The General US Politics Thread

"enforced" yea, right. They don't do anything about it. really, we just can't buy em here.

I meant that it's under local jurisdiction rather than a state law, where I am.

here it's state wide.

California occasionally bans fireworks due to forest fire risks.

Its not really all that enforced though.

I almost forgot.

Tomu, are you eligible to vote?

I heard Georgia's... shenanigans were giving you trouble.

I don't believe my photo ID is acceptable; I'd have to spend the time and money to go to the DMV and get one. Which, unlike the employed, I could probably afford, but it's just not worth the hassle. Moreover, since I'm not registered, I think it's too late for me to register at this point.

My ID expires before the next presidential election, so I'll *definitely* vote in 2016 (If I'm still alive!!!!), but I've written off this election since I'm in a blood red district in a blood red state.

I really can't see any other "First World" country with comparable places like the ones the US have (the red south), maybe the area around Sheffield I guess, but it's still not "at the same level" really (more like they're bitter that English industries died rather than anything else, bringing them to the same boat as most of the Midlands). Maybe central France (mostly the vineyard provinces), but still really not comparable to Georgia, or Alabama, or Missiisisisisisisispsispspsiispisipspsiisisispsipipsisispispi.

edited 13th Oct '12 11:00:11 PM by entropy13

Wait didn't you advocate mandatory voting a while back?

And yet you won't be voting this election?

We're special.

edited 13th Oct '12 11:35:17 PM by DeviantBraeburn

Two things.

1.) I never held an official position on mandatory voting-rather I was arguing against arguing against it.

2.) There's no contradiction between feeling there is currently insufficient incentive to vote, and feeling that there should be more incentives to vote.

Fair enough.

"Million Muppet March" planned to defend U.S. backing for PBS.

Are you in Savannah?

If so, remember that guy John Barrow you told me about?

He got gerrymandered out of your district. And it is now a shoo-in for Republican Jack Kingston.

Your red district just got redder.

edited 13th Oct '12 11:45:26 PM by Skatepunk

Yep.

Same thing happened over here in NC. Republican-led legislature decided to blatantly gerrymander the entire map in order to secure their own hold, tearing me out of the district of the excellent public servant who'd been my congressman for over a decade and sticking me with the most conservative Republican of the entire delegation. And yet it's still completely constitutional to warp districts if it's for political gain, just not if it's for the purpose of diluting the vote of minorities. Uggggggh.

Fun fact: The NC General Assembly had a Democratic majority for over a century until the 2010 election came around and swept in the Tea Party crowd. The new legislature justified what absolutely everyone knew was a politically-driven redrawing of the lines as "They did it first! We're just compensating for a hundred years of their maps!"

In other news, Obama unsurprisingly has a massive lead among early voters.

edited 14th Oct '12 12:19:51 AM by darksidevoid

G.O.P. Senate Hopes Fade, Even as Romney’s Rise, Polls Show.

Tomu, you should get yourself registered anyway, because there are off-year, odd-year, and all sorts of special election.

The first of the series of polls that include the VP debate have been released - though keep in mind that they only include one day of post-debate polling. So far, the results have been that Obama has halted Romney's surge. He so far has yet to regain any of the ground he has lost, though his prospects of reelection have increased from 61% to 62%.Link.

edited 14th Oct '12 3:59:07 AM by Completion

... What. Why does the legislature get to choose the boundaries? I... what? I don't even comprehend that. Surely... what? Surely the party in power... redraws... to... their advantage.

... I what.

That's called Gerrymandering! :D

After Mr Gerry and his salamander constituency.

But... what the fuck? Why the heck does the legislature control the boundaries?

That makes no sense!

WHY. WHYYYYYYYYYYYY. WHY DO YOU INSIST ON MAKING DEMOCRACY SO BLOODY DIFFICULT?

Didn't someone think "HMMM. GIVING THIS POWER TO A BIASED BODY WILL TOTALLY BE FAIR".

