note: I know what will be said in this post below will have been said before, both on the web and in other posts on this site and probably in much more articulate terms. But it bears repeating. And should be repeated every day, and in every possible way until the media finally begin to accept it as common fact. Gerrymandering is the number one political problem in this country, far more important than Citizens United or filibuster reform and in 2012 it cost the Democrats from taking control of the House.
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Much has been made over these last few weeks about the GOP's recently won control over the House of Representatives and how this fact should somehow embolden them to refuse to bend on tax rates. This theory is based on the false assumption that the nation as a whole is still a center-right majority and the reason Mitt Romney lost was that he was a flawed candidate who did not articulately explain conservative dogma. The argument goes that the reason the GOP did so poorly in the Senate was because of meddling in GOP primaries by fringe groups and in some cases Dems themselves, McCaskill I'm looking at you, and that those losses shouldn't be looked at as cause for alarm, as much as cause to crack down on the democratic process for electing GOP candidates.
In actual reality, gerrymandering costs the Democrats roughly 23 seats in this last election and incidentally control of the House. Not only that, but the majority of the damage was done in just a handful of states, which all share a curious distinction this year of being considered swing states.
Below the cheese doodle I will briefly lay out my work and assumptions and pose a series of further avenues of discussion.
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