RE: If You Can't Beat 'Em - Cheat
January 18, 2013 at 6:41 pm
(This post was last modified: January 18, 2013 at 6:46 pm by Ryantology.)
(January 18, 2013 at 6:30 pm)apophenia Wrote: And this is different from politics as usual in what way? "Republican elements" ? Seriously?
Min's thread title and OP suggest that the Republicans are doing something unusually dishonest that other parties are not doing. Pointing to gerrymandering and a desire to reform the electoral college won't get you to the men's room. And, as noted, the results of such a change are unpredictable.
Gerrymandering is generally considered dishonest, as it enables parties to win elections they may not otherwise win. However, this is currently restricted to the lower house of Congress. Republicans want to use this tactic to influence presidential elections, in recognition that Republicans have little chance of ever winning national elections in the current system thanks to their having alienated so many groups of people which are quickly forming a majority of voters. I don't know what, about that, sounds honest to you.
Whether it is 'politics as usual' or not is irrelevant. This is not reform. This is a move specifically designed to favor one political party. If their goal was reform, they would have suggested going with the straightforward national vote as the determinant. What we have here is Republicans (after all, how many Democrats want this?) wanting to trade a flawed system for one with even worse flaws.
I would find it objectionable if it was Democrats doing this, for the same reasons. It's slimy. Gerrymandering is bad enough on the level we have it. If parties can use congressional redistricting to subvert the will of the majority of voters, whatever semblance of democracy we have now will vanish.
