To: The Ohio State House, The Ohio State Senate, and Governor Mike DeWine
The U.S. House of Un Representatives
It feels like the U.S. House keeps plunking the same one string banjo.
Why does the U.S. House over and over again pass bills (like their most recent Homeland Security bill) that have no chance of passing in the U.S. Senate?
Because U.S. Representatives represent predominately safe, un competitive, gerrymandered districts. Most House members have no incentive to pass legislation that could move forward because their one-sided constituents have no interest in or tolerance for compromise. A big problem since our Founding Fathers established compromise as the guiding principle to make our U.S. Government, with its 3 branches and checks and balances, work
U.S. Senators represent entire States and don't enjoy the House's myopic, self-selected voter status. U.S. Senators have to give a darn about representing all the citizens in their States.
So as long as we continue to have an unrepresentative, gerrymandered U.S. House, our federal government will continue to be dysfunctional. As long as we allow our U.S. House seats to be rigged, it really doesn't matter who is in the majority.
We need to reform the way our states re district. We need to establish nonpartisan commissions that would re district following guidelines our Founding Fathers intended. The goals being (1) to create districts that are shaped to connect contiguous communities. (2) to create districts that are balanced and as a result competitive.
(3) to create districts that distribute the population with no advantage to a particular party affiliation.
Why does the U.S. House over and over again pass bills (like their most recent Homeland Security bill) that have no chance of passing in the U.S. Senate?
Because U.S. Representatives represent predominately safe, un competitive, gerrymandered districts. Most House members have no incentive to pass legislation that could move forward because their one-sided constituents have no interest in or tolerance for compromise. A big problem since our Founding Fathers established compromise as the guiding principle to make our U.S. Government, with its 3 branches and checks and balances, work
U.S. Senators represent entire States and don't enjoy the House's myopic, self-selected voter status. U.S. Senators have to give a darn about representing all the citizens in their States.
So as long as we continue to have an unrepresentative, gerrymandered U.S. House, our federal government will continue to be dysfunctional. As long as we allow our U.S. House seats to be rigged, it really doesn't matter who is in the majority.
We need to reform the way our states re district. We need to establish nonpartisan commissions that would re district following guidelines our Founding Fathers intended. The goals being (1) to create districts that are shaped to connect contiguous communities. (2) to create districts that are balanced and as a result competitive.
(3) to create districts that distribute the population with no advantage to a particular party affiliation.
Why is this important?
I believe that gerrymandered districts (which have rightly been ruled unconstitutional) are destroying our democracy.