S04.E08: Gerrymandering in the United States

[Athena]

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Main Segment: Gerrymandering in the United States

Other segments: 2017 Shayrat missile strike, Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment lawsuits
Guest: Thomas Kopache

 

[TrininisaScorp]

Prior to this evening, I didn't know O'Reilly's disgusting ass wrote sex scenes and read them for the audiobooks.  Excuse while I BLEACH MY BRAIN, so I can go back to the higher plane of existence I was living on 1 hr ago.  

The gerrymandering segment was interesting (I knew enough to get by, but not this much) and tough to take in.  It seems to very much undermine democracy in the most partisan way possible.  Shame!  As usual, John and staff does a wonderful job explaining the situation.  

Edited April 10, 2017 by TrininisaScorp

[Eliza422]

Listening to the o'reilly reading, he sounded like a computer talking. Ug.

[iMonrey]

I could have gone my whole life without anyone speculating what Bill O'Reilly sounds like when he's masturbating. Thanks very much, John. But at least the first half of the show provided a few laughs. The second half was just depressing.

[fastiller]

3 hours ago, Eliza422 said:

Listening to the o'reilly reading, he sounded like a computer talking. Ug.

Eh, a computer would sound better.

[meowmommy]

The BOR segment was nauseating and the ending rah-rah fell completely flat for me.  Not my favorite ep.

[Hanahope]

I know plenty of people that are really non-political (a secretary in my office, for example, votes whatever her husband does, but she doesn't care either way - and yeah, that has its own problems), or are at least moral enough to not to let politics get in the way of their job, if their job was creating voting district.

Living in one such gerrymandered salamander district, I just think its sucks.  My husband already thinks his vote doesn't mean a thing.  our so-called representative never comes near our thin part of the salamander at the end.

Billo has an absolutely horrible book audio voice.  And now I know another reason why I've never bought his books, and never will.

Unfortunately, the gop did such a good job with the gerrymandering, it'll be very hard work for the dems to have any shot at fixing things in 2020.  they'll have to hope the country is really pissed off at the gop/trump then, and that's provided the dems get off their lazy ass and actually work on state races.

Technically, the fact that Dems "pack" themselves in certain areas shouldn't make that much difference, since the districts are supposed to be based on population.  so there should be more districts made out of urban areas than out of rural areas.  The only bad part about dems packing themselves should be in certain states.  I.e. no matter how many more people CA gets, its still not going to get many more House seats because some other states, no matter how few people there are, will still always get at least 1 seat.  Thus, Wyoming gets 1 representative for/per 320,000 people while California gets 1 representative per 800,000 persons (this is just a general example, I am by no means being exact with these numbers).

[Traveller519]

John knows how to hit O'Reilly. Sussing it out through his media was more effective than a bad impression by Alec Baldwin a night earlier on SNL. Well done.

I also approve of Jon taking the Democrats, who have spent the past 7 years complaining about it, to task for their own faults with Gerrymandering. It hits home why a non-partisan group is necessary. It would seem to be an appropriate job for something like the Department of Labor Statistics, or Census Bureau to handle.

We have our own issues with Parliamentary and Legislative districts in Canada, while they're more typically drawn in logical fashions, whenever a review of the districts comes up, there always seems to be more new districts created in whichever area benefits the party in power most. 

[iMonrey]

I think they can retire Catheter Cowboy. The joke was funny the first time but now they're just repeating it to amuse themselves. They already made their point; it's not like Trump is actually going to learn something from this guy.

[b2H]

I'm glad for this ep on the gerrymandering idea.  Until recently, dear hubby was totally out of the loop on this concept.  I expect, when he watches this ep, he'll be much more attuned.

[snowwhyte]

I thought it was a bit odd that the British political visitor was supposedly so shocked by the U.S. gerrymandering when the term came from the UK and we had a long history of it. We have an independent commission to redraw our districts but that just means political parties have to get more creative and work harder to gain unfair advantage. It does look to be a self perpetuating problem in the U.S. Why would the majority party address the issue when they benefit from it? 

[dusang]

46 minutes ago, snowwhyte said:

I thought it was a bit odd that the British political visitor was supposedly so shocked by the U.S. gerrymandering when the term came from the UK and we had a long history of it. We have an independent commission to redraw our districts but that just means political parties have to get more creative and work harder to gain unfair advantage. It does look to be a self perpetuating problem in the U.S. Why would the majority party address the issue when they benefit from it? 

No, the term came from the Boston Gazette on March 26, 1812, in reference to Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Etymology

[Victor the Crab]

A little odd Ollie would be saying that Americans have every right to fuck up any election without gerrymandering. Isn't that how Drumph became president in the first place?

Ugh! Knowing Bill O'Reilly wrote an erotic novel is sickening. But that he narrated an audio book of it makes it worse. He sounds more like a creepy stalker.

God, I want to punch Brian Williams in the mouth. Thankfully, Ollie punched harder by reminding Williams that he didn't have any war experiences in Iraq.

And that tribute to Don Rickles didn't look right. It made it sound like he was going to burn in hell.

[dcalley]

Dammit, Gerry!

[peeayebee]

Ha! That's what I immediately thought of too, dcalley.

[Danny Franks]

Yeah, the American media needs to stop jerking off over missile launches and bombing raids. "What are you talking about?" indeed. As for Trump being capable of empathising with anyone at all, including his own immediate family? Not a chance. He doesn't care about innocent Syrians working at that airfield, and he doesn't care about the children the attack was supposedly in the name of. It is barking mad, how low the standard is for Trump, and how eager people are to pretend he's human.

