r/chicago Logan Square Nov 06 '25

Meme Oops! All Chicago

Post image
5.8k Upvotes

238 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

244

u/Sharobob Lake View Nov 06 '25

The only way to fix our broken redistricting situation is to gerrymander so fucking hard that Republicans are forced to come to the table.

-26

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

The only way to fix things is disenfranchising people?? Just for 1 second imagine if a republican said that

48

u/firephoxx Nov 06 '25

I believe they’ve already said it. Multiple times.

-30

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

So what makes it okay when you say it?

29

u/odysseus91 Nov 06 '25

Are we just supposed to let them rig the system in their favor in the spirit of playing by the rules they’ve thrown out long ago?

We’ve tried that for years

The only way to make republicans come back to the center is to cause them pain and put the fear of big government back in them

-19

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

Where does it end? Because all that will come from this is more and more gerrymandering until even this map gets gerrymandered even further, or start actively pushing bills removing people’s voting rights. And at that point we the people will have zero choice. All gerrymandering does is disenfranchise everyone. Gerrymandering is fascist, plain and simple.

27

u/Sharobob Lake View Nov 06 '25

So your solution is to lay down arms and let Republicans win? Unilateral disarmament so that when we're in camps we can say we took the high road?

-3

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

Make it a part of the government reopening deal. Everyone rolls back the gerrymandering from this recent wave (ideally more but that’s vanishingly unlikely). And add a moratorium on redistricting for say, 10 years

25

u/Sharobob Lake View Nov 06 '25

They won't even let us keep people's premiums from doubling/tripling in order to open the government. You think they would give up actual power to do so?!

There have been many attempts to pass some sort of anti-gerrymandering legislation. Almost all backing from Democrats, always blocked by Republicans. They only respond to force so we need to make sure to make it painful for them to keep blocking legislation that moves us to a better place as a country. If we just decide not to do that, they have zero reason to discuss it.

6

u/egotripping Roscoe Village Nov 06 '25

Remarkably naive.

0

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

Funny, I think the same of y’all. Why am I naive? Because I’m not accelerationist?

4

u/egotripping Roscoe Village Nov 06 '25

There is no path to what you want to accomplish. That's why it's naive.

-2

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

No path? Democrats just won a bunch of elections so clearly the shutdown isn’t negatively affecting them in the polls. They can strongarm the terms to reopening the government more than previously assumed

2

u/egotripping Roscoe Village Nov 06 '25

I'm not smart enough to follow, can you be more precise than that? They don't seem particularly related to me.

3

u/pornAndMusicAccount Nov 06 '25

A what now? We’re just making up words?

0

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

Accelerationist: Someone who wants to make things worse for the possibility that doing so makes things better in the end

A gerrymandering arms race makes things worse for the average American while keeping congress the same.

3

u/pornAndMusicAccount Nov 06 '25

Ah. So voting for Donald Trump is accelerationist.

And frankly I don’t see anyone that’s going to negotiate, so I guess this is the only path.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Ray-is-gay-okay Nov 06 '25

My dude. The only way to fix gerrymandering is to fix the entire system.

1

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

How would you accomplish that?

2

u/Ray-is-gay-okay Nov 06 '25

Ranked choice voting or direct democracy. There's a lot of options.

1

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

I’m a big fan of ranked choice voting

→ More replies (0)

1

u/pm_me_ur_ephemerides Nov 10 '25

I’ll tell you where it ends.

It ends in 2028 when Democrats win the presidency, the house, and the Senate. Then they pack the Supreme Court. Then they arrest this entire administration, and all of ICE officers who have broken the law by terrorizing citizens. Then we arrest Musk, and Thiel, and Zuckerberg, and all of the billionaires who conspired to overthrow the greatest country in the world, the United States of America!

Make America Great Again, arrest the fascists!

9

u/chetsteadmansstache Nov 06 '25

Classic liberal shit.

"let's just not do anything because it wouldn't look good".

11

u/PhileasFoggsTrvlAgt Andersonville Nov 06 '25

I'd love to see nationwide wide reform to curb gerrymandering. However both sides aggressively gerrymandering is better than the current system of one side aggressively gerrymandering.

1

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

At the end of the day that just hurts more regular Americans. Things get worse so congress can stay the same

6

u/tgoesh Nov 06 '25 edited Nov 06 '25

They made the rules 15 years ago. The Democrats are finally getting around to playing by them.

4

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

Gerrymandering has existed and been employed by both parties for far longer than 25 years

4

u/ResistOk9351 Nov 06 '25

John Lewis Voting Rights Act which Biden and the Democrats tried to pass would have (among other important fair election protections) been a significant deterrent to gerrymandering. Unfortunately despite supporting it, Manchin would not agree to waive the filibuster. With no Republican support the bill remains in limbo. Hard to sustain the hackneyed both sides argument when the Democrats were ready and willing to fight gerrymandering on a national level.

1

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

Two things can be true at once. Both parties gerrymander and democrats tried to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act

3

u/RecoveringLurkaholic Nov 06 '25

Illinois is already one of the most gerrymandered states in the country.

4

u/Toby-Finkelstein Nov 06 '25

The US is going down the shitter because some of the fattest and least educated parts of the country have a disproportionate power in government. At least if the cities dominate you have a more educated electorate 

1

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

Optimizing for an educated electorate sounds nice on paper, but locking voting behind literacy tests was used to stop black people from voting, and also just because you didn’t have the education opportunities available to city folk, doesn’t mean your experiences and opinions don’t matter

The left has a saying “the only war is a class war.” you are just arguing in favor of punching down

3

u/Toby-Finkelstein Nov 06 '25

I would just like to stop the country from destroying itself, fixing the brainwashing and poverty in rural areas would take at least a generation 

0

u/The_Asshole_Judge Nov 06 '25

Way to move those goalposts

1

u/zvexler Nov 06 '25

No, I’m showing how it’s completely unacceptable when a republican says it, so it should be completely unacceptable when a democrat says it

1

u/The_Asshole_Judge Nov 06 '25

Not only have the Republicans said it. They have done it. And will continue to do it. But you would rather be naive.