2010 was a census year, which means it's redistricting time for congressional districts. The NY Times had an interesting article yesterday, which miraculously didn't take a position on the existential horrors of partisan gerrymandering. Don't worry, as time progresses I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty about the partisan infection of our redistricting process.
But let's take a minute to really think about redistricting. Firstly, can we ever have a "fair" district? By the time the lines are drawn, regional immigration will have made the careful population calculations inaccurate. And what do we even mean by "fair"? If every state constructed every district to be a 50-50 Democrat-Republican toss-up, we'd have a massively biased partitioning.
Any invisible line we draw creates an artificial, biased district. No congressional district will speak with one voice anyways, so why does it matter if our political parties manipulate the process for partisan advantage? What is the most just thing to do? Energy, climate change, and ecological destruction are the three most important issues today. The Democratic party is vastly better on these issues. The most just thing is for Democrats to fight tooth and nail for every last scrap of partisan advantage. Go get 'em.
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What's your reason for saying that "energy, climate change, and ecological destruction are the 3 most important issues today"? I bet the case could be made for other equally-pressing issues (e.g. poverty and human rights issues quickly come to mind). Care to share the reason for your top three?
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