Obama Jokes

[--Pete]

Hi,

Why even bother saying things like that, if the political reality is that such changes are basically impossible?

Because I'm a hopelessly incurable optimist? ;)

So, yes, it's techincally true that third parties and new parties have come into existence, and old ones (Federalists) have died out. But the basic history is a fairly static two party system, at least for the last 150 years.

That seems to support my statement that change is unlikely or at least glacially slow.

The splitline system at least offers an "everyone puts down their guns at once" solution that bypasses what has been the biggest political hurdle for redistricting reform: If "red" states do it before "blue" states, or vice versa, one side loses big until the other side decides to play fair, which will of course be sometime after hell freezes over. And so even people who favour fair districting in the abstract are not sufficiently naive to do it first. This, at least if it were adopted federally, would overcome that hurdle.

The problem is that the federal government does not, AFAIK, have any say on how states apportion their congressional seats. The Constitution does not address the issue, and thus the Tenth Amendment applies. For the federal government to set up such a system would require an amendment.

On the state level, on the other hand, there is a possibility that this could come about. Especially since it would be a case of the state government deciding how federal representatives are selected. But it would require a pretty big grass roots movement, something that I don't see happening with the typical apathetic and ignorant voter we've bred and nurtured.

I mean, geography and demographics and all sorts of other mathy apolical stuff is already used to determine districting. Why is this so different?

Politicians are people who want power. Setting up an automated system to make decisions takes power out of their hands. Thus, politicians are against automated systems. Aristotle would be proud.:)

If the states went with TJ's solution of a new constitution every few presidencies, as you said, maybe something like this would get a fair shot every few decades. As it stands, I'm hardly holding my breath waiting for it to happen (in Canada, the US, or anywhere) but it would be a hell of a lot easier to implement than a piecemeal anti-Gerrymandering reform across 50 states based on who-the-hell-knows-what criteria.

Had TJ been right in his assessment of mankind, then the Confederation would have worked and by now we'd have a fully anarchistic world. No need for government when everyone does what should be done for the common good. Wonderful concept, but then I think Enron.:)

--Pete