Which is the larger problem in the current US political system, gerrymandering or the way campaigns are financed?

6/26/2014 10:36:04 AM

yes

6/26/2014 10:46:23 AM

taxes.

6/26/2014 11:19:14 AM

^^ pick one!

6/26/2014 11:20:16 AM

^^ taxes being too low is definitely a huge problem

i think gerrymandering, or more precisely noncompetitive districts, are a bigger problem than the way campaigns are financed. gerrymandering is only part of the problem though, i think the bigger problem is the size of the House of Representatives. T

The last time the House increased its size was in 1910, it is terribly past due for another increase. Increasing the size of the house will break up gerrymandered and noncompetitive districts and may even challenge the two party system.

6/26/2014 11:26:22 AM

LMFTFY: taxes being too low [on the truly rich]

^^pick one?!?!!?!??!!??! jerry's meandering.

6/26/2014 12:10:50 PM

Excessive power of government. If government were smaller, people would throw less corrupting money at government.

6/26/2014 2:56:11 PM

that's not in the list.

6/26/2014 4:15:13 PM

Of the two gerrymandering is the much bigger problem and has been a big driver in the rise of increasingly partisan politics and lack of compromise. It's also about as likely to be fixed since the lunatics run the asylum in all but a handful of states.

Don't get me wrong, I like when congress sits on their hands, they do less damage that way, but it would be nice if they could occasionally get off their talking points and actually solve a problem or too, especially since they're usually the ones that created the problem in the first place.

6/26/2014 4:30:17 PM

If I could include lobbying with campaign finance, I would go with that.

6/26/2014 4:40:46 PM

Quote :

"PROBLEM OR TOO"

6/26/2014 8:13:49 PM

D'oh!

6/26/2014 9:11:43 PM

to answer the original question, Gerrymandering has to be one of the most corrupt things. All parties are guilty of it and I don't see how it's constitutional.

and NC is probably one of the most gerrymandered states out there.

[Edited on June 27, 2014 at 12:42 AM. Reason : ]

6/27/2014 12:41:25 AM

Quote :

"to answer the original question, Gerrymandering has to be one of the most corrupt things"

Without declaring one more corrupt than the other you haven't answered the original question.

Quote :

"All parties are guilty of it "

Obviously. [more like both though...how many parties do you think are involved in gerrymandering?]

Quote :

"I don't see how it's constitutional."

How is it not?

Quote :

"NC is probably one of the most gerrymandered states out there. "

That's like saying the Alabama KKK chapter is one of the most racist KKK chapters out there.

6/27/2014 1:33:47 AM

http://www.propublica.org/article/is-partisan-gerrymandering-unconstitutional (first google result)
it's clearly been under a lot of constitutional scrutiny, even if the decisions by the supreme court have been ambiguous and/or ineffective.

[Edited on June 27, 2014 at 4:09 AM. Reason : ]

6/27/2014 4:08:10 AM

Gerrymandering.

6/27/2014 11:04:05 AM

Campaign finance drives the gerrymandering. Hence, campaign finance is the root cause and is more of a problem.

[Edited on June 29, 2014 at 9:59 PM. Reason : .]

6/29/2014 9:57:58 PM

^ How so, on the former?

[Edited on July 2, 2014 at 10:18 PM. Reason : I agree with your conclusion though]

7/2/2014 10:18:17 PM

Gerrymandering. Campaign finance is an issue but you'll never be able to put individuals in positions of power and get rid of other people trying to access that power and garner influence from that person's power to their benefit. It's true in democracies, it's true in dictatorships. It was true 500 years ago, it's true now, it'll be true 500 years from now.

If we had political districts that weren't drawn in a weird fashion to ensure only one party could win, how many extremist members of Congress from the left and right would be eliminated? I have no issue with districts that are drawn with one side in a majority that they can't lose but are geographically defensible. (Political district maps should be similar to area code/zip code maps.)



[Edited on July 3, 2014 at 3:35 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2014 3:30:59 PM