Republican Gerrymandering

[Wyatt earp]

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts.

Gerrymandering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The TEA Party wing of the Republicans may not owe its existence to Gerrymandering, but the tail-wagging-the-dog power it holds over the party and the nation is a direct result.

The Republican insistence on nominating conservative candidates who are right-wing buffoons in the general elections is a direct result of Gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering may be protecting the ideology of the Right, but it's rendering the Republicans impotent in national elections.

Gerrymandering is THE reason that Americans have a less than 10% approval rating for Congress.

It's the REPUBLICANS who're being hurt by Republican Gerrymandering in the long run.

`​

you should see a chicago ward map before you start throwing bricks.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Don't turds like you keep saying the TEA Party is nothing, that is has no power?

The TeaTards have power.....but only over the Republicans

The have cost Republicans the Senate in the last two elections

I thought the House is where all the Gerrymandering occurred. Senate races are state-wide.

You can't keep your propaganda straight, can you?

No shit Sherlock.

That's what he just said - the gerrymandered false power that keeps the house in republican hands is what's costing the R's both the senate and 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

 

[AVG-JOE]

I've been involved in the process of deciding where the districts will be.

Let me tell both you that parties work to gerrymand their districts.

They've done such an effective job that our Congress has less turnover that the former USSR's Politboro used to have.

This process servers BOTH parties in that -- knowing that a district is clearly in one camp or the other -- they can focus thier efforts on those FEW races where there really is a race.

Just because the Republicans are the current poster-child for Gerry's Kids doesn't mean the Democrats are innocent or free of the disease.

Gerrymandering is an unfairness that must end for it's own sake... Reestablishing and preserving integrity in American politics as a by-product will be gravy.

 

[blackhawk]

The Republicans "who're" ... that would be John McCain, right ? or is it Lindsey Graham's month to turn tricks? hard to keep track of what the GOP stable is up to......

Neither is a Congressman

Republicans have made a pact with the devil with the Tea Tards. Yea, they guarantee some districts but bring the rest of the party down in the national elections

The pretense that Democrats don't Gerrymander and that they don't have "extreme" candidates doesn't pass the laugh test.

You beat me to it they just recently elected the extreme and also phony Indian Elizabeth Warren and the extremely radical nut job Alan Grayson as just two examples.

 

[AVG-JOE]

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts.

Gerrymandering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The TEA Party wing of the Republicans may not owe its existence to Gerrymandering, but the tail-wagging-the-dog power it holds over the party and the nation is a direct result.

The Republican insistence on nominating conservative candidates who are right-wing buffoons in the general elections is a direct result of Gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering may be protecting the ideology of the Right, but it's rendering the Republicans impotent in national elections.

Gerrymandering is THE reason that Americans have a less than 10% approval rating for Congress.

It's the REPUBLICANS who're being hurt by Republican Gerrymandering in the long run.

`​

16 of the 21 most-gerrymandered Congressional districts are Democratic.

Which has NOTHING to do with how gerrymandering is damaging the republicans by helping to preserve a minority ideology.


At some point in time, you guys are going to have to stop settling for a devil just slightly less heinous than the democrats.

 

[longknife]

Check this out:

Zombie » The Top Ten Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts in the United States

 

[AVG-JOE]

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts.

Gerrymandering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The TEA Party wing of the Republicans may not owe its existence to Gerrymandering, but the tail-wagging-the-dog power it holds over the party and the nation is a direct result.

The Republican insistence on nominating conservative candidates who are right-wing buffoons in the general elections is a direct result of Gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering may be protecting the ideology of the Right, but it's rendering the Republicans impotent in national elections.

Gerrymandering is THE reason that Americans have a less than 10% approval rating for Congress.

It's the REPUBLICANS who're being hurt by Republican Gerrymandering in the long run.

`​

What a stupid generalization!!!! Take a close look and you will find that most states with Democrat majority of elected politicians are the most gerrymandered - by Dem controlled state legislatures.

All that proves is that the democrats are just as guilty of gerrymandering as the republicans.

So fucking what?!?

The thesis of this thread is how gerrymandering by republicans is damaging the republican chances in national and state-wide elections.

 

[whitehall]

Maybe the left really doesn't understand the Tea Party and depends on crazy radical assumptions and political cliches. The Tea Party is just a loosely organized group of conservative people and there is no logical reason why the left hates and fears a bunch of balding old men and grey haired ladies who carry a copy of the Constitution in their back pockets. The Tea Party could just as easily be part of the democrat party if democrats hadn't become a total hopeless bunch of hate filled radicals. The Tea Party has nothing to do with gerrymandering and in fact the democrat party has justified gerrymandering along racial lines. You can imagine what would happen if the radical left achieves their goal of citizenship for ten million illegal criminals. You would have gerrymandering in Spanish.

