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2018 mid-term election

JoeMorgue said:
Long story short you just start at random spot of the map, and draw a line that separates it into two places of equal population. And then you do it again and again until you reach as many segments as you need.

You ignore everything else. Density, demographics, geographical features, any civil or political lines (obviously not the ones defined by the district you are creating of course) so it can't be either intentionally or unintentionally misused.

ETA: Here's a good written breakdown.
https://www.vox.com/2014/5/8/5695350/this-is-what-america-would-look-like-without-gerrymandering
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That's ok but it kind of ignores any kind of shared features of the districts, rendering them useless. Might as well assign them via popular vote, as the representatives would be hard-pressed to represent the voters if they don't have any sort of shared goals or realities.
 
Shalamar said:
So where are the liberal tears? I was promised liberal tears, damnit!
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Hey, weird. There was supposed to be a big blue wave of liberal tears.

Another failed prediction, met by silence from our local prophet.

This is not to say that Dems shouldn't be sad. This was no blue wave. They took over the House, but they let four Senate seats slip. The Republicans overachieved in the Senate, if I recall the 538 prediction. I'm not sure whether the Dems over- or underachieved in the House, but it was not at all a great night for them.

Still, Slings, that blue wave of liberal tears? Is it here yet? Or is it sitting next to the false flag bomber, on a shelf in the basement in order to be forgotten?
 
JoeMorgue said:
ETA: Here's a good written breakdown.
https://www.vox.com/2014/5/8/5695350/this-is-what-america-would-look-like-without-gerrymandering
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Criticisms from that article:

For instance, they don't try to keep historical neighborhoods or regions intact. They don't try to ensure representation of racial minorities. And they don't pay any attention to striking a balance between political parties, or ensuring that districts are competitive.
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I understand why ensuring the representation of racial minorities would be important, but I can't for the life of me imagine why any of the other things mentioned would be. I'd also say that the Gerrymandering we see today is explicitly designed to prevent the latter two.
 
Mixed night for dems... probably loss of 2 or 3 (ETA: yikes could be up to 5) senate seats is very bad news. Going to be a tough task to take the Senate in 2020. Losing in Florida was especially bad. A progressive democrat taking 48% of the vote in TX is probably the best news of the night as far as the Senate goes. Beto took 800,000 more votes than the democratic challenger did in 2012. Thats huge and signs of things to come in TX perhaps.
 
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Now Congress can build the wall!!! and save us from the hordes of illegals.

they will look like heroes.
 
Drewbot said:
Now Congress can build the wall!!! and save us from the hordes of illegals.

they will look like heroes.
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You no longer need the wall. King Don has sent 20,000 troops to the border, and a bunch of unemployed yahoos with shotguns have followed them. This should provide more than enough defense without spending a penny on a wall. With the bonus of keeping the army and the rednecks occupied.
 
JoeMorgue said:
I'm a little annoyed that Florida had to be all Florida and A) be a nail biter until the last minute and B) go Red but.... cards on the table long term restoring voting rights for felons will do more good. That's about 9-10% of our voting age population no longer disenfranchised.
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You know, I think out of all the results from the elections (all the senate and house races, all the referendums, all the state legislature races), I think this might be the most important result.

Florida is perhaps the only swing state with a significant population. Its not easy to win the presidency without winning florida's electoral college votes. (Not to mention the value of the congressional seats). In 2 of the last 3 elections that the republicans won, they won Florida by ~100,000 votes (or less). Now there is going to be a potential 1.5 million voters added to the electorate.

Not all of them will vote (in fact I suspect they will vote at an even lower rate than the general population). And I know that not all of them will vote the same way. But given the fact that minorities and poor people make up a larger portion of the prison population (which also happens to be much of the Democrat's base), I expect that most of those ex-felon voters will lean Democrat. Under those rules, those narrow republican victories will shift to Democrat victories in Florida, and with all the electoral college votes at play, it could give the white house to the Democrats.
 
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Crossbow said:
Whew!

At least the Democrats took the House. I was hoping that they would have taken the Senate as well, but at least with Democrats in the House, the House will no longer be another Trump lap dog.
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The chances of the Dems taking the senate were always small.The map just did not favor them.
 
The most important thing is now there is a major check on Trump. America stepped back from the brink.
 
I think that a couple of states adapted measures taking redistricting out of the hands of the state legislatures and putting it into the hands of a independent commission is a sign for the future. Politicians just cannot be trusted with that power. That goes for both parties;the Dems, when in power, are just as happy to gerrymander as the Republicans.
 
dudalb said:
The chances of the Dems taking the senate were always small.The map just did not favor them.
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And the GOP knew it an put all of their limited (as it now seems) resources into protecting the Senate. They unofficially gave up on holding the House back in Jul/Aug.
 
Travis said:
Considering Republicans are immoral monsters I'm shocked we haven't had anyone shooting up a Democratic headquarters yet as they lose control.



Florida is going to be very different going forward with 1.5 million new voters.
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Hyperbole much?
 
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