Gerrymandering
If you are unfamiliar, Gerrymandering is when parties redraw districts to make sure their candidates have more than a fair chance to win a seat in government. John Oliver explains this to great effect in his weekly show, Last Week Tonight (be aware there is adult language and content).
Once a party has the majority in a state legislature, they have the ability to make changes that have national implications. For example, the city of Austin has been divided up with outlying districts so that there is no way the "wrong" candidate gets elected to Congress.
This was a brilliant, albeit nefarious, plan by big donors who bankrolled smaller, yet more important local elections to get the national outcome they desired. I don't have a problem with donating per se, but it should relegated to the state that one resides. It seems fallacious for someone in California to meddle in the affairs of Maine or an Alaskan working to change laws in Florida, yet we have a situation where the outcomes are legally manipulated to suit one side.
A handful of states have made it the work of independent, bipartisan commissions to draw the district lines, but it needs to be national if we are to reclaim our country's real will. To that end ex-Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger has started a campaign to make it unconstitutional. I've put my money where my mouth is, let's see if he can be successful despite the mega-donors; our future may depend on it.
Once a party has the majority in a state legislature, they have the ability to make changes that have national implications. For example, the city of Austin has been divided up with outlying districts so that there is no way the "wrong" candidate gets elected to Congress.
This was a brilliant, albeit nefarious, plan by big donors who bankrolled smaller, yet more important local elections to get the national outcome they desired. I don't have a problem with donating per se, but it should relegated to the state that one resides. It seems fallacious for someone in California to meddle in the affairs of Maine or an Alaskan working to change laws in Florida, yet we have a situation where the outcomes are legally manipulated to suit one side.
A handful of states have made it the work of independent, bipartisan commissions to draw the district lines, but it needs to be national if we are to reclaim our country's real will. To that end ex-Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger has started a campaign to make it unconstitutional. I've put my money where my mouth is, let's see if he can be successful despite the mega-donors; our future may depend on it.