By 2028 Democrats in every state they control are simply going to have to gerrymander into overdrive. It is possible to draw ugly enough districts so that not a single one goes Republican, and while Republicans may have an advantage it’d be only a slight one—currently Democrats aren’t using all their tools.
But in the big picture Democrats are going to have to do something about their big deficit among noncollege voters. The racial breakdown sort of hides the real problem (among whites, Democrats do great with educated voters, and among noncollege voters they’re doing terrible even in nonwhite demographics). Fix that and they become not just competitive but dominant.
I honestly don't think my red district in California is possible to gerrymander into blue. My county is bigger than 7 eastern states, and with only 20K people, it's still only about half the district. No direction would give us a large enough Democratic population base big enough to form a new district. Well, maybe a three hundred mile cherry stem due west to the coast of Monterey.
It could work, but has the potential to backfire. A lot of LA and SF Democrats are not regular voters, while most of the rabid Republicans out here in the weeds vote every time. Especially if they see their privilege threatened.
The problem remains: All the Democrats gotta vote somewhere.
The GOP have previously gerrymandered all the districts with 'surgical precision' as described in a previous court case.
This may appear to strengthen their position, but it's brittle; these districts only work if they don't piss off the voters, enough of all the voters. Roping themselves to the mast of the SS Trumptanic, currently aiming for every iceberg in the sea isn't gonna help them with that.
That leaves stopping people from voting at all as their only defense.
We have to remember, because they serve the unreconstructed, their efforts to destroy democracy are guided by massive deference in the political and—crucially—legal systems. So the struggle must continue as it has for the past 250 years. Every little bit of slow progress has to be ground out. And the story of America is always setbacks after progress, but we must keep trying.
Gerrymanders are not invincible, so if enough people jump their voter suppression hoops and do the thing when it's time to vote, weird things can happen.
This Canuck is completely mystified by this electoral fuckery baked into the American system. If the party in power is allowed to redraw electoral maps to favor themselves in future elections, how can anybody expect fair representation? We have an independent electoral commission that sets our federal ridings and allows for adjustments based on census data and population shifts, not voter affiliation.
In America that kind of thing is okay if the party in question essentially supports the planter class in its suppression of racial minorities. This is also part of the normal operating order for the many unreconstructed state-based regimes of terror. And it's also part of the reason America has so many states; to help ensure that there is a Senate to help hold back progress that would enfranchise slaves.
Independent electoral commissions would give places a proportionate vote and thus in the USA it wouldn't allow bigoted, less populated areas their outsized control.
White people are racist and appalling and we always have been. To "win", we have always had to load the dice, stack the deck, mark the cards, cheat at the game and shoot the Black guy if he accidentally wins any hand without the aces we are still holding up our sleeves. Or if he loses. After we take all the money. I am so sorry.
Yes, but until we come up with an anti-racism ray, we have to at least hope that all white people aren't racist or can vote reasonably on occasion despite that racism. Otherwise, it's game over.
I hope that you are right that all of this gerrymandering will backfire on the repubs. They know that they, their G̵o̵l̵d̵e̵n̵ ̵C̵a̵l̵f̵ president, and their policies are unpopular, so have given up upon persuading Americans to vote for them. All they care about is holding onto power.
As for Clyburn, if he loses because SC repubs gerrymander him out of his district, he does deserve it, for conspiring with them in the first place to keep his district safe for HIM, and believing the repubs will keep their word on anything.
By 2028 Democrats in every state they control are simply going to have to gerrymander into overdrive. It is possible to draw ugly enough districts so that not a single one goes Republican, and while Republicans may have an advantage it’d be only a slight one—currently Democrats aren’t using all their tools.
But in the big picture Democrats are going to have to do something about their big deficit among noncollege voters. The racial breakdown sort of hides the real problem (among whites, Democrats do great with educated voters, and among noncollege voters they’re doing terrible even in nonwhite demographics). Fix that and they become not just competitive but dominant.
I honestly don't think my red district in California is possible to gerrymander into blue. My county is bigger than 7 eastern states, and with only 20K people, it's still only about half the district. No direction would give us a large enough Democratic population base big enough to form a new district. Well, maybe a three hundred mile cherry stem due west to the coast of Monterey.
There’s always a way if you draw a long thin line from LA or SF. You can run the simulations on a computer to get them down to perfect accuracy.
It could work, but has the potential to backfire. A lot of LA and SF Democrats are not regular voters, while most of the rabid Republicans out here in the weeds vote every time. Especially if they see their privilege threatened.
The problem remains: All the Democrats gotta vote somewhere.
The GOP have previously gerrymandered all the districts with 'surgical precision' as described in a previous court case.
This may appear to strengthen their position, but it's brittle; these districts only work if they don't piss off the voters, enough of all the voters. Roping themselves to the mast of the SS Trumptanic, currently aiming for every iceberg in the sea isn't gonna help them with that.
That leaves stopping people from voting at all as their only defense.
This isn't the flex they think it is...
As I posted on BlueSky if we don’t preserve the Black vote, then we don’t deserve ours.
The republicans: "Your proposal is acceptable." [Vader Breathing SFX]
We have to remember, because they serve the unreconstructed, their efforts to destroy democracy are guided by massive deference in the political and—crucially—legal systems. So the struggle must continue as it has for the past 250 years. Every little bit of slow progress has to be ground out. And the story of America is always setbacks after progress, but we must keep trying.
Gerrymanders are not invincible, so if enough people jump their voter suppression hoops and do the thing when it's time to vote, weird things can happen.
This Canuck is completely mystified by this electoral fuckery baked into the American system. If the party in power is allowed to redraw electoral maps to favor themselves in future elections, how can anybody expect fair representation? We have an independent electoral commission that sets our federal ridings and allows for adjustments based on census data and population shifts, not voter affiliation.
I have a fucking radical idea. How about, I don’t know, maybe the popular vote? It’s an out of date method.
In America that kind of thing is okay if the party in question essentially supports the planter class in its suppression of racial minorities. This is also part of the normal operating order for the many unreconstructed state-based regimes of terror. And it's also part of the reason America has so many states; to help ensure that there is a Senate to help hold back progress that would enfranchise slaves.
Independent electoral commissions would give places a proportionate vote and thus in the USA it wouldn't allow bigoted, less populated areas their outsized control.
What a fucking mess.
White people are racist and appalling and we always have been. To "win", we have always had to load the dice, stack the deck, mark the cards, cheat at the game and shoot the Black guy if he accidentally wins any hand without the aces we are still holding up our sleeves. Or if he loses. After we take all the money. I am so sorry.
Yes, but until we come up with an anti-racism ray, we have to at least hope that all white people aren't racist or can vote reasonably on occasion despite that racism. Otherwise, it's game over.
I hear you. I'm just too damn mad at my fellow White folks right now, but that ray-gun thing sounds intriguing…
I think we actually have something like that already. It's called a baseball bat, it just needs to be applied consistently and with great vigor.
I hope that you are right that all of this gerrymandering will backfire on the repubs. They know that they, their G̵o̵l̵d̵e̵n̵ ̵C̵a̵l̵f̵ president, and their policies are unpopular, so have given up upon persuading Americans to vote for them. All they care about is holding onto power.
As for Clyburn, if he loses because SC repubs gerrymander him out of his district, he does deserve it, for conspiring with them in the first place to keep his district safe for HIM, and believing the repubs will keep their word on anything.
Disappointing. I do believe he was helpful in turning around Handsome old Joe Biden's losing campaign, though.
Yes, he was, by endorsing Biden and campaigning for him in SC, which led to Biden's victory here in the primary.
This times 100