Instead of just bitching about Ahnuld's redistricting plan

[davidinalameda]

why not come up with some alternatives?

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prlib.htm

How about proportional representation or some variation on it

it could work in California and give every voter a voice in state government

[Godai Kyoko]

1. Whenever anyone mentions PR, I think Weimar

What you will get with PR is the gun nuts will have a party, the anti choice will have a party (a big one unfortunatly) and so on.

And PR is useless in an American context, because the executive has so much power. In Europe the executive is essentially the PM, but in no state does any member of the legislature have any executive authority.


Personally, I like an idea called "Approval voting." It gives more and bettter choices, but dosn't have the drawbacks of PR

[davidinalameda]

2. shouldn't the gun nuts and the anti-choicers have representation

just as much as the pro-choice and those for gun restriction?

from what I know about approval voting, it sounds like you're electing the lesser of how many ever evils

with the current system, if I vote for the loser, my vote is effectively thrown away--the winner only has to have a majority plus 1 or in multi-candidate races, plurality plus 1

you're not giving a voice to those whose candidate didn't win. The winner take all system doesn't work and is probaly one of the major reasons that voting is at such a low right now

If I live in a Democratic district and I'm a Republican, why should I vote because the way the district is drawn, my candidate has no shot and vice versa for Democrats living in a Republican district. And 3rd party people have the proverbial snow ball's chance in hell of getting any representation.

[yurbud]

3. Wick, I said this earlier and you disagreed

[davidinalameda]

5. said what earlier?

about PR?

maybe because I just really began to understand it

[yurbud]

6. ah! evolving thought is allowed.

I think the original exchange was only a couple of days ago.

[davidinalameda]

7. I don't remember what I had for lunch today

my short term memory is shot

[yurbud]

8. tuna salad and clamato

[yurbud]

4. CA state legislators working on this (send suggestions)

state sen. Debra Bowen and assembly member Loni Hancock proposed this at a local level.

It wouldnt' be that hard to convince them to kick this up a notch to end the gerrymandering battles.

http://www.cfer.org/legislation/