Today's "If Only..."

"The national disgrace of gerrymandering has created a system in which the vast majority of House seats are safe for one of the two parties. As a result, the real action is in the primaries, which tend to be dominated by activists. As a result, we see the polarization of Congress, as GOP candidates tend hard right to win their primaries and vice-versa for the Democrats. Now the netroots plan to exacerbate the problem.

The solution seems obvious. A national system of nonpartisan redistricting designed to maximize the number of truly competitive seats. In such a system, candidates would succeed by appealing to the center rather than the extremes, which in turn would reduce the destructive influence of the rabid partisans on both sides of the net." [ I have pointed the need for this out for a long time also. I seriously doubt it has a chance until it becomes an option for recovering from catastrophe for two reasons: 1) The very congressional plutarchs it would target fully understand its danger and won't let it happen until their dying breaths. 2) The media culture has so mentally pulverized and cynicized the population that they not only don't appreciate the value (cynicism) but don't have the attention span to pay attention to the concept. Back to the Britney rehab news now... -ed. ]