 

[AVG-JOE]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/o...-gerrymander-of-2012.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Confounding conventional wisdom, partisan redistricting is not symmetrical between the political parties. By my seat-discrepancy criterion, 10 states are out of whack: the five I have mentioned, plus Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Arizona was redistricted by an independent commission, Texas was a combination of Republican and federal court efforts, and Illinois was controlled by Democrats. Republicans designed the other seven maps. Both sides may do it, but one side does it more often

In North Carolina, where the two-party House vote was 51 percent Democratic, 49 percent Republican, the average simulated delegation was seven Democrats and six Republicans. The actual outcome? Four Democrats, nine Republicans — a split that occurred in less than 1 percent*of simulations. If districts were drawn fairly, this lopsided discrepancy would hardly ever occur.

Gerrymandering is not hard. The core technique is to jam voters likely to favor your opponents into a few throwaway districts where the other side will win lopsided victories, a strategy known as “packing.” Arrange other boundaries to win close victories, “cracking” opposition groups into many districts. Professionals use proprietary software to draw districts, but free software like Dave’s Redistricting App lets you do it from your couch.

True that both sides do it, but in the opinion of this average Joe, the republicans are just FAR better at it, and now they are paying the price, being dragged by their tail by out-dated ideologies.

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

The TEA Party wing of the Republicans may not owe its existence to Gerrymandering, but the tail-wagging-the-dog power it holds over the party and the nation is a direct result.

The Republican insistence on nominating conservative candidates who are right-wing buffoons in the general elections is a direct result of Gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering may be protecting the ideology of the Right, but it's rendering the Republicans impotent in national elections.

Gerrymandering is THE reason that Americans have a less than 10% approval rating for Congress.

It's the REPUBLICANS who're being hurt by Republican Gerrymandering in the long run.

`​

Don't turds like you keep saying the TEA Party is nothing, that is has no power?

Turds? What are you... thirteen?



I've never said that the TEA Party has no power... and sweeping generalizations like that are another dead give-away of an immature writer, just in case you're interested.

Why aren't you calling out your own Zombie comrades, you fucking moron for saying immature shit CONSTANTLY?? Secondly, who gives a damn what you think anyhow?

 

[AVG-JOE]

Neither is a Congressman

Republicans have made a pact with the devil with the Tea Tards. Yea, they guarantee some districts but bring the rest of the party down in the national elections

The pretense that Democrats don't Gerrymander and that they don't have "extreme" candidates doesn't pass the laugh test.

You beat me to it they just recently elected the extreme and also phony Indian Elizabeth Warren and the extremely radical nut job Alan Grayson as just two examples.

"Well... well... well... they do it too!" is not a solution.

Besides... who gives a fuck about the democrats? I want to discuss how republican gerrymandering is damaging republican chances nationally.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Maybe the left really doesn't understand the Tea Party and depends on crazy radical assumptions and political cliches. The Tea Party is just a loosely organized group of conservative people and there is no logical reason why the left hates and fears a bunch of balding old men and grey haired ladies who carry a copy of the Constitution in their back pockets. The Tea Party could just as easily be part of the democrat party if democrats hadn't become a total hopeless bunch of hate filled radicals. The Tea Party has nothing to do with gerrymandering and in fact the democrat party has justified gerrymandering along racial lines. You can imagine what would happen if the radical left achieves their goal of citizenship for ten million illegal criminals. You would have gerrymandering in Spanish.

Thank you for being the first conservative to discuss the topic.

You ROCK!!

 

[AVG-JOE]

Don't turds like you keep saying the TEA Party is nothing, that is has no power?

Turds? What are you... thirteen?



I've never said that the TEA Party has no power... and sweeping generalizations like that are another dead give-away of an immature writer, just in case you're interested.

Why aren't you calling out your own Zombie comrades, you fucking moron for saying immature shit CONSTANTLY??
Secondly, who gives a damn what you think anyhow?

You do, apparently.

Otherwise you would not have opened my thread.

 

[blackhawk]

Point of order the last two Republican Presidential nominees were John McCain and Mitt Romney two men who were hardly Tea Party favorites and both lost so the idea the Tea Party is keeping Republicans from winning national elections is a bit overblown. Yes there have been some bad Tea Party candidates there have also been good ones the most notable being Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz if he decides to run in 2016 it's my opinion Rubio would have a excellent shot at winning the Republican nomination and the Presidency.

 

[blackhawk]

The pretense that Democrats don't Gerrymander and that they don't have "extreme" candidates doesn't pass the laugh test.

You beat me to it they just recently elected the extreme and also phony Indian Elizabeth Warren and the extremely radical nut job Alan Grayson as just two examples.

"Well... well... well... they do it too!" is not a solution.

Besides... who gives a fuck about the democrats? I want to discuss how republican gerrymandering is damaging republican chances nationally.

It sounds more like you just want to trash the Tea Party more than discuss anything.

