I get what he is saying. Tennessee has only been part of the union since 1779. More accurately Jim Crow which started sometime in the 1800s. I was trying to find an exact year and the century was the best I could find
Not 1776. Jim Crow.
Oh no, people are upset!
Duh, that’s why they broke apart your district. Now they aren’t obligated to give a shit that people are upset, since they have redefined what “majority” means.
It’s as if “write your congressman“ didn’t already carry the subtext of “get fucked” - now they can ignore you even harder.
I agree. In 1776 Tennessee wasn’t part of the USA. So back to being a lone Cherokee land you go, my friend.
You snooze, something something
Somehow this is the Democrats fault, I bet.
There is something they can do; push Democrats to promote having a computer program draw Congressional districts, but no one seems interested in this idea. Reminds me of the Battle of France. The French military was shocked when Germany attacked through the Ardennes Forest, an area it thought was impassable to tanks. One French officer suggested that all exits from the Ardennes be mined. Another had a simpler solution, start cutting down the trees in the Ardennes. Neither suggest was followed and France considered one of the most powerful countries in the world surrendered in 6 weeks.
push Democrats to promote having a computer program draw Congressional districts
Gerrymandered districts are all generated using computer programs. They have been since the late 1970s: I know that because I knew people who worked on developing that software for a conservative think tank. I was trying to convince then to sabotage it, but they didn’t, and now here we are. What matters is not whether it’s an automated process: it’s what the algorithm within that process does that’s the important part.
There’s a near-infinite number of ways to draw district boundaries. To not produce gerrymandered districts, an algorithm would have to not only meet topological and legislative requirements (e.g., compactness, relative size and contiguity) but also to comply with a set of fairness criteria. If there are steep spatial gradients in terms of voting preference, even nice, compact districts could still be placed to minimize representation of one voting group and improve the representation of another (though the effect is probably even more extreme if you can ignore the compactness requirement).
Cool story about Jerry bypassing the Maginot line, though.
Yes, a computer program can be designed to gerrymander, but the US government should have companies bid for a program that would draw districts. The winning program would be subject to peer review and required to be used by all states.
Actually, there is another way to prevent gerrymandering, proportional representation. However, I think using a computer program is better.
Like the Battle of France, there are solutions to prevent gerrymandering if people are willing to try them.