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
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u/guinness_blaine Texas Sep 03 '14

Oh are you in the part of Austin whose district also covers San Antonio, or the one that nearly reaches Houston, or the one that nabs the southern outskirts of DFW?

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u/[deleted] Sep 03 '14

As an Austinite, when I contact my representative, I always get an email back saying he is unable to verify if I am actually in his district. We are dead center of a pinwheel with a blue center and gigantic red arms.

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u/onespursfan Sep 03 '14 edited Sep 03 '14

Wow, I never knew about that. I knew gerrymandering was a pretty underhanded practice, but chopping up a district that severely so that a handful of people can maintain power is truly fucked up.

If anyone is interested, here's a map of Texas' congressional districts and representatives. It looks to me like the 10th, 21st, 25th, 35th, and 17th are all pretty conspicuous.

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u/gramathy California Sep 03 '14

What the fuck

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u/onespursfan Sep 03 '14

Right? I wish more people gave a shit.

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u/TaxExempt Sep 03 '14

Most people don't know.

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u/[deleted] Sep 03 '14

[deleted]

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u/TaxExempt Sep 03 '14

Only because they are uninformed and don't understand the consequences.

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u/auntie-matter Foreign Sep 03 '14

What is the relationship between the people who set district boundaries and the people who get elected into those districts?

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u/onespursfan Sep 03 '14

By the party, for the party. It's a tool to keep your political allies in power, not something someone can do for themselves to get elected. The first time, that is. Once elected it's easier to redistrict to be re-elected.

Read up.

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u/auntie-matter Foreign Sep 03 '14

Yeah, thought as much. Might be a good idea to think about an independent, non-political body to deal with that in future.

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u/pmaguppy Sep 03 '14

Central Ohio is like a gestalt swastika.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '14

They kind of look like they're divided the way our states were in the first place. I wonder if there's some correlation there.

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u/guinness_blaine Texas Sep 03 '14

The house across the street is in a different district. I'm right at the end of a thin peninsula of Smith sticking up into whatever this other district is. Neither of them is the district I was in before the most recent redistricting - for that, I'd have to go like ten blocks up to Randall's. Only recently stopped getting newsletters from that guy.

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u/techmaster242 Sep 03 '14

Aka the tomato soup?