Saturday, October 5, 2013

THE GERRYMANDER


Ugly sucker isn't he? 

"First printed in March 1812, this political cartoon was drawn in reaction to the state senate electoral districts drawn by the Massachusetts legislature to favor the Democratic-Republican Party candidates of Governor Elbridge Gerry over the Federalists. The caricatures satirises the bizarre shape of a district in Essex county Massachusetts as a dragon like “monster.” Federalist newspapers, editors and others at the time likened the district shape to a salamander, and the word gerrymander was of blend of that name the Governor Gerry’s last name." From Wickipedia.

I would be really open to amending the constitution so that congressional districts are drawn based solely on population and geography. 1812 to 2013. A three hundred year dishonorable history. 



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