When politicians redraw congressional district maps to favor their party, they may secure short-term victories. But those wins can come at a steep price — a loss of public faith in elections and, ultimately, in democracy itself.
Eroding confidence in democracy isn’t a bug for them, it’s a feature. It depresses election turnouts because more people think “what’s the point in wasting my time voting? My vote doesn’t matter.”
Gerrymandering erodes
confidence indemocracyAnother obvious conclusion brought to you by the Common Sense Corporation.
Oh, wow, now that democrats also want to Gerrymander, we see articles like this.
You don’t fucking say! Does water get things wet too?!
wait there was confidence in democracy?
Honestly, it was a long time coming. USA today is mirroring the fall of the Roman republic. People and its ruling elites became too complacent after their country became hegemons after emerging victorious from a major war. The ordinary folks became disillusioned with supposed democracy, and started to look for a strong man to get things done, by breaking the slow deliberation and bureaucracy, which only serves the oligarchs.
I didn’t think I would agree with conservatives, but they are right about a society becoming too decadent and losing its moral fibre.
Rome was never a democracy. Rome didn’t have a single war that made it hegemonic. Sorry this account is just fiction.
I refered to the republic as democracy to oversimplify the explanation, putting aside the pedantry.
And if you didn’t know what Rome’s war with Carthage was about, it was vying who will become the hegemon in the Mediterranean. Sorry you didn’t know history.
The Punic Wars were another step in the endless grinding of the Romans against every region bordering their territories. Yes both Carthage and atomen were expanding into each other’s sphere of influence, but I don’t agree that either side considered it a struggle for ultimate power.
Districts shouldn’t exist, borders shouldn’t have an effect on if you are represented.
1 person, 1 vote
That’s a real, direct democracy
Once again a silly us centric article that just glazes over the facts. The state of democracy in the states is closer to that of a course.
Study reveals thing working as intended
No fucking shit.
Blatant election tampering erodes confidence in democracy? Who could have seen that development?
It’s a feature, not a bug.
"If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” - David Frum
Exactly. When people lose faith in democracy, leaders have free rein.
Of course gerrymandering erodes democracy, that’s the point
Clearly we need ranked choice and no electoral college. 🤷♂️
We need proportional representation, but ranked choice is much better than what most of us have now.
Agree on both points, but gerrymandering doesn’t apply to the function of the EC. Even with Ranked Choice voting, they would still be susceptible to gerrymandering. Independent redistricting commissions seem like the best compromise, but then you get into a situation where not all states are playing by the same rules, and actually supporting your citizens rights is bad for the country if an equally large state can gerrymander the shit out of districts.
The article does suggest also having “proportional representation, in which parties win seats based on their share of the statewide vote, rather than in winner-take-all districts” which remove a lot of the fuss about districts maps, but would still probably still disenfranchise some voters. I also can’t imagine a ballot in a big state like CA or TX having to rank 70+ representatives for your house seat.
The unfortunate reality is the politicians currently in power would rather pull up the ladder and secure their seat than make things more fair and add more ladders.
My suggestion is 5-member districts elected by Sequential Proportional Approval Voting. Quintuple the House and award seats using the same method in groups of five.
Of course, we are fucked. It’s all over. The best outcome we can hope for at this point is a civil war
And to win that war. And to somehow ensure that, in the vacuum of power that immediately follows, whomever takes over leading the nation isn’t influenced by foreign actors.
There won’t be any winners in a civil war these days. There will be too many sides.
Indeed. The folks that need to organize aren’t, the fascists are, and the oligarchs are buying everyone that isn’t affiliated one way or another. Then there’s China, Russia, Israel, etc. It’s a mess and we all lose at the end.
Well how do we Organize when all of our organization attempts are moderated, yet on truth social they are encouraged.
This very community has certain moderators who try very hard to shut down any conversation like that
You aren’t wrong. I don’t know the answer. I truly wish I did.
Where do we draw the line?
