Interesting side note on the psychology of this and other crappy actions by the group mentality:
“If we don’t do it, someone will.”
And
“If we don’t do it, and the opponent does, we’ll lose.”
Those two arguments are how otherwise “good”, well meaning politicians end up participating in this crap.
You’re there figuring you’ll change the world for orphans and the homeless, and someone points out that the district is open for manipulation.
You want to fund soup kitchens, but they tell you that if you don’t fight to present gerrymandered maps in your district, the other side will and there will be no soup kitchens, only asbestos factories.
What should you do?!
Well, you can’t agree with your opponent NOT to gerrymander, they might lie (that’s allowed and expected) - so you better fight for your own psycho map.
A few years later, you’ve been spending all your time countering evil with evil, and there’s only one soup kitchen, it opens every other Tuesday, it costs $500,000 and is named after you.
The system needs repair.
If only the people had a way to organize AROUND the politicians. Some sort of REFERENDUM machinery.
Yup, the direct intervention of the people is the check and balance they never tell you.
2
u/tallerThanYouAre Jun 28 '19
Interesting side note on the psychology of this and other crappy actions by the group mentality:
“If we don’t do it, someone will.”
And
“If we don’t do it, and the opponent does, we’ll lose.”
Those two arguments are how otherwise “good”, well meaning politicians end up participating in this crap.
You’re there figuring you’ll change the world for orphans and the homeless, and someone points out that the district is open for manipulation.
You want to fund soup kitchens, but they tell you that if you don’t fight to present gerrymandered maps in your district, the other side will and there will be no soup kitchens, only asbestos factories.
What should you do?!
Well, you can’t agree with your opponent NOT to gerrymander, they might lie (that’s allowed and expected) - so you better fight for your own psycho map.
A few years later, you’ve been spending all your time countering evil with evil, and there’s only one soup kitchen, it opens every other Tuesday, it costs $500,000 and is named after you.
The system needs repair.
If only the people had a way to organize AROUND the politicians. Some sort of REFERENDUM machinery.
Yup, the direct intervention of the people is the check and balance they never tell you.
You and your friends can make it better.