Obama’s comments appear in a new video supporting Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50 which would allow the California legislature to draw new congressional boundaries ahead of the midterms
Barack Obama has entered the political fray ahead of November’s special election in California, accusing Republicans of attempting to “rig the next election” in a new ad backing Governor Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50, a ballot measure that could reshape the state’s congressional map.
“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says in the 30-second ad, urging voters to approve the proposal. “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.”
Gerrymandering has been a problem for decades, and it’s only getting worse.
It’s possible that the only way to get fair election maps is to min/max the system to the extreme. And once everyone sees how horrible it is, maybe they’ll be willing to actually work together to fix the system.
If we wait for a perfect solution that causes no friction, we’ll be waiting forever. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
I am also a bit of an accelerationist.
I can’t help but think that if the Democrats could improve conditions for the common people without resorting to tactics that undermine the principle of one man = one vote, we’d see them getting a lot more votes.
They could keep up the pressure to eliminate the electoral college, for example.
Unfortunately there have been just enough shitty centrist dems elected, and a plurality of even shittier Republicans being elected, to block the best proposals. The best hope we had for universal healthcare, for example, was blocked by one man - Joseph Lieberman.
To say nothing of the corporate interests and billionaire donors that influence policy making in the party, and the feckless leadership, that is.
Not asking for perfect, but better than terrible. Genocide is terrible. What ICE is doing is terrible. Rigging elections is terrible.