Infographic about representation in congress

WhoWee

Do you have any support for this "fact"? Re-districting is a complex (IMO - convoluted) process.

Proton Soup

yeah, the thing is though, if it's something people care enough to vote on, then it probably also affects their clustering in a population. this is clearly obvious within individual religious groups. mormons/catholics/muslim/baptists/jews tend to "congregate".

Ryumast3r

Yes: Utah.

They cut up Salt Lake city into "tiny" pieces and spread it out amongst all three of the state's representatives. The only reason Utah has had 1 representative that's democrat in the last 20 years is because he got quite lucky, and then people in his district discovered that he's really more of a moderate guy and not all that bad.

There have since been proposals to cut it up more (with the 4th rep. coming in) to get rid of the dem, but Utah residents have started telling the republican party that they won't stand for it.


The "fact" as you say is also common sense: Those in power wish to keep it, most of the time. Why would they fairly re-district things (unless threatened by the people under them with recall or something similar), when they could keep the status quo (or make it unfair) and keep their power? They wouldn't. (most of the time)

kraphysics

I don't see what the big deal is. People seem to have this inherent notion that everything must be in proportion or somehow it's not right. That may or may not be true. Yes, males outnumber females but what does that have to do with anything? Perhaps it is supposed to imply some kind of discrimination? I'm not really sure but that's what is implied by the OP. Is there really discrimination against women in politics? Does this statistic mean that women's issues are being underrepresented? As a consequence, do women lack rights because of it? These are some of the facts that must be established before, a meaningful discussion as to why it's a problem can take place.

WhoWee

Is Utah representative of the entire country?

Proton Soup

yes. jerrymandering has been a problem across the country for a long, long time.

KingNothing

Yes, to some extent, just like all the other states do. We have a rich history of Gerrymandering - just like every other country who's political system allows for it.

KingNothing

I would appreciate if you took the time to at least read the original post before making assumptions about it.

kraphysics

Well sorry I see you didn't state that. I knew I was assuming that but I thought that was implied by the question?

Ryumast3r

Like they said, to an extent. Of course it's not going to happen in the entire U.S. the exact same way as it does in Utah, but the general principle is the same. The states that still allow gerrymandering still do it, at least a good portion do, if not a majority, on both sides of the table (dems do it too). Like I said: It's about power, and keeping it.

KingNothing

Hi Kraphysics, I'm not trying to get in your face about it, it's just a touchy thing for me. I had an old girlfriend who would always make assumptions about what I meant or what I felt, and it drove me crazy. Though I can understand where you might make an assumption that a thread starter has an agenda, be careful of the times you may be wrong, because you may offend someone. Thanks for joining the discussion!

Char. Limit

I think a much better and more telling graph would be a graph where we see how many members of congress feel a certain way about an issue (say, abortion, but any one will work) and then the other side shows how the general population feels about that issue. Sound good? Well, it's impossible.

WhoWee

The claim made in post number 17 was that re-districting was done on the basis of religion.

Char. Limit

Ah, actually I was using "Religion" and "Non-Religion" as just a general example of "two things that separate large groups of people". Although I don't know if he meant it the same way.

Ryumast3r

oh woahhhh no no no! Guess I should have clarified? I meant that gerrymandering was done on the basis of party politics, not religion, I was just using Char. Limit's example of religion.