Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Playing Games With Democracy

 Democracy is pretty simple really, the person or people with the most votes wins.  What should keep them on their toes is the idea that they have to run again to keep their seat.

The simple concept has been manipulated since the beginning by Gerrymandering.  Simply put you set up districts that are designed to concentrate all of one's sides votes in a small number of districts so the other side can win in more districts.

To some extent this happens a bit naturally since often cities are the most populous and most liberal areas.  It isn't that hard a concept but to illustrate imagine a State with 1000 residents.  Five hundred live in urban areas that vote 80% for a liberal candidate while the rural areas tend to be conservative.  One would think this would lead to about equal representation.  But if you can manipulate the districts so that the liberal votes are in just say three districts where liberals win by large majoritoes and the other 7 have safe but smaller conservative majorities you get a 7-3 split.

This strategy has been effectively used by the Republicans and since they control the legislature, after each census they can fine tune it.

Democrats have used it also, but in recent times the country has made it a tool best suited to Republicans because of the distribution.

So even in states where liberals hold a majority of the population, conservatives often control the Government.  Changing that will not be easy/

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