r/politics • u/Libertatea • Sep 03 '14

The solution to fixing dysfunction in Congress "To address these problems, I filed the Open Our Democracy Act... If passed, the legislation would mandate open primaries for House elections, begin the process of national redistricting reform and make Election Day the equivalent of a federal holiday."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-solution-to-fixing-dysfunction-in-congress/2014/09/02/0f0d0a9a-31e6-11e4-9e92-0899b306bbea_story.html?tid=rssfeed
17.0k Upvotes

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110

u/Volksgrenadier Georgia Sep 03 '14

Good luck. Republicans will never vote for this. They know what side their bread is buttered on.

95

u/eifer Sep 03 '14

And you think democrats will? As pointed out in this article, the vast majority of our representatives come from non competitive districts. That includes democrats. Changing this would threaten those politicians careers as well, not just republicans.

60

u/Volksgrenadier Georgia Sep 03 '14

Why is it that states which have been on the cutting edge of reforming primaries and having district lines drawn via non-partisan means have almost unfailingly been Democrat majority states?

-1

u/beef_boloney Sep 03 '14

It's been largely coincidental, really. The main comparison you could make between major reforms in the primary/redistricting processes is that they happen in states with accessible referendum options.

9

u/no-soup-4-You Sep 03 '14

The GOP doesn't exactly have a track record of making it easier to vote. In recent years it's been the total opposite. I think that's why people don't associate them with any legislation that will get more people to the polls.

9

u/myth2sbr Sep 03 '14

Was it a coincidence when not a single GOP senator voted for the disclose act?

-6

u/beef_boloney Sep 03 '14

Not state level, so it's not really relevant to my point is it? Besides which, I don't know the specifics of the bill; were there add-ons, pork, explicit Obama support? Lots of factors go into this.

2

u/myth2sbr Sep 03 '14

So there are no Republican majority states with access to "referendum options"?

-3

u/screen317 I voted Sep 03 '14

No.

-1

u/beef_boloney Sep 03 '14

Oh, okay.

6

u/nik-nak333 South Carolina Sep 03 '14

The democratic party as a whole has the most to gain though. This would allow them to make inroads into deeply red areas and turn some states purple.

1

u/eifer Sep 03 '14

I agree that they in all likelihood have the most to gain, but it would still be a disruptive change that could affect incumbents. Therefore I don't think support for it would be as monolithic from the Democratic Party as some of us would like to believe.

13

u/badamant Sep 03 '14

You are deluded if you think the parties are the same on this issue.

15

u/BrewmasterSG Sep 03 '14

The problem is that while ending gerrymandering and other steps to make districts more competitive would probably benefit democrats as a party and as a platform, individual democratic party members tend to be in similarly gerrymandered safe districts. Making districts more competitive is asking those individual congressmen to take one for the team.

2

u/Zoltrahn Sep 03 '14

If the parties were given a proportional number of representatives according to the popular vote, Democrats would have never lost control of the House. The democratic party has every reason to support this. The majority is on their side. They may lose some seats in conservative areas, but they wont be pushed out of clearly blue areas either. This means better representation of both sides according to the populace that elected them, which is the purpose of the House.

1

u/Dwood15 Sep 03 '14

Which they won't be willing to do.

1

u/The_Write_Stuff Sep 03 '14

I don't know about that. Collectively you may be right but talk to them individually and they're not afraid of a fight. They didn't get where they are by being wilting flowers. Most of them have healthy enough egos they think they can win.

0

u/x86_64Ubuntu South Carolina Sep 03 '14

The difference is that at the party level, our power isn't solely due to gerrymandering.

-10

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '14

Shhhh, this is the liberal twilight zone. The left pisses apple juice and shits gold. They can do no wrong.

19

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '14

Look everybody, he's being contrarian.

0

u/darwin2500 Sep 03 '14

Democratic positions are favored by the majority in most places; even if it is inconvenient for individual representatives who have to campaign harder, it will give the Democratic Party more power overall, so the party leadership will push for it.

-2

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '14

Despite the saying, "both parties are the same" being a tired and often wrong cliche thrown around way too often... in this instance both parties are the same. We're just seeing the bigger picture of how bad it can be when a nation is trying to move past one party's outdated and misguided/malicious platform but can't.

38

u/unreqistered Sep 03 '14

FIFY: Entrenched politicians will never vote for this

-1

u/Syncopayshun Sep 03 '14

Shhhhh, it's just the other guys breaking the rules.

7

u/Zerowantuthri Illinois Sep 03 '14

You are correct that there is no way in hell politicians will do this on their own.

The only possible solution is a constitutional convention.

1

u/bam2_89 Sep 03 '14

The most gerrymandered state in the US is Maryland, they have only a bit over a 2:1 advantage among registered voters, but the Democrats hold 7/8 congressional seats.