This is the first time I've seen and heard Alex Jones speak. My only real response to him is, 'how can anyone be dumb enough to think this guy is smart? Although, "once you start washing an alligator, paradoxically, you don't stop until it's dry", is a fantastic maxim to live by... I just need to figure out what it means.

Bill O'Reilly is just a disgusting man. Not a single redeeming feature about him. He's pretty much the ultimate example of a right wing hypocrite. Loved the disgusted audience reaction to hearing about his audiobook sex scene narration. Although I felt better when that small snippet confirmed that O'Reilly is a shit writer.

I'm glad that John decided to shine a bit more light on gerrymandering. It's an issue that seems to be fairly well known in the US, but is perhaps not understood by a lot of those with less than a passing interest in politics. But it's an issue that they really should be invested in.

The Pennsylvania and Ohio examples were genuinely shocking. This is what happens when one party manages to gain control of a state, at all levels. They're free to corrupt democracy as they see fit. The elected officials choosing their voters, indeed. This was a very simple, clear breakdown of how gerrymandering works, and I think it will be used as an easily accessible example for people who want to understand it.

The answer, as usual, is to keep partisan politics out of it, and have the districts be drawn up by independent bodies. Bodies that have no other function but to take all the different factors into account, and make the best decisions they can on it. If the Democrats ever regain enough control, that's what they should push for. Because as John demonstrated here, and as has been demonstrated repeatedly through elections and through Republican attempts to prevent people voting, if Americans all vote on a level playing field, Democrats win.

I found the 'Democrats are living in the wrong place' argument to be bullshit. If you're having to talk about people needing to move to find fair elected representation, then your whole system needs to change.

Yeah, British mapmaking has a lot to answer for. Look at all the ruler straight borders in Africa, and the endless litany of sectarian and tribal violence that has ensued because very different cultures have been told they're from the same artificially constructed country.

[BTBAM310]

On 4/10/2017 at 7:21 AM, iMonrey said:

I could have gone my whole life without anyone speculating what Bill O'Reilly sounds like when he's masturbating. Thanks very much, John. But at least the first half of the show provided a few laughs. The second half was just depressing.

Tap, tap, tap

[paigow]

On 4/10/2017 at 5:13 PM, Victor the Crab said:

Ugh! Knowing Bill O'Reilly wrote an erotic novel is sickening. 

Subtitle: 1 Shade Of Crap

[OneWhoLurks]

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But, what if we didn’t carve up this hypothetical state into districts at all, and elected five legislators from the state at-large? After all, our problems begin when we start drawing districts, right? This idea is what we at FairVote like to call “fair representation voting.”

Here is how it would work: The 24 states electing five or fewer House members wouldn’t draw any districts at all and would elect their representatives at-large. Larger states would employ independent commissions to draw bigger districts that would elect between three and five representatives, rather than just one.

Instead of choosing just one candidate on Election Day voters would use ranked choice voting, which gives them the freedom to rank candidates in order of choice. Ranked choice voting ensures as many voters as possible help elect someone, and eliminates the “spoiler effect” which often leaves voters feeling pressure to vote for one of the two major party candidates. A majority of voters would always elect a majority of seats in a state or district, while like-minded voters in the minority could elect their fair share too.

 

The Most Important Thing John Oliver Said About Gerrymandering, and the Solution He Failed to Mention

[OneWhoLurks]

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The wife of deceased Illinois lawmaker Vince Demuzio said she "did not find the humor" in John Oliver's comparison of Demuzio to a pool urinator on Sunday's episode of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

"It's one thing to talk about gerrymandering, but I did not find the humor in his portraying my husband, who is now deceased, in that manner," Deanna Demuzio, the mayor of downstate Carlinville, told the Tribune.

 

John Oliver mocks deceased Illinois state senator on HBO show
 

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Oliver was highlighting some examples of how Republicans across the country have rigged maps in their favor before pointing to a few states in which Democrats have done the same. He brought up Illinois’ redistricting cycle after the 2000 Census, when both chambers of the state Legislature couldn’t agree on a remapping plan and neither could the eight-member backup commission that assumes map-drawing responsibilities when the General Assembly is deadlocked.

When that happens, the Illinois Supreme Court must select two individuals — a Democrat and Republican — to cast the potential tie-breaking vote. Those names are then drawn out of a hat. Secretary of State Jesse White drew the name of former Democratic Supreme Court Justice Michael Bilandic, who broke the tie.

“Take Illinois. In 2001, Democrats won the right to redistrict there after — and this is for reasons too complicated and too stupid to explain — a name was pulled out of a replica of Abraham Lincoln’s stovepipe hat,” Oliver quipped. “But just watch as one Democratic lawmaker made the least convincing promise ever.”

 

John Oliver gibes at Illinois, late state senator during segment on remapping

Edited April 18, 2017 by OneWhoLurks

[OneWhoLurks]

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The Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision on Monday struck down two North Carolina congressional districts it said were illegally drawn based on race.

The majority’s ruling, which handed a victory to voting rights advocates, included a rare pairing of conservative Justice Clarence Thomas with the court’s four liberals.

While the decision won’t trigger any immediate changes in North Carolina — the state’s legislature redrew the districts last year while the case was ongoing — it could make it harder for legislators to draw up districts for partisan gain in 2020.

 

Voting advocates notch win at Supreme Court

[ahisma]

A new AP study finds that gerrymandered states favoring Republicans outnumbers gerrymandered states favoring Democrats four to one. Gerrymandering has given Republicans an estimated 22 extra seats in the US House of Representatives over a more fair distribution.

https://www.apnews.com/fa6478e10cda4e9cbd75380e705bd380