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While some of the dumbest motherfuckers on this website are out there claiming that voting doesn't matter, Wisconsin voters turned their state back into a democracy through a couple of important supreme court elections.

JUST IN: Governor Tony Evers signed new legislative maps for Wisconsin. Maps give Dems a new shot at winning majorities in WI, undo GOP's hyper-gerrymander. They were proposed by Evers after state supreme court struck down the gerrymander. GOP passed them last week to avoid court coming back in.

I'll give the Wisconsin Democratic party extra credit relative to the national party here: they identified a very specific problem (gerrymandering) that clearly rigged the game against them and they resolved to dismantle it. They didn't give a shit about appearing partisan.

I point this out because national Dems still hem and haw about some pretty obvious pro-democracy fixes needed in Washington -- filibuster reform, DC statehood, and court-packing. They need that Wisconsin dem fire in their belly.

I mostly agree, though I think I’d put a little more emphasis on this being on the *decisive* Dem votes more than national Dems as a whole, due to the court having been packed, the “natural” gerrymander of the states, etc.

If national Dems had the brass of the midwestern parties DC single statehood would be the moderate compromise position, versus DC split up in 27 new states

Fuck it, redraw the states. Equal population union time:

National legislature redrawing state lines according to population every other census year would be pretty cool IMO, if strange in practice.

You know what’d be a cool chaotic way to start? States draw their districts, and then Congress reallocates those districts to contiguous other states to balance population.

I'm guessing the people of Rainier and Shasta on the border wouldn't mind a scenario where they wind up in Salt Lake, though guessing the reverse definitely not true.

This is what Hamilton wanted: states based around metro areas of a set amount of population

Just do away with the Senate is also an option

I genuinely think this would fix a lot of our governance problems but it’d probably be impossible to maintain.

Yeah, I don't think you could have this ticking real-time, but I'd say revisiting state composition every 25 years or so might work.

Not great for people living under the laws of Washington or Oregon who suddenly find themselves living in Idaho.

Add a zero to the number of states there and we’re in business

Sorry, I don't have a fetish for the HRE.

Everyone I know in Tucson will leave the the country before living in the state of Phoenix.

iirc this (or another version by the same designer) actually resulted in some bad EC/popular splits and would have resulted in a Romney victory in 2012

Because of winner-take all EC rules? Surprising but I guess possible.

on the plus side, cool state names and a fair senate. on the downside, pretty much impossible and some really dumb borders. all of N. Maine with Boston, but not Boston's Western suburbs? silly.

I mean, there are plenty of cities with suburbs across state lines right now. If your goal is 50 equal states, you're going to have to break up some metros. I'm pretty sure this map puts the Bronx in a separate state from the rest of NYC—which is mathematically unavoidable w/ 50 equal states.

I like this, but mostly because a somewhat crappy old mill town of less than 20,000 in eastern CT that isnt' even an independent city anymore, and with the 2 nicknames "heroin town, USA" and "the thread city" get a state of 6.6 million named after it.

It's actually named after the river, not the town named after the river. Many of these state names derive from Native names for prominent geographic features in their borders.

Who wins each state here in 2020?

Fiiiiiiiine I'll do the east coast. Casco: Solid Blue Willimantic: Blue Adirondack: Swing Blue NYC Metro: solid Blue Philadelphia metro: Blue Pocono: swing Blue Susquehanna: Blue Washington DC: Blue Alleghany: swing R Tidewater: swing r Shenandoah: Solid Red. Blue Ridge: Red Colombia: Red

I'm not gonna go all through it but this map is a DNC wet dream. In the south and southwest you have fairly liberal urban enclaves just straight up detached from their conservative rural regions and the same pattern isn't really replicated up in Northern liberal bastions.

I like it! As a native Shiprocker now living in Shasta’s biggest urban center, I think this map would be a big improvement over the current one.

I don't know what I think of this but I love mapplay.

"Equal population" would be splitting Chicagoland (not Cook County) between Wisconsin and Indiana, not taking away 45% of Wisconsin's residents plus Gary and adding them to Chicago.

You're misreading that; Chicago is a standalone state comprised of the city plus about 58% of its metro. The state of Gary wraps around from Indiana up to Milwaukee.

Shouldn't "Gary" be the "Greater Chicagoland Area"?

Also, WisDems under Wikler seriously invested in the ground game. They spent years building up the party structure throughout the state, putting together a machine that could juice turnout. You'd think that was a thing in every state party but no, for some reason it isn't.

and uncapping the house which doesn't get nearly enough support DC statehood is long and difficult (though obviously good for DC and good for democracy) Uncapping the house is accomplished by passing and signing a law (and also good for american democracy)

We don’t disagree philosophically. But i need you to understand that there is a HUGE difference between trying to accomplish something approaching democracy in Wisconsin, and trying to do the same thing in the Deep South. We’re obstructed way, way earlier and much more definitively in this process.

Where did I mention the deep south?

When you said people arguing that voting doesn’t matter are dumb. Not here they aren’t. Here, they are realistic and terrified. Here, they are trying to explain to you that our Democrat governor signed away our abortion rights *before* the SCOTUS even ruled. Here, we do not have these choices.

"I point this out because *national Dems* still hem and haw about some pretty obvious pro-democracy fixes needed *in Washington* -- filibuster reform, DC statehood, and court-packing. *They* need that Wisconsin dem fire in their belly."

Them, Minnesota, and Michigan proving the Midwest Dems should be ascendant for actually implementing policy (and on a slim majority in Minnesota)

I had read somewhere that the Rs only supported the Gov. because they feared the WI. SC would take more away from them, your opinion?

Yup and they got there by hammering on "This election is important; there aren't any you can blow off. You have to go vote in EVERY election." Because WI's supreme court elections are in the spring of odd-numbered years which was previously tough to get (D) turnout for. Break a few records, win.

Turnout in Wisconsin Supreme Court race breaks recordapnews.com MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Turnout in Wisconsin's hotly contest Supreme Court race broke the previous record high set for spring elections that don't coincide with a presidential primary.

Wisconsin Democrats did an amazing thing. That it took them more than a decade, though, is a concern. This type of antidemocratic behavior needs to be stopped immediately because you rarely get a second chance. Nation-wide we've let them get away with it for decades and they're just getting worse.