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Simple math can help scheming politicians manipulate district maps and cruise to victory. But it can also help identify and fix the problem.
Imagine fighting a war on 10 battlefields. You and your opponent each have 200 soldiers, and your aim is to win as many battles as possible. How would you deploy your troops? If you spread them out evenly, sending 20 to each battlefield, your opponent could concentrate their own troops and easily win a majority of the fights. You could try to overwhelm several locations yourself, but there's no guarantee you'll win, and you'll leave the remaining battlefields poorly defended. Devising a winning strategy isn't easy, but as long as neither side knows the other's plan in advance, it's a fair fight.
Now imagine your opponent has the power to deploy your troops as well as their own. Even if you get more troops, you can't win.
In the war of politics, this power to deploy forces comes from gerrymandering, the age-old practice of manipulating voting districts for partisan gain. By determining who votes where, politicians can tilt the odds in their favor and defeat their opponents before the battle even begins.
Anyone for a game of RISK?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday October 22 2017, @09:09PM (2 children)
Is it just me or doesn't it seem like the other guy has better soldiers then the first guy? The fight seems kinda rigged.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday October 22 2017, @09:36PM (1 child)
The classic "right vs left" thing LOL, can't resist mentioning. There is an interesting aspect carefully not mentioned that all the soldiers are volunteers not under contract free to move where they want. In theory they have agency although the level of agency varies a bit along certain lines the existence of which are debated etc etc into eternity.
The point is as private citizens if you move to a less diverse area your vote counts less. There is a practical matter in that one party rules with a "firm hand" socially but is mostly a paradise to live in, whereas the other party rule generates horrific squalor. So you end up with a weird balance of power. If you're tired of party A winning district Z and you're a member of party A, well, freaking move there. However party B in rule might make the area unlivable, so ...
This also strays into "lets realign the parties along racial lines" with a side dish of "lets realign immigration policy along racial lines" which is kinda national level gerrymandering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @07:05PM
Oh VLM, you think Democrats were the ones that created urban squalor? Please do some research and learn what policies actually screwed over low socioeconomic status communities. It is despicable when conservatives try and shift the blame off of themselves, stop voting for greedy pigs who make everyone's lives worse, well except for themselves (the super rich).
Your ignorance is a pox upon this site.