{"id":1136,"date":"2013-10-09T22:47:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T02:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2014-07-31T15:01:19","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T19:01:19","slug":"my-way-or-the-highway-pal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/1136","title":{"rendered":"My way or the highway pal!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, as the US Government shutdown continues; we need to pause and reflect. All I can think of is: “How the hell did this happen?”\u00a0 The more I think about it, the less and less I feel it is a democrat vs. republican (lower case intentional) problem.\u00a0 I’m beginning to come to the frame of mind that it is the congressional districts, and how they are drawn. \u00a0\u00a0In most states, my home state of Virginia included, congressional districts are drawn by the political parties.\u00a0 This makes for some pretty funky looking districts<\/a>.\u00a0 Granted, there are rules in place that try to have each district contain the same amount of population and a “community of interest.” \u00a0 Congressional districts in Virginia are described by Va. Code Ann. \u00a7\u00a024.2-302.2 (2012).\u00a0 Section A simply states there are 11 elected representatives to congress.\u00a0 Sections B & C is a bunch of legalese, and section D describes each district by precinct.\u00a0 Check out districts 2 and 3 of Virginia’s congressional district map.\u00a0 What the heck?<\/p>\n

“Who cares!” I can hear you yelling at your computer.\u00a0 Our elected representatives care, that’s who.\u00a0 They maintain a loyalty to the people in their district (for the most part, I know there are many exceptions), and vote accordingly.<\/p>\n

I know that to some of my friends what I just said makes no sense.\u00a0 I can hear you thinking: “I thought the representative are supposed to vote for what the people want.” You are correct, they should.\u00a0 I actually have no problem with the representative voting as their constituents want him or her to vote.\u00a0 But with the way most districts, say in….Virginia are drawn, the representative has a “safe” district where, as long as they don’t stray too far from the party core; they don’t have<\/strong><\/em> to compromise.\u00a0 And because they don’t have to compromise; the country ends up in conundrums such as this.\u00a0 Have you noticed how everything over the past few years, before Obama too, have been crisis after crisis.\u00a0 It’s because our representatives don’t have to compromise.\u00a0 Our government was built on the principle that neither party gets all they want; they have to compromise to make the system work.<\/p>\n

I always thought, and still do to a certain extent, that the districts should be as squarish as possible.\u00a0 What I mean is that the districts should have commonality, and not be drawn around political party affiliation (VA congressional district #3 comes to mind).<\/p>\n

Is there any state in these great United States that does not draw congressional boundaries around political affiliations or have democrats and republicans draw the boundaries?\u00a0 As a matter of fact there is,\u00a0 Iowa<\/a> (yes, I said “eye-oh-ah”) uses a nonpartisan committee with out regard to political affiliations.\u00a0 Of course, we could always use North Dakota’s<\/a> model.\u00a0 Is there any traction on a national stage for Iowa’s model?\u00a0 As a matter of fact, my representative, Scot Rigell visited Rep. Bruce Braley from guess where…you guessed it: Iowa.\u00a0 They discussed the merits of Iowa’s districting policy<\/a>. I have a lot of family in Iowa, so they have to be doing something right!\u00a0 A good article about congressional districts gone awry<\/a> can be found here.<\/p>\n

What say you?\u00a0 Am I out to lunch?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, as the US Government shutdown continues; we need to pause and reflect. All I can think of is: “How the hell did this happen?”\u00a0 The more I think about it, the less and less I feel it is a … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[50,56],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rants-raves","tag-america","tag-stupid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":882,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/882","url_meta":{"origin":1136,"position":0},"title":"Sequester…Does that include Congress?","author":"DR D","date":"March 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Some very good friends of mine recently took a 20% pay cut - thanks to the doofs in Congress. Yep, that's right, they were fur-lowed one day a week when the sequester was enacted.\u00a0 Since $85 Billion in cuts were mandated.\u00a0 It appears that the only people being screwed and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/politics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":940,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/940","url_meta":{"origin":1136,"position":1},"title":"What\u2019s a Poor Congressman To Do?","author":"John Sweeney","date":"April 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My congressman sent out an e-mail in which he was inexplicably whining about some backlash he\u2019s gotten from his constituents over some recent political decisions.\u00a0 He appeared genuinely perplexed at why we would be upset, and went on to wonder if compromise and \u201cgetting along\u201d would ever be possible in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AoM"","block_context":{"text":"AoM","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/rants-raves\/aom"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15065,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/15065","url_meta":{"origin":1136,"position":2},"title":"Virginia vs. the Fed\u2026. Who\u2019s got the better case?","author":"DR D","date":"October 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, the governor of Virginia, Glen Younkin, ordered the removal of 1600+ individuals from Virginia\u2019s voting roster.\u00a0 These 1600+ people were previously identified, and are known non-citizens.\u00a0 According to the governor\u2019s press secretary, \u201c\u2026everyone who was removed from the voter roll [has] 14 days to come back and demonstrate that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/politics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/virginia_Seal.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1121,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/1121","url_meta":{"origin":1136,"position":3},"title":"Keeping the Roads Safe for Democracy","author":"John Sweeney","date":"August 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month my daughter\u2019s car had its Virginia \u201csafety inspection\u201d.\u00a0 It failed. It\u2019s probably good that the law protects us from people like my daughter and her unsafe vehicle.\u00a0 I mean, what if her brakes fail, or her bald tires don\u2019t have adequate traction, or the boot covering her CV\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/politics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1149,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/1149","url_meta":{"origin":1136,"position":4},"title":"An experiment in Timesharing: 2013 Timeshare Journey \u2013 Final","author":"DR D","date":"November 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As you may have noticed, I haven't updated this in awhile. Well, this exercise in timeshare management has finished. I came in at $1000 below budget (not including the associated fees of a timeshare)! Proving that it is possible to stay full time in a timeshare for less than a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Timeshares"","block_context":{"text":"Timeshares","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/travel\/timeshare"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dan's Timeshare Journey","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/USA-DanTJ-251x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1159,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/1159","url_meta":{"origin":1136,"position":5},"title":"Voting day 2013","author":"DR D","date":"November 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Voting took place nationwide today.\u00a0 My race was pretty small, only our Governor, LT. Governor, Attorney General, and local races.\u00a0 After I voted, I was chit-chatting with one of the persons pounding the pavement in front of the poll places, and they stated that there were no major lines to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/politics"},"img":{"alt_text":"I_Voted.__Did_You.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-11-05_08-28-25_109-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}