Hopey: That's because, in America, everything is Political. Every Public Post is related to the two main parties — even Boundary Agencies would be partisan.

The term comes from an old political cartoon back in the early 1800s. What happened was the Governor of Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry drew the lines, and one of the districts ended up looking like a Salamander, so it was called a "Gerry-mander," and the term stuck.

edited 14th Oct '12 4:51:51 AM by deathpigeon

Other names include:

• earmuffs (one U.S. House district in Illinois used to have this name)
• fajita strips (the U.S. House districts resulting from "cracking" the Democratic-leaning strength of Austin by combining it with Republican-leaning rural areas, in very linear patterns)
• Abraham Lincoln riding a vacuum cleaner (a New York state senate district...though admittedly, the "top hat" is actually a very vertically-long county)
• dummymander (a specific term for when a gerrymander for political advantage is obsoleted by things like demographic change)

@ Inhopelessguy: See, here's how this works.

1. United States Constitution says states to choose representatives to the House of Representatives, to be chosen by direct election. States (I think) chose to do this by district representation—i.e. by drawing up districts and giving each district one rep.
2. Supreme Court says that people have to have roughly equal voting "power"—so each district must be approximately the same size population-wise, within a state.
3. Census is conducted to determine population across the country every ten years. Census results available for redistricting.

So...now that we know why redistricting is done, who does the redistricting?

I mean, someone's gotta do it. And because this is a matter of public policy, it's gotta be all official and such. You don't just pull a map out of your ass. And even if you do, enough other people have to sign off on it to be formally legal and such.

And there are usually three maps, which may have separate drawers. There's the U.S. House, state senate, and state house/assembly maps. (But usually they're the same people drawing all three maps.)

The easiest way, though not necessarily the most ethical, is to let the legislature to do it themselves. I mean, they're already elected officials, they already have the authority to pass other legislation, so you're just sticking another responsibility onto them, that's all. Of course, we all know that this generally results in one of these two things:

• incumbent protection map: give D-leaning constituencies to Dem legislators, give R-leaning constituencies to Repub legislators. Useful to get votes from both sides supporting the map, since it makes all of them safer, especially in an era where partisanship is a big thing (such as now) and people will react strongly to the party label in the general election.
• gerrymander the other party into oblivion: does your party control lots of a legislature, and probably the governorship? Here's your chance to gerrymander the fuck out of your opponents! Crack their geographic bases into little pieces and mix them into separate districts with lots of your supporters! Pack their voters into super-concentrated districts! Draw their houses out of their districts!*

Generally speaking, here's how redistricting works:

• state house and state senate draw up maps. Sometimes one house draws up maps and the other approves it, or they each draw up their own versions of maps and then work out the differences.
• governor gets to sign or veto the maps. If vetoed, the legislature works on it again.

* Residency rules may vary for state senates and state houses, but for the U.S. House, you don't need to be a resident of a district to represent it. You just need to live in that state. Still, being charged with "you don't even live in our district!" is not a good thing for any politician.

By the way, if you're in Ohio, you have an independent redistricting commission thing on the ballot. I hear that its opponents are using scare language like saying that it hands redistricting to a bunch of unelected bureaucrats or something. You will want to be wary of this.

edited 14th Oct '12 5:45:44 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

...

Wow.

Basically, it boils down to "ITS EASY TO GIVE IT TO THE LEGISLATURE", and there we are.

The upcoming presidential debate will based on foreign policy. Do you think that the current information coming out about the American embassy attack in Libya will cause Obama to fall further?

My hopes are that he aggressively attacks back at Romney at this, but it's currently been very hard to defend; Biden basically just said "we didn't have all the information so we really had no idea" at his debate and I don't believe that will resonate at a presidential debate.

^^ Not quite, it's more like "we didn't know any better", plus a bit of "the people in charge don't want to give up their ability to serve themselves".

That said, states are gradually moving toward independent commissions. California's the most recent one.