A more serious response here to one of Dr. Brin's proposals..... Dr. Brin suggests cross-party registrations in gerrymandered areas as a way to bring more diversity to the process.
There are a number of problems with this idea in terms of tackling the perceived problem: 1) In this case, Democrats who register as Republican in order to influence Congressional races will lose the ability to vote in the Democratic Primary in many States. 2) If one believes in the merits of one's ideas, one shouldn't completely abandon the Party.... rather one should attempt to build the Party even in areas that may be more difficulties than others. A great example of this is the fact that for a long time the two Dakotas had FOUR Democratic Senators. Likewise, by my count 22 States currently have a Governor of the opposite Party for whom they voted. 3) Ultimately, if Party Primaries were to become de facto elections, one would expect that it would simply be necessary to create "Parties Within Parties" for contesting the primaries.... indeed, to a large extent this already is the standard American process of various interest groups forming coalitions in the primary and party-building process. 4) Ultimately, this would constitute a massive coordination problem. I think that a much more effective solution would be to get national impetus behind requiring each State to institute an Iowa-style nonpartisan commission for the drawing of Congressional districts. Even though you and I disagree on many things, I think that you might agree with me in supporting such a cause. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
