Obama’s comments appear in a new video supporting Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50 which would allow the California legislature to draw new congressional boundaries ahead of the midterms
Barack Obama has entered the political fray ahead of November’s special election in California, accusing Republicans of attempting to “rig the next election” in a new ad backing Governor Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50, a ballot measure that could reshape the state’s congressional map.
“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says in the 30-second ad, urging voters to approve the proposal. “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.”
I feel alone in my opposition to this proposition. Especially on this platform where most believe the ends justify the means.
You can’t answer voter disenfranchisement with more voter disenfranchisement. District lines should always be determined in a nonpartisan way, full stop.
That having been said we should implement more federal control of voting, at least for federal contests.
I also have much more radically left views in some ways. For example that we should use jury nullification against the emerging American gestapo, have zero tolerance for sieging the fucking capitol building (including shooting those who try), remove corrupt Democratic leadership by prosecution if necessary, etc.
But democracy is democracy. I still have loyalty to enlightenment ideals ffs.
Gerrymandering has been a problem for decades, and it’s only getting worse.
It’s possible that the only way to get fair election maps is to min/max the system to the extreme. And once everyone sees how horrible it is, maybe they’ll be willing to actually work together to fix the system.
If we wait for a perfect solution that causes no friction, we’ll be waiting forever. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
I am also a bit of an accelerationist.
I can’t help but think that if the Democrats could improve conditions for the common people without resorting to tactics that undermine the principle of one man = one vote, we’d see them getting a lot more votes.
They could keep up the pressure to eliminate the electoral college, for example.
Unfortunately there have been just enough shitty centrist dems elected, and a plurality of even shittier Republicans being elected, to block the best proposals. The best hope we had for universal healthcare, for example, was blocked by one man - Joseph Lieberman.
To say nothing of the corporate interests and billionaire donors that influence policy making in the party, and the feckless leadership, that is.
Not asking for perfect, but better than terrible. Genocide is terrible. What ICE is doing is terrible. Rigging elections is terrible.
Rigging elections is terrible.
But one party has quietly been working for decades to ensure that they can retain control of Congress with or without a majority of the votes in the country or even in a state.
And now it looks like that won’t be enough, so they’re actively trying to change election maps by any means possible before the midterms.
Democrats can’t sit on their hands and wait for this to happen. If they don’t fight back now, they might not get another opportunity.
yall need more laws that are based on dynamic countering of negative forces
ie minimum wage should adjust yearly with inflation…
in this case, states that are against gerrymandering should form a pact to nullify its effects: if another state gerrymanders, between them they must gerrymander opposite to at least the same magnitude. if enough states get on board, gerrymandering is done
it’s possible to measure gerrymandering, and states know that it’s in their best interest to stop another state from doing it. the only thing that’s needed is inter-state cooperation
These are a couple of great points:
Economist Robert Schiller has proposed a similar idea where we set up a reactive economic policy to execute automatically when some measures of inequality (e.g. the Gini coefficient) rise above a predefined level.
Great idea. Reminds me of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact)
we do it in australia and it works great… tied to CPI
exactly where i got the idea!
Am also Aussie! I know that the Fair Work Commission and a bunch of unions negotiating award rates consider CPI but is that just one factor they consider or the whole enchilada?