What a day (and I ought to be cooking)

[pecunium]

Arnie amazes me.

As much for his McCain like understanding that he has to sell out some of what he believes to get attention from the people running the Party he belongs to (and his understanding that to be a player he has to belong to a party) as his maverick status.

He never, if he hoped to gain my respect, should have spoken at the convention. That level of support for the man in the Oval Office (who by every measure I can think of has been a disgrace to the Office, and a disaster for the Nation) was unconscionable.

But he has made his pitch for a shake-up (and drastic, a 9.0 on the political Richter Scale) in the way districts are drawn in Calif.. He wants to hand it over to retired judges.

The Dems are scared, and with some reason. The present gerrymanders favor them.

The Republicans are lukewarm, and with more reason. A fairer apportioning of people to districts (with a mix,so a lock isn't assured) would mean more Republicans get elected, but at a price.... they would have to be more moderate. They would need to pay attention to what people like me, think. They would also have to pay attention to what those who are actully registered as democrats think.

If they won by a mere 1 percent, they would spend the next year and a half looking over their shoulder, wondering who was going to make a case for better serving those constituents. Heck, they might have actually pay attention to the people they represent.

Go figure.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Retired judges? From which courts? Elected or appointed? Deciding how?

Interesting idea, but I wnat more details.

K. [maybe the Internet can tell me more!]

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I do too.

Most California judges are elected. Even the appointements are subject to periodic review by the electorate.

But judges are funny creatures. Most of them have some attachment to fair play, even as attneuated as some of those ideas on fair seem to be.

I doubt (mostly) that it could be any less fair than the present system, and also doubt he can get such a system passed if it were just going to reverse the present system I don't think he can get it passed, since the nature of the beast is such that incumbents are well thought of by most constituents, even when "politicians" are held in contempt.

It will be an interesting ride.

TK

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Right now, districts are such that we have places where people who are radical democrats win with 75% right next to districts where right-wingers win by 75%. (I'm making up the numbers, mostly, but the holds are tight.) No one really ran seriously against our rep this year, he's unbeatable, and one of the most left of the Democrats in Congress. I'm interested to see what different lines will do.

[rainherder.livejournal.com]

I wanted to vote against McCain because of his speech at the convention, but his opponents were truly frightening. I abstained.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I would return McCain to the Senate. I don't think I can ever vote for him for the presidency.

TK

[antiquated-tory.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting proposal to follow. Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep my eyes open for its progress.