Don't EVEN get me started...
...on redistricting.
A recent comment posted on this blog brought up an issue very near and dear to my heart.
We can talk about the decentralizing power of the Internet until the flying pigs bring the blue in the face cows home from a frozen over hell... and it won't make a lick of difference until we change the way in which our districts are proportioned.
If we really want to tap into this powerful tool known as the Internet, we need to utilize it not only to mobilize political parties, or candidates for elections, but for issues as well.
Redistricting is an issue that is in dire need of being addressed.
Arizona has an independent commission of bipartisan panelists who hold open sessions, LISTEN to public input, and attempt to draw fair and proportionate districts following the precepts of the United States Constitution.
They do not have such a commission because they are simply nice people.
It took a coordinated grassroots effort by highly motivated individuals in conjunction with a national voter rights group to gather enough concerned citizens together in order to bring attention to the issue and call for a statewide initiative.
The power of the Internet can be harnessed to launch a nationwide version of what they accomplished in Arizona.
By nationwide however, I mean on a state by state basis, not one sweeping national reform. It is incumbent upon each state to change their own redistricting process. A single nationwide reform would take an act of Congress and possible changes to the Constitution.
This is far more unlikely than igniting the flame of reform with in one state and watching it spread like wildwire by fanning the flames with the furnace of the Internet.
I told you not to get me started on this one :)
A recent comment posted on this blog brought up an issue very near and dear to my heart.
We can talk about the decentralizing power of the Internet until the flying pigs bring the blue in the face cows home from a frozen over hell... and it won't make a lick of difference until we change the way in which our districts are proportioned.
If we really want to tap into this powerful tool known as the Internet, we need to utilize it not only to mobilize political parties, or candidates for elections, but for issues as well.
Redistricting is an issue that is in dire need of being addressed.
Arizona has an independent commission of bipartisan panelists who hold open sessions, LISTEN to public input, and attempt to draw fair and proportionate districts following the precepts of the United States Constitution.
They do not have such a commission because they are simply nice people.
It took a coordinated grassroots effort by highly motivated individuals in conjunction with a national voter rights group to gather enough concerned citizens together in order to bring attention to the issue and call for a statewide initiative.
The power of the Internet can be harnessed to launch a nationwide version of what they accomplished in Arizona.
By nationwide however, I mean on a state by state basis, not one sweeping national reform. It is incumbent upon each state to change their own redistricting process. A single nationwide reform would take an act of Congress and possible changes to the Constitution.
This is far more unlikely than igniting the flame of reform with in one state and watching it spread like wildwire by fanning the flames with the furnace of the Internet.
I told you not to get me started on this one :)
1 Comments:
Redistricting is an easy demagouge, but the truth is it would make little difference. Even Alan Ambromowitz, a poli sci professor at Emory and a hardcore Dem says so. It would change a few states around, but it wouldnt make much difference, because it is increasingly likely people live in homogenius areas politically. In California, when Schwarzenegger began pushing his redistricting plan DC Dem didn't really care because it likely would have held the same number of seats they had, if not increased the number.
And as a side note, myself a hardcore partisan, redistricting is the ultimate bare knuckle game, but at the end of the day the sides are fairly evenly matched.
By GWO Dem, at 10:10 PM
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