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As you've probably heard, Texas Republicans have proposed redistricting their state to favor the Republican Party in their state legislature. Texas Democrats realize that they'll lose this vote, so they've decided to do a series of town halls and other presentations around the state, explaining why gerrymandering is bad, and why the voters should put an end to this practice.
Ha! Just kidding, of course. Texas Democrats realize that they'll lose this vote, so they left the state to prevent the Republicans from having a quorum, so they can't pass anything. Ironically, they went to Illinois, which is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country. Rich Lowry has a great article up in which he points out that Illinois Republicans won nearly 44% of the vote, but only about 17% of the state House seats. California Republicans won nearly 40% of the vote, but only about 17% of the House seats.
Democrats don't want to stop gerrymandering. They want to control gerrymandering because they understand how powerful it is. There are no Democrat states. There are only Democrat cities. If Democrats don't gerrymander, then Congress would more closely represent the views of the American people. This would obviously be disastrous for Democrats. So they don't want to stop it. That would remove any influence they have in Congress. So all they can do is try to prevent the Republicans from doing the same thing.
I was talking to a Democrat patient yesterday - he was furious about Republican efforts to gerrymander Texas. I agreed with him, saying that we should ban gerrymandering completely. He looked at me for a second, then said, "You're a Republican. Of course you would say that."
Imagine being a Democrat voter and supporting gerrymandering so that the American government will NOT represent the will of the people.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past 10 years or so trying to understand the thinking of leftists. I figured that once I understood their thought process, I would become more sympathetic to them.
I was wrong.
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Discussion (29)
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Who was it who said: "Elections have consequences?"
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Grok tells me that if all status used a compactness focused redistricting methodology like perimeter minimization, then the GOP would pick up 10-20 seats.
As for understanding Democrats, they are just commies. The leaders will do or say anything to get more money/power and the followers are just programmed cult members. Do not attempt to apply rational thinking to any of them.
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You cannot blame the voters if the districts are designed to cut out the voters.
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That's a very good point.
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