Althouse: "Though party officials typically dance around the unseemly issue of gerrymandering..."

January 17, 2013

"Though party officials typically dance around the unseemly issue of gerrymandering..."

"... this report is surprisingly candid and unabashed."

38 comments:

edutcher said...: No, the Demos always brag when they cheat, so this is just a little sauce for the gander.

Not a great moment in American politics, but this is, after all, war.; 1/17/13, 4:07 PM
Hagar said...: Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.; 1/17/13, 4:07 PM
Tim said...: Welcome to Politics 1A.; 1/17/13, 4:07 PM
Tim said...: edutcher said...

"No, the Demos always brag when they cheat, so this is just a little sauce for the gander."

Except, it wasn't cheating, was it?

No laws were broken.

States must comply with the Voting Rights Act.

Democrats noting violations of redistricting maps would have (and did, in more than one case) filed actions against Republican maps.

Calling it "cheating" is akin to Republicans complaining about the Obama campaign's use of sophisticated technology to target low-propensity, low-information voters to vote Democrat.

How many of the Obama/congressional Democrat vote was due to this program?

Some say as much as 5%.; 1/17/13, 4:11 PM
machine said...: "Not a great moment in American politics, but this is, after all, war."

War? Really? I don't agree with a lot a GOP policies but I am not at war with the GOP...

get a grip...; 1/17/13, 4:18 PM
The Godfather said...: EXCUSE me! The Repubs didn't say they gerrymandered the districts. That's what the Demos say the Repubs did.

I live in NC, where we now have a Republican Governor and Republican control of both houses of the legislature for the first time in forever. The Democrats and their supporters in the press are whining about gerrymandering. Who cares?

The real issue is whether the Republicans will do a good job of governing in states like NC. If they do, they will plant a flag on high ground for the 2014 and 2016 elections. If not -- well, if the people want lousy government, they seem to be happy enough to elect Democrats.; 1/17/13, 4:20 PM
Mary Martha said...: I would feel for Democrats on this topic more if I didn't live in Illinois.

This state is gerrymandered to a ridiculous extent to ensure Democrat control forever.; 1/17/13, 4:22 PM
YoungHegelian said...: If there ever was an example where the ruling class circles the wagons for its own good against the good of the American people, it's gerrymandering.

But, honestly, it's hard to get folks worked up about it. The anti-gerrymandering prop. in CA got defeated. The most recent one here in MD got defeated, too.

At least, I got gerrymandered out of a district with an absolutely clueless representative into one which has a rep. who may actually be sentient. So, it's an ill wind that blows no one any good, and some good blew my way out of this.; 1/17/13, 4:26 PM
machine said...: "...the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) is releasing this review of its strategy and execution of its efforts in the 2010 election cycle to erect a Republican firewall through the redistricting process that paved the way to Republicans retaining a U.S. House majority in 2012."

I think they did say they gerrymandered...

meh...its legal...; 1/17/13, 4:26 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Are we now ready for the next step: California's "Top Two" Primary system to quash voter choice at the General Election?; 1/17/13, 4:29 PM
Wince said...: Isn't this the flip side of Democrats seeking to establishing "safe" seats for their incumbents and creating so-called majority-minority districts?; 1/17/13, 4:30 PM
Brent said...: First - Think Progress couldn't write an honest headline to save their lives - they are such congenital liars the rest of us would drop dead if they managed the truth at some point.

But to the issue:

the Democrats are different from and better then Republicans on this . . . exactly how?; 1/17/13, 4:33 PM
Portia said...: You sent me to a stupid site that loves popups, popunders and various and sundry. I will not read it.; 1/17/13, 4:33 PM
test said...: Ah, another case of Democrats discovering principled objections to their own tactics as soon as the other side uses them.; 1/17/13, 4:37 PM
SteveR said...: Since Obama is in full campaign mode for 2014, I suppose he's considering some executive orders to correct this problem.

No doubt he's looked into repealing the 22nd Amendment, although notwithstanding the valient but futile efforts of Rep Jose Serrano, the president looks to 2015-2016 as his best chance to pass Europe on the way to Blue Heaven.; 1/17/13, 4:37 PM
cubanbob said...: When the republicans get control again they would be wise to get rid of the Voting Rights and Motor Voter Acts and implement a national standardized fraud resistant voter registration and election procedures.; 1/17/13, 4:38 PM
TosaGuy said...: If only there was a document that stated when our nation conducts a census and reconfigures its legislative seats?

Then the Democrats could have predicted this potential outcome and ran their 2010 election strategy accordingly!; 1/17/13, 4:39 PM
edutcher said...: Tim said...

No, the Demos always brag when they cheat, so this is just a little sauce for the gander.

Except, it wasn't cheating, was it?

No laws were broken.

States must comply with the Voting Rights Act.

Let's just say Bishop Sheen wouldn't approve.

machine said...

Not a great moment in American politics, but this is, after all, war.

