systems thinking
Who am I?Interests Projects Politics
Pictures Favorite BooksFavorite Articles Writing/Creative
Humor Favorite Music Favorite Movies Favorite Quotes
Favorite Links Blog Contact Support Me
Subscribe to Get
My Free Newsletter


Sign up below to receive my free email newsletter. It's full of ideas to help you develop greater understanding and insight in many areas of life.
Share This Page


Support/Buy

Hire Me for Coaching, Consulting or Training

Recommended Books,
Music & Video

  

Book, Music, Video,
Product/Service &
Website Reviews


  

 


Subscribe to Blog

 Blog Feed
 Blog Comments Feed

Subscribe to Blog by Email

SystemsThinker.com's Most Popular

Personality Types
INTJ
Evolutionary Psychology
Inner Child Healing
Borderline Personality Disorder
Hypnosis in Medicine and Psychiatry

Recommended Products

Hostgator IconHostgator Web Hosting

Fastmail IconFastmail Email Service

NamecheapIconNamecheap Domain
Registration


Long Tail Pro IconLong Tail Pro
Keyword Research Tool


Relative Pitch Ear Training IconRelative Pitch Ear
Training


Mega-Memory IconMega-Memory

Search
View Sitemap

IMPORTANT POLITICAL ISSUES:

FAIR REDISTRICTING

Every 10 years, states must redraw the lines of their congressional districts based upon the latest census data. The intended purpose is to ensure that each state has the correct number of representatives based on its current population. In most states, however, these new lines are drawn by the party that currently holds power in the state's own government. This is analogous to allowing the players from one team in a sporting event to determine the rules and create the playing field on which all other teams must compete.

What occurs is that the leaders of the party in power draw the lines so as to group their opponents' supporters into as few areas as possible. Thus, even if the two parties truly have nearly equal numbers of supporters, the lines can be drawn in such a way as to skew the results, allowing the party in power to obtain more than its fair share of seats. The process of drawing district lines in strange shapes so as to effect this unfair skewing of power has a long history and is called gerrymandering.

In addition to creating an unrepresentative balance of power, biased redistricting minimizes competition in congressional races. Since most districts are clearly defined as supporting one party or the other, few candidates from other parties will even bother to contest the incumbent. In fact, this situation makes congressional elections so uncompetitive and predictable that the Center for Voting and Democracy is able to predict the winning party in nearly 100% of congressional elections in their Monopoly Politics Report. Given this situation, is it really any wonder that so many Americans feel that their vote doesn't really matter and that the ballot lacks enough real choice to even make voting worthwhile?

Some states have a more fair system of redistricting. For example, in Iowa the district lines are drawn by a non-partisan arm of the legisature using a more objective computerized process, and only need to be approved by the majority party, rather than created by them. Because of this, tiny Iowa had three competetive congressional races out of its total five - more than California, in which only one of its 53 seats was seriously contested. It is crucial for our democracy that more states follow suit and institute less biased systems of redistricting that offer a true picture of the state's political landscape while encouraging healthy competition for congressional seats.

For more information, visit FairVote's Redistricting Page and EndGerrymandering.com.

Political Issues Page | Main Politics Page
View Sitemap

Copyright 2003-2024, Howard