Many incumbents abuse their power with gerrymandering
Our congressional Republicans, who have a majority of members in the U.S. House, have a low approval rating in most recent polls. In one poll, Democrats and Republicans in Congress approval is now at 31.8 percent, the direction of the country is at 61 percent negative and the Democrats' advantage on the generic Congressional vote number at 7.2 percent. If the public's esteem for President Bush and the Republican Congress remains as low as it is now, Democrats could win back control of the House -- barely.
The Democratic Party's gaining of U.S. House seats in 2006 will be harder than what the Republicans experienced in 1994, when they won 54.6 percent of the national vote for the House and picked up 52 seats.. If Democrats win 54.6 percent of the national popular vote in 2006, FairVote.org projected that they might carry 10 of the 18 contested seats, but could easily get fewer. The House's current breakdown by party is 232 Republicans, 202 Democrats and 1 Independent.
Historical patterns of Congressional takeovers no longer apply, partly because districts are so gerrymandered that only 30 or so Congressional districts out of 435 are competitive. The two parties conspired after
the 2000 census to protect incumbents by packing Republican voters into Republican districts and Democrats into Democratic districts, so that only 59 seats are held by members of a different party from the one that carried his or her district in the 2004 presidential election.
Redistricting has been abused by elected officials, to protect friends and undermine opponents. It's a blood sport that both parties have exploited, thereby minimizing the role of voters in the political process. By gerrymandering the districts, legislators and their political cronies have used redistricting to choose their voters, before voters have had the opportunity to choose them.
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Source: Center for Voting and Democracy, The Napa Valley Register, Office of the Clerk - U.S. Capitol
Comments
It seems that incumbents in government, given time, can successfully and thoroughly pervert any law or rule to legally plunder, control, use, and abuse the voters.
Gerrymandering is just one more sneaky method to gain more control over others, include and exclude some here or there, and manipulate the district boundaries to increase their voter base, and usually along racial or socio-economic lines.
And, the media rarely reports on this abuse.
Well, come to think of it, the media rarely reports on any of the abuses of incumbents in government, and their big money donors (their puppeteers).
Why?
Because the media is often in-league with incumbents in government. Thus, government is FOR SALE, and incumbents have perverted the laws to do the very things those laws are supposed to prevent. Corpocrisy, Corporatism, and incumbents within a government FOR SALE, is the problem. And recent abuse of eminent domain laws, a perversion of the law to plunder others', is another example of government run amuck, growing ever larger and larger to nightmare proportions, meddling in everything, and being responsible and accountable for nothing.
Fortunately, due to the internet, the big media empires are becoming less and less the place people go to find the truth.
Posted by: d.a.n | November 13, 2005 1:06 PM
Back about 15 - 20 years ago one of Georgia's Congressional Disrticts encluded the city of Macon. But Macon was the only place in Bibb County where you were in this district. Unless you lived on I75 going South out of Macon. And I mean LIVED ON I75. The district line went down I75 for about 75 miles or so.
Why? Because Macon was strongly Democrat and Bibb County was strongly Republican. To combine both in to one district would've weakened the Democrats base in the district.
Of course including Macon in with the rest of Bibb County would have weakened the Republicans base in the district too. But it was the Dems that pushed hardest to exclude the county from the district.
So the lines were drawn to go down to another county that was strongly Democrat.
I cann't think of a worse case of gerrymandering than that. But give the politicans time. They might just come up with one. If they already haven't
Posted by: Ron Brown | November 13, 2005 6:19 PM
It would be interesting to see the many strangely drawn districts. Someone has probably already done this before? It interesting how little attention this serious issue gets, despite its serious ramifications.
Posted by: d.a.n | November 14, 2005 8:19 PM
As much gerrymandering as the incumbents have done, the voters still hold the power. All they have to do is choose to use it. Their predictions rely on voters maintaining their current voting habits. However, if these same voters new there was another viable option, I'm sure they would be glad to use it. That's why I'm so glad VOID came into being. The power has been with us, the People, all along. Now we just have to use it.
Posted by: Stephanie | November 15, 2005 12:35 AM
I wonder what will happen when someone is faced with building into the equation the approximate 100 million age eligible voters who typically do not vote in Presidential elections when they start voting and/or the 120 million or so who don't bother to vote in Congressional elections when they start voting
Are the incumbents gerrymandering themselves into a corner?
Posted by: steve smith | November 15, 2005 3:24 PM
I sure hope they are Steve.
Posted by: Ron Brown | November 15, 2005 6:29 PM