What a mess
Plain and simple, there are some people that are completely disinterested in politics.
there are even more people that think that it doesn't matter if they vote or not because it doesn't effect them and/or won't change anything.
Gerrymandered districts exist because of disinterested and lazy citizens.
The bigger problem that comes of that is that the gerrymandered districts become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Democrats and independents in these districts think it doesn't matter since the deck is stacked against them. What happens? Voter turn drops more and more over time and those that do turn out to vote are increasingly red-meat tea-party and republicans, they are not a large group but they don't have to be to win. So as time goes on, increasingly more republicans in local and state-wide public office, tighten the screws more and more as time goes by and they gain greater and greater advantages.This continues until they hold all the cards, they are the house and the rules all favor them. Game. Set. Match.
So now what?
Republicans play on fear. On doubt. On anger. The nagging doubt about the future. Your future. Our future. Their future. The future, the great "What If..." is the enemy. These types of things work at a very low level, they influence people at the primitive mind level, the "fight or flight" instinct level. They create irrational, emotional and reactive responses in people. "Brown people are the enemy" and "gay people are the enemy" or "fill in the blank people that live in a funny-named place I've never heard of...are the enemy". Windmills are everywhere.
The thing that has to be understood is that WE DON'T HAVE TO LOSE. In states like AZ TX and even OH and a host of other states the winds are shifting into our sails. Businesses do realize that fear and distrust and hate do not pay the bills. There isn't enough lobbyist money in the world to bear the weight of oppression indefinitely. What matters to a corporation more than anything else? Profits yes but also something called "Goodwill", a business term that means how it is perceived by consumers and its peers. Large, top tier organizations don't get that way without "goodwill", the perception that they are a good company. Its why it was easy money for all those organizations to come out against the AZ DoS attack bill and an amazing amount of free, positive, press with their names all over it.
Meaning? It means that the bill in AZ was defeated because enough people in those gerrymandered districts heard about and cared enough about the implications of that bill to say something. Enough of the businesses in those gerrymandered districts heard about and cared enough to say something. There are more people that care, at least on some level, than do not.
I go back to an saying from a friend of mine, "The problem is never the problem, its the communication". People don't like the Affordable Care Act but they support and like all of its pieces and parts. We are never going to see light again in states like AZ or OH unless we can figure out how to sell in a way that matters to everyone. Don't preach. Don't go all red-meat liberal on them and try to sell a fence-sitter on free health care for everyone, composting toilets and a solar panels on their house right out of the gate. You have to spoon feed them baby food. They've been feed a diet of Fuax news and CNN for years now. You have to make it matter to everyone. In AZ people made it matter.
= new reply since forum marked as read
There is a website for his book too...see a trip to barnes & noble in my future.