 

[FA_Q2]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/o...-gerrymander-of-2012.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Confounding conventional wisdom, partisan redistricting is not symmetrical between the political parties. By my seat-discrepancy criterion, 10 states are out of whack: the five I have mentioned, plus Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Arizona was redistricted by an independent commission, Texas was a combination of Republican and federal court efforts, and Illinois was controlled by Democrats. Republicans designed the other seven maps. Both sides may do it, but one side does it more often

In North Carolina, where the two-party House vote was 51 percent Democratic, 49 percent Republican, the average simulated delegation was seven Democrats and six Republicans. The actual outcome? Four Democrats, nine Republicans — a split that occurred in less than 1 percent*of simulations. If districts were drawn fairly, this lopsided discrepancy would hardly ever occur.

Gerrymandering is not hard. The core technique is to jam voters likely to favor your opponents into a few throwaway districts where the other side will win lopsided victories, a strategy known as “packing.” Arrange other boundaries to win close victories, “cracking” opposition groups into many districts. Professionals use proprietary software to draw districts, but free software like Dave’s Redistricting App lets you do it from your couch.

True that both sides do it, but in the opinion of this average Joe, the republicans are just FAR better at it, and now they are paying the price, being dragged by their tail by out-dated ideologies.

I wouldn’t say that. The republicans are not better at it by any means. It is more prevalent atm because it is republicans that hold state governments by fairly large margins. 2010 really set the republicans up for this when they swept local elections across the board.

 

[NightFox]

That's why they call them TeaTards.......bite of their nose to spite their face

You mean that's what YOU call those citizens who have chosen to freely assemble in an effort to petition their government for redress of their grievances, if you're going to be crass at least have the courage to take personal responsibility for it.

No......TeaTard seems about right

I understand that referring to the TEA Party as the TEA Party and then pointing out ones specific political and/or philosophical differences is just a bridge too far for some, especially those that lack the intellectual fortitude and perception to understand that members of the TEA Party want the same thing for all Americans that every citizen of goodwill wants. Shame on them for daring to express their opinions, especially when they didn't check with you first......

How else do you describe someone who will shut down government just because they can?

How can the TEA Party "shut down government"?

Someone who will default on our debt?

How can the TEA Party "default on our debt"?

Someone who does not give a shit about their fellow Americans as long as they can save a nickel on taxes?

LOL, apparently it's never occurred to you that TEA Party members believe that lower taxes benefit their fellow Americans.

 

[FA_Q2]

Point of order the last two Republican Presidential nominees were John McCain and Mitt Romney two men who were hardly Tea Party favorites and both lost so the idea the Tea Party is keeping Republicans from winning national elections is a bit overblown. Yes there have been some bad Tea Party candidates there have also been good ones the most notable being Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz if he decides to run in 2016 it's my opinion Rubio would have a excellent shot at winning the Republican nomination and the Presidency.

But you’re missing the point. It is not the fact that the tea party has candidates that are good or bad that make gerrymandering a problem for the republicans. The problem lies in the fact that many of the issues that are near and dear to the republican base are NOT popular subjects. This forces many republican candidates to speak to those values to get out of the primary process or win local elections. Then those statements end up in the national news media where we talk for weeks about the likelihood a rape leads to pregnancy or God says one man and one woman. Those subjects might get you past the primary or in that hose seat BUT it ruins any chances your presidential nominee is going anywhere as well as your bid for the senate.

Personally, I think that districting does not have much of an impact though. I would contend that the OP is placing too much emphasis no redistricting when the real problem exists with primaries as that leans real heavy on the candidates chosen. When all the republicans pretty much agree on the economic principles that their candidates are running for (and much of the country does as well) the only real delineations are the social issues that are polluted by the RR. That single group is able to command the early commentary and essentially set up the candidates that win for ultimate failure in the general.

Gerrymandering is not a bad thing because it ruins the party on a national scale, it is a bad thing because it utterly obliterates the meaning of a democracy. On that alone, it should be outlawed entirely. I personally don’t think that a district should ever contain a geographic shape over four sides. Essentially, the state would be cut into simple rectangles.

 

[AVG-JOE]

You beat me to it they just recently elected the extreme and also phony Indian Elizabeth Warren and the extremely radical nut job Alan Grayson as just two examples.

"Well... well... well... they do it too!" is not a solution.

Besides... who gives a fuck about the democrats? I want to discuss how republican gerrymandering is damaging republican chances nationally.

It sounds more like you just want to trash the Tea Party more than discuss anything.

On the contrary. The involvement of the TEA party in my thesis is almost a side note. The point of discussion is how gerrymandering is coming back to bite the republicans on the ideological butt.

The under-justified influence of the TEA Party wing is a symptom.

 

[PredFan]

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts.

Gerrymandering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The TEA Party wing of the Republicans may not owe its existence to Gerrymandering, but the tail-wagging-the-dog power it holds over the party and the nation is a direct result.

The Republican insistence on nominating conservative candidates who are right-wing buffoons in the general elections is a direct result of Gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering may be protecting the ideology of the Right, but it's rendering the Republicans impotent in national elections.

Gerrymandering is THE reason that Americans have a less than 10% approval rating for Congress.

It's the REPUBLICANS who're being hurt by Republican Gerrymandering in the long run.

`​

It was all OK though, when a few short years ago the Democrats were doing the gerrymandering.
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