Opinion of Elbridge Gerry

[ElectionsGuy]

John Adams: 62.5/37.5
Thomas Jefferson: 86.1/13.9
Aaron Burr: 56.4/43.6
George Clinton: 92.0/8.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbridge_Gerry

FF

[Antonio the Sixth]

HP. Started one of the vilest traditions of American politics.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Imagine the elections without gerrymandering. How boring would that be?

Massive ff.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Imagine the elections without gerrymandering. How boring would that be?

Massive ff.

A lot less boring actually, since there would be many more close races.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Imagine the elections without gerrymandering. How boring would that be?

Massive ff.

A lot less boring actually, since there would be many more close races.

But what about funny maps?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Imagine the elections without gerrymandering. How boring would that be?

Massive ff.

A lot less boring actually, since there would be many more close races.

But what about funny maps?

If by "funny" you mean they make eyes bleed...

[TDAS04]

FF.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Well, he literally invented gerrymandering, so HP.

FF for preventing war in 1799.

How do you figure?

[Miles]

I mean, even without him, the concept of gerrymandering would have come about anyway at some point.

[Mechaman]

I mean, even without him, the concept of gerrymandering would have come about anyway at some point.

Hell, it was happening before Gerry.  Patrick Henry and his allies used gerrymandering before it was known as gerrymandering to try to keep James Madison out of the US House of Representatives in the late 1780s.  They just didn't have an apt name for it besides "cheap politics, bro" or something to that effect.  And as it is I really do have to question exactly how bad the infamous "Gerrymander" really was.  Mind that Gerry was a Massachusetts Democratic-Republican Governor who was able for a few years to keep DR influence strong by controlling the Massachusetts State Legislature for a few years.  Reading his wiki page, it looks like the DR government in MA was able to pass laws the liberalized "religious tax laws" and he  broadened the religoius diversity on the Harvard Board of Overseers.   Considering that the MA Federalists were basically a bunch of elitist hibernophobic protestant supremacists, I don't really consider that a bad thing.  Like at all really.

I'm not so certain that the problem is gerrymandering more as it is how/where/why it's done.  Politics isn't some clean sport and people who play "fair and balanced" tend to lose out.

That combined with his earlier advocacy of the Bill of Rights (refusing to sign the Constitution until that was there) make me a defacto FF vote.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm not so certain that the problem is gerrymandering more as it is how/where/why it's done.  Politics isn't some clean sport and people who play "fair and balanced" tend to lose out.

I'm sorry, I understand that sometimes the end justifies the means, but no. Gerrymandering is a cancer of the political system that sucks out the very soul of representation, turning the representatives into mindless party hacks with no connection to an actual constituency. It might lead to good outcomes under certain conditions at a certain point in time, but in the long run it wrecks democracy to pieces.

And it's ridiculous to say gerrymandering will always be there. Most democracies in the world (see Britain or Canada) have completely done away with it. Hell, even some US States have solved the problem very easily, with citizens' commissions. It doesn't get eradicated through politicians' goodwill, of course, but rather through stricter rules and oversight.

[ElectionsGuy]

Come on now, he did much more than come up with the word gerrymander.