Teflon Don
I'm back baby
While everyone focuses on gerrymandering of districts, the real problem is that congressional districts have become so big so as not to be representative of the people.
Here is a general breakdown historically
In 1790 there were 65 Congressman and about 3.9 million people in the country. That comes out to about 60,000 people per member. In 1900 the number of congressman was increased to 386 for about 76 million people which is about 197,000 per member.
in 1910 it was increased to 435 and in 1929 it was fixed by law. In 1910 there were about 92 million people which comes to about 212,000 per member.
Today, over 100 years later the country has grown to over 330 million with the same number of representatives which comes out to a staggering average of 761,000 people per member.
Now I realize that these are averages and not every district has this many people in it, but it is meant to be illustrative of the problem. And it has nothing to do with gerrymandering.
Now I don't know exactly what that number should be because 60,000 people per member would put the number in Congress at over 6,000. Too crazy to contemplate. But something has to be done.
Here is a general breakdown historically
in 1910 it was increased to 435 and in 1929 it was fixed by law. In 1910 there were about 92 million people which comes to about 212,000 per member.
Today, over 100 years later the country has grown to over 330 million with the same number of representatives which comes out to a staggering average of 761,000 people per member.
Now I realize that these are averages and not every district has this many people in it, but it is meant to be illustrative of the problem. And it has nothing to do with gerrymandering.
Now I don't know exactly what that number should be because 60,000 people per member would put the number in Congress at over 6,000. Too crazy to contemplate. But something has to be done.