Kevin McCarthy and John Boehner—once masters of chaos, now its victims
Gerrymandering made the House ungovernable. Here's how we fix it
David Nir
It's been an amazing two weeks. The forces of conservative nihilism pushed House Speaker John Boehner into an unexpected early retirement, and there's a good chance they also played a role in Kevin McCarthy's equally shocking demise as Boehner's heir apparent. To say the House is an ungovernable tire-fire is an extreme understatement.
But there's an even deeper reason for this state of affairs, one that goes beyond the GOP's endless civil war: gerrymandering. Yep, that's right. In 2012, candidates who ran for the House as Democrats won 1.4 million more votes nationwide than those on the Republican ticket, yet Republicans still managed to retain control of the House. That was only possible because they drew a majority of the country's congressional districts.
With fair maps, though, Democrats would have an excellent shot at returning to power, and unlike Republicans, they have their act together. Nancy Pelosi was twice elected speaker without any fuss, and if Democrats won back the majority, she easily would be again. We'd actually have a properly functioning Congress instead of the nightmare hellscape Republicans have visited on us.
But there's actually something we can do about this: We need to elect more Democrats to state legislatures around the nation, so that Republicans can't run the table on us during the next round of redistricting in 2020. The fight starts this year in Virginia, where Democrats have a great chance to win back the state Senate next month and are poised to make gains in the state House as well.
It's a long-term project, but it's at the very top of the list for progressives. That's why we've endorsed half a dozen great Democrats who are running for the state legislature in Virginia.
Pax on both houses: Gerrymandering: What It Looks Like ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../gerrymandering-what-it-looks-like.ht...
May 22, 2014 - ast week I wrote about the most gerrymandered congressional districts in the United States, as measured by how geometrically compact they ...Pax on both houses: Forget Gerrymandering. Here's What ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../forget-gerrymandering-heres-what-w...
Sep 12, 2014 - Let's start with gerrymandering, the practice in which the officials charged ... Take the problem of Democratic underrepresentation in the House.Pax on both houses: Computer Programmer Solves ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/.../computer-programmer-solves.ht...
Jun 3, 2014 - Computer Programmer Solves Gerrymandering In His Spare Time. "In 2012, Dems Got 3.1% More House Votes Than Repugs But Only 38% Of ...Pax on both houses: Biased Cartography And The Demise ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../biased-cartography-and-demise-of.ht...
Aug 7, 2014 - Biased Cartography And The Demise Of Democracy: Racial Politics &Gerrymandering. The tricky racial politics of undoing gerrymandering in ...Pax on both houses: Statistically Speaking, ALL VOTER ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../statistically-speaking-all-voter-fraud.h...
Aug 9, 2014 - "In gerrymandered election districts, the voters don't choose their politicians - the politicians choose their voters!" ...Pax on both houses: The Elimination Of Earmarks - And Lily ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../the-elimination-of-earmarks-and-lily....
Oct 10, 2013 - To the extent that absolutists feel politically unassailable (as they do in lily-white, gerrymandered districts), there is no motivation to "play well ...Pax on both houses: Florida Judge Rejects Voter Districts ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../florida-judge-rejects-voter-districts.ht...
Jul 11, 2014 - Ryan Duffy, a spokesman for Florida House Speaker Will ... Weatherford and Gaetz, both Republicans, led the redistricting effort in 2012.Pax on both houses: "How Republicans Rig The Game," Tim ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../how-republicans-rig-game-tim-dickin...
Nov 12, 2013 - Under historically typical redistricting, House Republicans would now likely be clinging to a reedy five-seat majority. "There's the normal tug of ...Pax on both houses: States With Partisan Control Of ...
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/.../states-with-partisan-control-of.h...
Oct 27, 2014 - Speaker of the House John Boehner predicts that the GOP'sredistricting advantage will allow the party to retain control of the House, perhaps ...Gerrymandering Mishap Leaves Nation Without Any ...
www.theonion.com/.../gerrymandering-mishap-leaves-nation-...
Mar 25, 2015 - WASHINGTON—Gathering together outside the House chamber to .... in fact, headed in both the right and wrong directions simultaneously.
The Onion
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