Venting about gerrymandering

I generally try to stay out of other states' business. What we just saw in Virginia is something that I simply can't overlook. This is quite possibly the most extreme gerrymander I have ever seen.

I wasn't happy with what we saw in Texas. A state should not redistrict just because Trump is worried that he will lose the majority in the House of Representatives. I would say that the gerrymander in Virginia is worse. Even with the redistricting in Texas, Democrats in that state have more of a voice than Republicans will have in Virginia. That is, of course, assuming that the courts don't block the Virginia gerrymander.

Yes, what Texas did was wrong. They created a map that intentionally skewed representation in favor of Republicans. Hating Texas for gerrymandering is not a valid justification of more extreme gerrymandering in Virginia.

What this ultimately comes down to is partisan conformity and partisan loyalty. I do not believe for one moment that a majority of voters in Virginia gathered information from both sides of the debate, carefully thought about the implications of the gerrymander, and decided for themselves that it was a good idea. Far more likely is that voters aligned with the Democratic party listened to what Democrats had to say, mindlessly accepted it, and voted how they were told.

We really should try to remove the partisanship from the debate as much as possible. Should a political party use a map that was intentionally drawn to misrepresent voters for the benefit of their party and detriment of voters?

Gerrymandering can be a tricky subject. Bias is human nature. As long as humans are involved, bias will be a part of redistricting. Even if humans aren't involved, they would be involved in determining the process. We can't completely eliminate bias, but that doesn't make obvious gerrymandering acceptable.

For years, I have discussed the three primary crises facing the American people, educational, informational, and governmental. In this case, the governmental crisis is clearly on display. The governmental crisis is definitely the weakest of the three for me, but I might still be able to contribute something. In fact, addressing the educational and informational crises could help in this regard.

The educational crisis

I don't think it's surprising that this is happening during the most heavily schooled era in the history of humanity. We are training citizens from a young age to defer to authoritarian figures to dictate what we think. We are not just failing to teach children how to think. Government workers are systematically destroying the minds of American youth. This is precisely why I have been known to refer to the process as mental genocide.

I am not going to spend too much time repeating myself, but let me share a couple points. People who can think for themselves are far less likely to fall for corny political shenanigans regardless of the party responsible. How can we address this mindlessness? We need to bring an end to the disastrous conventional model of schooling, and we need to get the government out of the way of the educational process.

The informational crisis

All mainstream media outlets have a political agenda. They are selective about what they do and do not share. They treat similar actions from different parties in drastically different manners. In some cases, they outright lie. There isn't a single information source with any pull that is willing to give us the information to make decisions for ourselves.

I would like to see a new news platform emerge. The platform should prioritize information as close to the source as possible to minimize opportunity to inject bias. I also would like to open up multiple discussions for each piece shared. This can include a general discussion for people to share their opinions. There should also be options to call out loaded language, inconsistent portrayals, and outright lies. All of this should be out on the open rather than hidden from people who want to know the truth. This should be community-moderated to prevent a small handful of individuals skewing the whole platform. There should also be mechanisms developed to inform people of potential issues with reporting. This can include periodic newsletters sharing some of the more concerning issues and the ability to inform people of discussions that have been attached to articles they have read.

Election reform

I don't think it's legal to fix our election system without a constitutional amendment. That said, we need reform. I don't have the answers to how to reform the system, but a simple switch to the popular vote would clearly be insufficient. A big part of the problem right now is our two-party system, which could be classified as a uniparty, and the popular vote does nothing to address that problem.

Ideally, we should pursue a system where we vote for people rather than parties. Although ballots use the names of candidates, people overwhelmingly vote based on political affiliation. Even swing voters generally look at whether or not they are happy with how things are going with the party currently in power.

I can at least make a couple of suggestions. First of all, let's completely remove political affiliations from ballots. This isn't a ban on political parties. It simply means that you have to look at more than just the letter after a candidate's name in order to figure out which candidate you prefer.

Another change I would like to see is pushing at least three major candidates. If there are too many candidates, people won't spend much time figuring out what each party stands for, but having two also creates problems. Both parties pick absolutely horrible candidates and use fear of the opposition to try to win elections. It would be more difficult to push fear of multiple candidates at the same time, so parties might try to find candidates that can actually stand on their own merits.

What you can do

You can do things yourself to help address these problems. Think. Don't let a party dictate your thoughts. If you think for yourself, you are not going to match any party 100% of the time. If you find yourself consistently agreeing with a party, you are doing something seriously wrong.

Expose yourself to diverse viewpoints. Don't live your life in an echo chamber. Try to understand perspectives that are different from your own. Open yourself up to evolving your political beliefs.

And again, think. We need to bring an end to mass mindlessness.