Gerrymandering Gets Safe Districts Gets Lock-Step Insult-Driven Republican Party

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PoliTalker

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Gerrymandering -> Gets us Safe Districts -> which Gets us this Lock-Step Insult-Driven Republican Party

Think about it.

Because we have Gerrymandering, we have 'safe districts.'

Because we have safe districts, that allowed President Trump* to convert the Republican party he took over into a totally subservient party that ignores even basic fact. Anybody who wasn't willing to support the extremist platform was forced to leave. Many did. Remember all those moderate Republicans who made the mass exodus out of office after Trump got elected? (Jeff Flake, etc) Those who didn't got voted out in 2018.

They were replaced with Trump clones.

The result of that is an explosive sort of populist politics that doesn't care about facts. President Trump has cultivated the 'angry vote.' And really, that vote is concerned with stupid things, as it overlooks bigger more pressing issues.

That's why we have an unsustainable trillion dollar deficit, our foreign policy is in shambles, and our world leadership in addressing climate change, the one biggest issue facing the entire planet - has withered.

Instead we are focused on treating immigrants poorly, separating families, putting up walls, slashing legal immigration to all time lows, making the for-profit detention business a gold rush, and creating an acceptable platform for hatred.

* 3rd President to be impeached
 
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Trump has the power of primarying any Repubs who shows spine or respect for the law. His crazy followers seem to show up for primary elections which allows him to remake the Reds into a party in his image and likeness. I pity America if the clown gets another 4 years. He will exact revenge from all he sees as not sufficiently Trumpian. He blew through the barriers that framers established to control a rogue president. A republic if we can keep it? We failed.
 
Hello Nordberg,

Nordberg said:
Trump has the power of primarying any Repubs who shows spine or respect for the law. His crazy followers seem to show up for primary elections which allows him to remake the Reds into a party in his image and likeness. I pity America if the clown gets another 4 years. He will exact revenge from all he sees as not sufficiently Trumpian. He blew through the barriers that framers established to control a rogue president. A republic if we can keep it? We failed.
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If he survives the Senate trial and wins 2020 he will get the idea he is so absolutely powerful that he can do anything. Once the guardrails are gone he won't have anybody or any institution to hold him back. He will do something so flagrant that even his supporters won't be able to look the other way, and that will be the end of him.

Really a Ukraine-like scandal wasn't possible in the early days of his administration while he still had lots of fair minded people in his organization. Those were rooted out. Recall that this administration has been far and away the one with the highest turnover of people in history. Why? He had to keep churning through people until he got a team of total yes-men. The same thing has happened to the Republican party. All the ones who used to criticize him are either gone or they 'wised up' and began embracing the propaganda. Whatduya say Rudy has visions of being President now that he sees how it is done with the hate vote?

Once Trump got all the restraints removed, that cleared the way for this Ukraine Scandal to be possible. There was no General Kelly to tell him no.
 
Hiya cawacko,

cawacko said:
Gerrymandering has been around since the early 1800's. Those folks were sure forward thinking, "let's create this now so we can elected Trump in 200 years..."
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Very funny. But seriously, think about it. This is the first time we've had such a hateful President who is so insulting constantly tweeting away.

That, combined with Gerrymandering, made it possible for him to get rid of moderates and replace them with extremists in 'safe districts.'

Trump has this base of angry hateful voters, which, when combined with the greedy turnout who equate Trump with market success, and the evangelicals, is a perfect storm of a trifecta. Toss in the Russian electioneering and toxic Hillary, with the bonus of the Comey announcement a week before election day and THAT was barely enough to shove Trump over the line.

Good luck on all those planets aligning again in 2020. Oh yeah, mix in a LOT of new Trump resentment and strong motivation to rid ourselves of this menace to society and good fat luck to Trump in 2020. He'll need all the luck he can get. And all the Russian help he can sneak in, too!
 
As cawacko mentioned, gerrymandering is nothing new. It's also used by both parties.

