How to Ensure This Never Happens Again

[Dashinka 24,735]

1 hour ago, Prizm123 said:

see? i knew we had common ground for which to build upon

gerrymandering has got to go and it should be non partisan. i am in favor very strongly of term limits as well. and ending citizens united so that every campaign has equal footing. so that even minor candidates can be heard based on their relative merits rather than how much money they can hoover. people will decided for themselves whether they want batnut crazy or someone who they feel has their best interest in mind rather than donors.

 

contrary to what people think, we dont have 2 parties, we have about 6-7

 

socialists/anarchists/communists- the very far fringe left

progressives

liberals

centrists/moderates

conservatives

trumpists/tea party

fascists/nazis/conspiracy theorists- the very far fringe right

 

with some people ranging depending on the subject between several of those

There was something interesting I found out today.  The US is only behind India in how many people are directly represented by a House (lower house in a bicameral system) member.  Maybe before everyone wants to tear up the Electoral system, we should look at apportionment of the House.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Dashinka

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

7 hours ago, Dashinka said:

There was something interesting I found out today.  The US is only behind India in how many people are directly represented by a House (lower house in a bicameral system) member.  Maybe before everyone wants to tear up the Electoral system, we should look at apportionment of the House.

I can't remember it is either 800k or 900k per Represenative

[Prizm123 1,086]

https://www.house.gov/representatives

 

The number of voting representatives in the House is fixed by law at no more than 435, proportionally representing the population of the 50 states

 

they would need to change the law to increase that number, i dont see anyone talking about doing that.

[Dashinka 24,735]

8 hours ago, Prizm123 said:

https://www.house.gov/representatives

 

The number of voting representatives in the House is fixed by law at no more than 435, proportionally representing the population of the 50 states

 

they would need to change the law to increase that number, i dont see anyone talking about doing that.

Yes, the numbers are set by law, but it is much easier to change the law than the Constitution.  I always knew the numbers were quite high per House member, but it is now only less than India.  The snippet below is a bit dated as the US has now jumped ahead of the EU Parliament.  Since the Electoral system is directly tied to the number of House and Senate members and the complaint is that the votes of the people in Wyoming or the Dakotas have more weight than those in California or Texas, this is a direct result of the apportionment of the House.  Arbitrarily setting a number by law seems mistaken as the House is specifically supposed to directly represent the people.  I agree, no one is talking about this, and they probably never will, but until they do, any talk of changing the Electoral system would only be a band-aide as it would not address the true root cause.  One thing that could happen if the House were to increase in size would be the evolution of additional viable political parties.

 

Global comparison and disparities[edit]

When talking about the populations within California's reapportioned House districts in 1951, a report from Duke University found that "[there] is not an excessive disparity in district populations, but [the populations and disparities are] perhaps larger than necessary."^[11] If the House continued to expand as it did prior to the Reapportionment Act of 1929, it would currently have 1,156 members (still just the second largest lower house, after China).^[12] This would give the representatives, on average, about 287 thousand constituents, on par with Japan's National Diet.

The United States also has comparatively massive constituencies for OECD members, with almost three times more constituents per legislator on average than Japan and Mexico.^[12] The U.S. has the third most populous average legislative districts in the world (second if the EU's European Parliament is not included)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legislatures_by_number_of_members

 

[millefleur 5,047]

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