is made, it won't be anytime soon, and most likely won't happen before the 2020 elections like many are hoping.
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Barter
3/6/2018 01:24:47 pm
All posts after this are late. WAKE UP! THERE ARE 10 WEEKS LEFT!
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Angelise Garcia
3/7/2018 06:07:26 am
The issue of gerrymandering has received enough public attention to become an undeniable feat. As Chuck Parkinson's put it,
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Angeline Garcia
3/7/2018 06:16:30 am
That said, gerrymandering does not allow people the fairness in which they crave. In instances such as the North Carolina districts where it is obvious that one party has an advantage, it is clear that there is not equal representation because of legislatures drawing lines. The article states that citizens have begun to take initiatives thy crack down on gerrymandering, but I don't think that petitioning alone is going to help. If the lines remain biased, then the power vested in the party they favor will lead the districts to remain. I believe that a solution to this issue would be getting nonpartisan groups to draw the lines in a way that doesn't give one party a leg up.
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Mariah
3/7/2018 09:01:40 am
As people have become more aware of gerrymandering as being a problem, there have been more citizen efforts to try and stop it. People realize that the gerrymandered districts allow the party in power to stay in power, and the issue can pave the way for the overstated party to make its way to the national level. Many have pressed for something to be done, but the needed rulings and legislative measures are slow to come. The chances of the issue being resolved soon is not likely because politicians in power do not want it to be.
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Barter
3/7/2018 09:09:27 am
Gavin? Gavin? Gav...
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