Trump tweets a lot, but that has more to do with his personality than anything else. He seems to use it as a way to keep the press occupied. If they have to waste time paying attention to tweets, then they miss more newsworthy events.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hiya cawacko,



Very funny. But seriously, think about it. This is the first time we've had such a hateful President who is so insulting constantly tweeting away.

That, combined with Gerrymandering, made it possible for him to get rid of moderates and replace them with extremists in 'safe districts.'

Trump has this base of angry hateful voters, which, when combined with the greedy turnout who equate Trump with market success, and the evangelicals, is a perfect storm of a trifecta. Toss in the Russian electioneering and toxic Hillary, with the bonus of the Comey announcement a week before election day and THAT was barely enough to shove Trump over the line.

Good luck on all those planets aligning again in 2020. Oh yeah, mix in a LOT of new Trump resentment and strong motivation to rid ourselves of this menace to society and good fat luck to Trump in 2020. He'll need all the luck he can get. And all the Russian help he can sneak in, too!
Click to expand...

That is why the founders made redistricting a political process--so the winning party could draw district lines to their advantage. Court decisions have made gerrymandering much less abusive than it was in the 50's and 60's (when the Democrats refused to redistrict because it would give more power to urban areas).
 
Like anything else. the Dems have done it in the past. Not like the Repubs though. To Dems it was a game with rules. They did not do wholesale National gerrymandering providing experts in how to milk everything they could get from it. The Reds took a mostly harmless advantage for the in the party, and turned it into a national disgrace.
 
Hello Flash,

Flash said:
That is why the founders made redistricting a political process--so the winning party could draw district lines to their advantage. Court decisions have made gerrymandering much less abusive than it was in the 50's and 60's (when the Democrats refused to redistrict because it would give more power to urban areas).
Click to expand...

Big problem for Republicans is they have adopted such extremist policy, all green lighted by Trump, that they now struggle to expand their base going into 2020. A big win for Democrats in 2020 will allow them to draw the districts for the next decade.
 
Hello Nordberg,

Nordberg said:
Trump has the power of primarying any Repubs who shows spine or respect for the law. His crazy followers seem to show up for primary elections which allows him to remake the Reds into a party in his image and likeness. I pity America if the clown gets another 4 years. He will exact revenge from all he sees as not sufficiently Trumpian. He blew through the barriers that framers established to control a rogue president. A republic if we can keep it? We failed.
Click to expand...

Let's don't give up so easy. We can flood the voting booths next year and take it all back, right the wrong.
 
Hello Woko Haram,

Woko Haram said:
As cawacko mentioned, gerrymandering is nothing new. It's also used by both parties.

Trump tweets a lot, but that has more to do with his personality than anything else. He seems to use it as a way to keep the press occupied. If they have to waste time paying attention to tweets, then they miss more newsworthy events.
Click to expand...

It's a good point, but not the whole picture. Since Trump is so caustic it forces his followers to check their morals at the door. If they don't think so they are fooling themselves. Not everybody wants to do that, which is why Trump support, while it may be dedicated, is limited. Trump's tweets fire up some, turn off many.
 
They are safe-ish untill they get gerrymandered the other way. Incumbancy is a huge advantage as well.
But the people still have to vote. Anything can happen.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Flash,



Big problem for Republicans is they have adopted such extremist policy, all green lighted by Trump, that they now struggle to expand their base going into 2020. A big win for Democrats in 2020 will allow them to draw the districts for the next decade.
Click to expand...

Extremist policy? Trump policy is the exact opposite of extremist. Outlawing cow farts and air travel isn't extremist? You are a moron of epic proportions.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Woko Haram,



It's a good point, but not the whole picture. Since Trump is so caustic it forces his followers to check their morals at the door. If they don't think so they are fooling themselves. Not everybody wants to do that, which is why Trump support, while it may be dedicated, is limited. Trump's tweets fire up some, turn off many.
Click to expand...

That's the thing though. I don't think he tweets to rally support. I think he tweets to distract the media, and it works pretty well.

I don't expect much in the way of morals regarding politics. Trump may be blunt and offensive in his words, but I find plenty of offensive things about Democratic policies and how the media censors conservative voices.
 
