Gerrymandering

An Eye-Opening Documentary About The Legal Manipulation Of The Democratic Process
The timely new documentary from Jeff Reichert "Gerrymandering" makes one wonder just what has gone so wrong with the American political party system. As a form of legislative self interest, incumbents are part of the process that rezones voting districts to all but eliminate potential competition. Whether targeting areas by politics, by race, or simply in response to an individual threat--the movie offers ample examples that will mystify and disturb you. This is a truly bipartisan arena, though, for when you are the alleged victim of gerrymandering (named after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry) then you become its vocal opponent. If, however, you benefit from it (whether directly or indirectly), it's simply a well established part of the "democratic" process. The movie covers lots of historical ground and in stock footage, a lot of famous faces speak about the process in extremely critical ways.

The narrative of "Gerrymandering" revolves around California's 2008...

Should be required viewing for all voting citizens
It has been mathematically proven that there is no form of voting that is completely fair, in the sense that all votes have equal weight. There are many things that can be done to make the process fairer, but it is impossible to eliminate all inequities, some of which are far worse than others.
Gerrymandering is the process of drawing the boundaries of voting districts so that one party is essentially guaranteed victory in every election. It is a cynical operation, for when the boundaries are drawn, in most cases representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties collaborate, trading off sections of territory in order to get what they want. The end result is often a district that is incredibly convoluted, with sections connected by very thin regions. It is so ridiculous that in some cases the connection is nothing more than the lanes of a highway. The end result is that most votes for members of representative bodies have no real political value.
While Gerrymandering...

Wonderful
A great documentary on our broken system of electing representatives. This video will take you inside the history and process of gerrymandering.

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