Fixing the Poison of American Politics - Cleaning Up Redistricting

I'm writing this the night before Election Day in the United States. Once the votes are tallied, a sizable percentage of the population will be convinced that the country is doomed.

Cards on the table, I'm definitely a partisan. Though a fairly liberal Republican in my 20s and early 30s, I've transitioned to liberal Democrat. That probably puts me in a minority of people who voted for both Bush and Obama. Basically, as I've grown older I've come to the conclusion that not everybody gets an equal shot and some people have horrible luck - whether in their parents, their genetics, their choice in careers, or what have you. And I believe that the government has a role to play in smoothing out the extremes of wealth and poverty.

With that in mind, I suspect people of any ideology will agree that American politics are in a very sorry state. If you ask me for my opinion as to why, I think the biggest answer is that politicians get to pick their voters. This is probably most evident in the House of Representatives, where most members come from very ideologically homogeneous districts. Below is a classic diagram of how gerrymandering works:


While the diagram above is greatly simplified, it showcases how the power to draw districts is the power to pick the optimal voters for a given political party. I don't necessarily believe that the "Perfect Representation from the Washington Post's WonkBlog above is even optimal - districts shouldn't be solely dedicated towards party parity but rather should best represent their communities. 

The danger with any of the divisions above is once a district is constructed as "safe" for a given party, the representative of that district has no incentive for ideological compromise. Indeed, compromise, even in the effort to "get something done" can be toxic, exposing the representative to the threat of a primary. This has been especially evident in the GOP over the past several years, but I doubt it would be very different if redistricting tended to favor Democrats. 

I don't think it is accident that it is the Senate, even with its longer terms, that has changed majority parties more times in recent history. Take a look at the changes in party control since the late 1970s:

CongressYearsHouseSenate
95th1977-1979DemocratDemocrat
96th1979-1981DemocratDemocrat
97th1981-1983DemocratRepublican
98th1983-1985DemocratRepublican
99th1985-1987DemocratRepublican
100th1987-1989DemocratDemocrat
101st1989-1991DemocratDemocrat
102nd1991-1993DemocratDemocrat
103rd1993-1995DemocratDemocrat
104th1995-1997RepublicanRepublican
105th1997-1999RepublicanRepublican
106th1999-2001RepublicanRepublican
107th2001-2003RepublicanRepublican, Democrat
108th2003-2005RepublicanRepublican
110th2005-2007RepublicanRepublican
111th2007-2009DemocratDemocrat
112th2009-2011DemocratDemocrat
113th2011-2013RepublicanDemocrat
114th2013-2015RepublicanDemocrat
115th2015-2017RepublicanRepublican

In this timeframe, the House changed majority party three times while the Senate did seven times (including a change in the middle of the 107th Congress and then another at the tart of the 108th). I don't think that is an accident when you consider the fact that a Senator has no option for redistricting - he or she always represents his or her entire state. His or her voters are fixed.

What would I recommend? I think redistricting needs to be removed from politicians. I think it's time to turn this over to our computer overlords.

Would this fix everything? Clearly not. The Senate has been getting rather toxic as well what with Supreme Court nomination fights getting more and more bitter to the point where the current Senate refuses to even consider President Obama's nominee and has suggested if they keep their majority they would not allow a President Hillary Clinton to ever fill a seat. But I do think increasing competitiveness in the House of Representatives would be an important start.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jules Verne Translations That Don't Stink

Image
Shortly after I graduated from college R. Talsorian published their fantasy steampunk RPG,  Castle Falkenstein. Having missed out on Space: 1889  when it first came out this was my first steampunk RPG, though I had been exposed to the genre by Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (a novel which, though I though I found the setting compelling, I did not particularly care for - must reread some day). Jules Verne was one of the authors in the inspirational reading section of Castle Falkenstein.  Heck, the game also made him into France's scientific advisor, having him responsible for their massive Verne Cannons  which formed a sort of nuclear deterrent.  With that in mind, one Sunday afternoon I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore my new girlfriend (now my wife of nearly 16 years!).  On a whim I decided to pick up a Jules Verne novel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . That night I started reading it, never having read any of his works b...
Keep reading

Stepping Away and a New Beginning

Image
After maintaining this blog for nearly seven years (an eternity in internet time), I've decided to step away from it. When I first began I wasn't 100% certain what it would be about. For a while I thought it would be a blog related to OSR type RPGs but I found my own tastes not firmly rooted there. Looking at the history of the blog, I see a lot of Call of Cthulhu which is hardly surprising. However, some lack of consistency definitely made it tough for me find a defined niche and over the past few months I've been giving some thought to starting a new, more narrowly focused blog. The imminent end of Google+ played a part in these thoughts, with much of my traffic coming from that site. I write because I enjoy writing, but I do enjoy growing an audience. My plan to start a narrowly-focused blog took a turn when I had the opportunity to join the  Rolling Boxcars  blog. Talking with the contributors (one of whom I game with on Discord already) and going through thei...
Keep reading

Using the Force in D6 Star Wars

Image
Defending yourself with just 1D in Sense is not easy, as Luke discovers when training with a remote. My previous post discussed the proto-D6 System as found in the Ghostbusters RPG. For those unfamiliar with the D6 System and the way it does the Force (or for a brief review) the essentials are: You roll a bunch of six sided dice against a target number, typically ranging from 5-ish (easy) to 20 or even higher. Your rating is listed as something like 2D+2 which means roll 2d6+2. By default, most normal/non-heroic people have 2D in most stats.  Starting heroes will might have their best skill be at 5D or a touch higher. You can take as many actions as you want in a round. However, taking two actions in a round reduces all dice codes by 1D, taking three reduces all by 2D, etc. Starting with Force skills will lower a characters starting attributes. Unlike most skills they start off at 1D. There are three Force skills - control, sense, and alter. Control lets you contr...
Keep reading

Developing Boston for 1920s Call of Cthulhu

Image
While Chaosium has produced sourcebooks for many locations in Lovecraft Country (Kingsport, Arkham, and Innsmouth) as well as non-fictional cities of the 1920s (such as New York City and New Orleans), the nearby city of Boston, while being featured in many adventures, has never received its own full sourcebook. The most common era for my Call of Cthulhu  games has been in the 1920s - some campaigns have been in New York City while others have been in Lovecraft country. For those in Lovecraft Country, many adventures have been in nearby Boston. Over the years I've slowly been building up some expertise in the area and I thought it might be of interest to others gaming in the same setting - whether with Mythos horrors or a purely mundane game. First, let us investigate those official sources. While Boston has found its way into many adventures, I can think of two sources where it has been given a fair amount of detail. First, The Unspeakable Oath  double issue 16/17 has ...
Keep reading

Balancing Classes in Swords and Wizardry

Image
DM: "The box is the size of a small trunk; it is latched but not locked."  Dougal: "I'm looking for traps on the box."  DM (rolling for Dougal's "find traps" ability. The roll indicates that Dougal has failed to find the poisoned needle in the latch.) "You don't find a trap."  Morgan (the group's leader): "Black Dougal will open the box."  DM: "Black Dougal, you find out that you missed a tiny discolored needle in the latch. Roll a saving throw vs. Poison, please!"  Dougal (rolling): "Missed it!"  DM: "Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."  Fredrik: "I'm grabbing his pack to carry treasure in." Game balance. It's a tricky concept in RPGs. D&D 3rd and 4th editions made a very strong effort to balance the character classes with one another as well as to balance encounters. For my purposes, they went too far. A...
Keep reading