War? Really? I don't agree with a lot a GOP policies but I am not at war with the GOP...

No, it's just anybody that doesn't kowtow to the Left.

And, of course, Uncle Saul says differently.; 1/17/13, 4:45 PM
dbp said...: The commenters over there are all, cheating Repubs, but...

" the only reason the GOP controls the House of Representatives is because they gerrymandered congressional districts in blue states."

None of them wonder how Republicans managed to gerrymander in states they do not control.; 1/17/13, 4:50 PM
James said...: "Republicans captured 49.4% of the two-party vote for Congress in 2012, yet won 54% of the seats in the House. This gap between the Republican vote and the seats they won is on the high side, but certainly not without precedent over the past 40 years. If you began your career as a Republican trying to win the House in the 1970s and 1980s, you would adopt, as I do, the borrowed adage 'there's no crying in redistricting.'"

Bill McInturff, GOP pollster; 1/17/13, 4:52 PM
rhhardin said...: Get some computer programmers intensely uninterested in who wins to produce districting software.

The trouble would then be lying to the software.; 1/17/13, 4:55 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: Just to be pedantic beyond belief... the governor Gerry after whom Gerrymandering is named pronounced his name GARY, not JERRY.; 1/17/13, 5:02 PM
SteveR said...: As we heard numerous times this fall the popular vote in the presidential election does not count, its getting the EVs. No doubt the dems played that hand well. So the republicans have figured out that 52-48 districts count the same as 55-45 districts.; 1/17/13, 5:05 PM
Hagar said...: Gerrymandering is what the other party does; our party adjusts district boundaries in accordance with the last census as best we can in order to provide social justice.; 1/17/13, 5:06 PM
Sam L. said...: Dems can't cope when Repubs win.; 1/17/13, 5:15 PM
Balfegor said...: To Thinkprogress's credit, it's not like they cut the last sentence of their block quote:

The only analogous election in recent political history in which this aberration has taken place was immediately after reapportionment in 1972, when Democrats held a 50 seat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives while losing the presidency and the popular congressional vote by 2.6 million votes.

Versus 1 million for Republicans this time. TP didn't have to include that.; 1/17/13, 5:36 PM
n.n said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/17/13, 5:42 PM
n.n said...: Democrats do this explicitly and implicitly. They do this through electronic and physical vote fraud. They do this when they implicitly and explicitly support illegal immigration (i.e. "three fifths"). They do this when they gerrymander housing situations through taxpayer subsidies. They do this when they bribe eligible Americans with redistributive and retributive change. They do this when they manipulate "minority" populations through purchase of their "leaders". They do this when they offer indulgences for civil and human rights violations.

The so-called "progressives" have no moral standing to offer unilateral complaints about the rules they largely, but not uniquely, devised and enforce.

In any case, the issue of gerrymandering, in all of its forms, is a symptom of an underlying corruption, both original and progressive.; 1/17/13, 5:44 PM
ricpic said...: The Democrat professional pols know that their party is not nearly as healthy as they boast it is and the essential reason is that Republican state legislatures have gerrymandered Democrat districts to be safe for Democrats, primarily black Democrats, and done it on purpose so that Democrats are all but beaten in every district that is not safe Democrat.; 1/17/13, 5:50 PM
Amartel said...: Dems whining about gerrymandering?

!

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA; 1/17/13, 5:50 PM
Gahrie said...: Gerrymandering is at the heart of everything that is wrong with American politics today.

I would support a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit it.; 1/17/13, 6:32 PM
Aridog said...: Sam L. said...

Dems can't cope when Repubs win.

Of course they do. However, how much significant winning have Republicans done lately? Given they're about to attempt suicide over the debt ceiling so that Obamessiah can blame them for catastrophe, however short lived, and wipe them out in 2014.; 1/17/13, 6:52 PM
tiger said...: I, for one, find this awesome.

'We rigged the system and IT WORKED!!!'

'Bout time the Reps started playing by the Dem's rules.; 1/17/13, 6:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Don't be so sure the Dems won't do something about it though,Tiger.; 1/17/13, 7:43 PM
mishu said...: Check out the 4th Congressional District of Illinois. Think progress should quit theeir crying.; 1/17/13, 8:22 PM
FleetUSA said...: Remember the line attributed to Steeler coach Chuck Noll:

"When you lose say little, when you win say nothing at all."; 1/18/13, 1:11 AM
Anonymous said...: Young Hegelian said:

At least, I got gerrymandered out of a district with an absolutely clueless representative into one which has a rep. who may actually be sentient.

We might be neighbors. I got the same effect in Warren County, Ohio.

By the way, the article calls Ohio a blue state. It is not. Claiming it doesn't make it so.; 1/18/13, 5:57 AM
Aridog said...: Democrats and Republicans both have their weird gerrymandered districting. Check it out REad all three pages. It gets better near the end. :-)); 1/18/13, 11:35 AM