’)Upon reading the story about the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the mid-census gerrymandering the Texas Republicans did, I thought the following: Hey, Democrat-dominated Maryland legislature – we’ve got two Republican representatives in congress. Fix that, won’t you? I think Roscoe Bartlett and Wayne Gilchrest could do with some time off.
I’m telling you. Open algorithm to automatically draw districts every census. It could even be written so it incrementally changes the districts over the next 30 years.
This SCOTUS ruling opens up a few cans of worms. For instance, even though there are more Republican members of Congress, there were more votes cast in all 2004 Congressional elections for Democratic candidates. The numbers are there, so maybe the Dems could benefit from this ruling. It is a different story in each state, but maybe states like Illinois and PA and NJ really could be sending more Dems to DC.
In places where the majority power swings back and forth in the state house there could be a lot of fireworks every 2-4 years. Of course the GOP has the advantage of Diebold on their side.
And buma, one of the main reasons for those vote totals you mention is because in major cities, you have idiots like Bob Brady (who is my congressman, despite the fact that he probably needs a calculator to add 2 2 and has no idea what’s going on in Washington), Maxine Waters, and numerous others that could commit an axe-murder and still get 80% of the vote in their districts simply because they have a “D” next to their name.
It almost, but not quite, counter-acts the advantage of the Daleys, the West Palm Canvas Board, the Wasington State vote counters, the Wisconsin tire-slashers and cigarette-to-homeless vendors…
Farris,
Great job. It’s always fun to watch the Talking Point Monkeys play their “Republicans invented vote fraud” game.
So…the ability to be able to automatically change an election at whim is somehow equal to extremely misguided grassroots action? I don’t think so. Name one election those retarded efforts you’re naming (even if true, which they probably aren’t) have actually changed.
I’ve got 3 that diebold has fucked up already.
The Mayor of the country’s 3rd biggest city commits vote fraud of the highest order (so much so it’s now the gold standard) and he’s “an extremely misguided grassroots” activist?
You guys should go on the comedy circuit with that routine.
Cyrus,
That is the point. The Reps may have just been burned on “be carefull what you wish for” Just take Waters, if she gets 80% no reason the Dem legislature can’t simply rework her district like the Reps in Texas did to move some of those automatic D votes into suburban districts.
In the long run, this precedent may actually work to the advantage of Democrats. Because of the growing Decmocratic-leaning Hispanic population in Western and border states, the minute their headcount doesn’t match the strenght of their political voice — Redistrict!! There will be no need to wait.
Texas won’t be a republican sure-thing forever.