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[James Dasher <jdasher AT ibiblio.org>]

On Wednesday, Feb 11, 2004, at 10:42 US/Eastern, Shea Tisdale wrote:

> This whole affair is an embarrassment to the state.  The state 
> legislature
> and the republicans who drew these crazy boundaries should be ashamed.

Republicans didn't invent gerrymandering.  They weren't even the first 
to use the tactic in drawing electoral districts in North Carolina.

The problem stems from limiting the number of Representatives to the 
U.S. House; and both Senators and Representatives in the General 
Assembly.

IIRC, the Constitution originally mandated one Representative for every 
60,000 people.  Today, the number is capped at 435.  Thus, each citizen 
matters less as the population grows.  It ain't quite taxation without 
representation, but it's certainly taxation with less and less 
representation.

I'm familiar with arguments against removing the limit, and they all 
boil down to "it wouldn't work".  But telling citizens that they're too 
dumb to figure out how to manage to govern themselves is hardly worthy 
of a government supposedly of, by, and for those same citizens.

With almost 300,000,000 people in the U.S., we'd have almost 5,000 
Representatives.  North Carolina, with roughly 8,000,000 people, would 
have more than 100 Representatives.  Socialists, Greens, Libertarians, 
Conservatives, Reformists, and others would all have a chance to elect 
someone to represent them.

If you think 5,000 (or more) people can't figure out how to get 
anything done, then don't take the easy way out.  How *could* they get 
things done (assuming you actually want them to ;) ?  Besides, with 
more Representatives, the legislative branch wouldn't have to cede so 
much regulatory (i.e. lawmaking) authority to the executive branch  The 
government-as-jobs-program (for rich and middle-class bureaucrats 
alike) could shift to the legislative branch, where citizens can 
actually do something about it.

So: smaller government, more effective government, more representative 
government - what's not to love?

We need a constitutional amendment to lift the ban on representation.

--
James Dasher
misterdasher dot com
IM misterdasher