PoliTalker said:
Gerrymandering -> Gets us Safe Districts -> which Gets us this Lock-Step Insult-Driven Republican Party

Think about it.

Because we have Gerrymandering, we have 'safe districts.'

Because we have safe districts, that allowed President Trump* to convert the Republican party he took over into a totally subservient party that ignores even basic fact. Anybody who wasn't willing to support the extremist platform was forced to leave. Many did. Remember all those moderate Republicans who made the mass exodus out of office after Trump got elected? (Jeff Flake, etc) Those who didn't got voted out in 2018.

They were replaced with Trump clones.

The result of that is an explosive sort of populist politics that doesn't care about facts. President Trump has cultivated the 'angry vote.' And really, that vote is concerned with stupid things, as it overlooks bigger more pressing issues.

That's why we have an unsustainable trillion dollar deficit, our foreign policy is in shambles, and our world leadership in addressing climate change, the one biggest issue facing the entire planet - has withered.

Instead we are focused on treating immigrants poorly, separating families, putting up walls, slashing legal immigration to all time lows, making the for-profit detention business a gold rush, and creating an acceptable platform for hatred.

* 3rd President to be impeached
Click to expand...

Unthinkable that the Roberts Court wouldn't rule on gerrymandering, between that and campaign financing it has managed to create hurdles to democratic elections

The 2020 election is huge because given the new census, State Legislatures will be at it again looking to secure gimme elections for their political parties. The Congressional district I live in on a map is insane
 
Hello Woko Haram,

Woko Haram said:
That's the thing though. I don't think he tweets to rally support. I think he tweets to distract the media, and it works pretty well.
Click to expand...

But by distracting from the media he cuts off the value of the 4th estate. Being well informed means hearing all voices, all views.

Woko Haram said:
I don't expect much in the way of morals regarding politics. Trump may be blunt and offensive in his words, but I find plenty of offensive things about Democratic policies and how the media censors conservative voices.
Click to expand...

The media is the media. Ideally, they are not there to take sides. They do, however, when they sense it will sell more advertising. In so doing, they pander to the most popular views, not necessarily presenting a balance of information. Populism is not informed guidance, but more steered by passion, which may be only somewhat knowledgeable or actually quite misinformed. Thus, one is more likely to get better informed by watching PBS Newshour than Fox news because the one has the goal of providing information, whilst the other has the goal of generating the greatest profits possible.
 
Hello archives,

archives said:
Unthinkable that the Roberts Court wouldn't rule on gerrymandering, between that and campaign financing it has managed to create hurdles to democratic elections

The 2020 election is huge because given the new census, State Legislatures will be at it again looking to secure gimme elections for their political parties. The Congressional district I live in on a map is insane
Click to expand...

I would like to see some mathematical rule adopted which forces districts to be more concise and less stretched out into strange amebas. Some simple relationship between area and distance might suffice.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Woko Haram,

But by distracting from the media he cuts off the value of the 4th estate. Being well informed means hearing all voices, all views.
Click to expand...


The media cuts itself off by being more interested in clickbait than actual substance. But I agree that hearing all voices is important. The media is very selective in what voices it airs, however.


PoliTalker said:
The media is the media. Ideally, they are not there to take sides. They do, however, when they sense it will sell more advertising. In so doing, they pander to the most popular views, not necessarily presenting a balance of information. Populism is not informed guidance, but more steered by passion, which may be only somewhat knowledgeable or actually quite misinformed. Thus, one is more likely to get better informed by watching PBS Newshour than Fox news because the one has the goal of providing information, whilst the other has the goal of generating the greatest profits possible.
Click to expand...


State run media has less vulnerability to profit concerns, but it has other issues in terms of bias. Usually, they present the bias of the government itself and the bias of those employed by the government. US bureaucracy and academia have biases of their own.

My argument is that there is no unbiased media source, so you have to consume media from all sides to figure out what the truth is. It's usually somewhere in the middle.
 
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