Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 17, 2017

Just follow Roy Moore’s advice and get rid of all the Amendments after the first ten.

If you want a prime example of gerrymandering, you’ll find it in Illinois. The*democrats* did it to maintain their control of the state, which they couldn’t do in an honest election. The republicans sued, but the very biased judge let it stand, and said, “You’ll get your turn next time.” We know that will never happen as long as Madigan controls the state legislature and his daughter is the state’s attorney general.

Thank you, Voice of N R Hills. Your history lesson is accurate. I remember those details from the news at the time, including Eisenhower’s win at the polls.

Gerrymandering has no effect on statewide votes such as senate or governor.

Oh where do I start to answer the Voice?

Let’s start with the Great Depression. The US didn’t go through 3 misery under Republican rule as if they were on a bad blind date. The country suffered an economic collapse of the likes never seen before. It is estimated the unemployment rate went from 3.2% in 1929 to 25% when Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933. The banking system completely collapsed. The GDP of the US went from $790.9B in 1929 to $577B in 1933. It managed to exceed pre Great Depression level in 1937 when it went up to $831B.

Now let’s talk about Ike. Full disclosure: I Like Ike. He was a great general and a very good president. But this claim of unstoppable prosperity is a myth. There were actually 3 recessions during the Eisenhower Administration. The unemployment rate was 2.9% when Ike took office. It went as low as 2.5% during the early months of Administration before the recession hit in Fall ‘53. This contributed directly to the Dems taking control of Congress in ‘54. The next recession was ‘57 to ‘58. This lead to a Democratic landslide in ‘58. The 3rd and last recession couldn’t have been worst timed for Richard Nixon. It was the summer of 1960, months before the election. So, Eisenhower came into office with 2.9% unemployment and left with 6.6% unemployment.

After the last Ike recession ended during the first year of the JFK Administration, there was no economic downturn until Nixon came into office — 8 straight years of economic growth. When Nixon came into office in 1969, the unemployment rate was 3.4%. When his successor Gerald Ford left office in 1977 it was 7.8%.

If someone has an invalid ID, why should they be allowed to vote? That’s not racist – it’s common sense.

Republicans are destroying America.

I believe Mr. Snake’s rhetorical skills would be better used at http://www.fark.com/politics; I’m sure he would recieve a most condign reception.

America has been bitten by the Republican rattlesnake, don’t let it die.

I see our resident St. Petersburg troll had a busy week. How’s the weather over there, tovarich? Cold enough for ya?

What the Republicans are doing with appointment of new judges is going to be as big a problem as gerrymandering.

If it doesn’t make sense to make Jimmy Crow black, then it doesn’t make sense to make him blue; he should be red.

@troll Is that you Sarah spieling the laughable statements? Can you remind us which number commandment is the one about “not bearing false witness”?

Niger! Deficits! Hyperinflation! Illuminati! Teleprompters!

Apparently no news has reached Wyoming since the pony express stopped running.

I strongly oppose Jim Crow, racism, etc. BUT we do need to purge rolls and ensure no voter fraud. I support checking IDS only if the govt will ensure that every legal voter is provided an ID. To many dead voters voting these days. (Even Kennedy carried Illinois by the dead in Chicago).

Gerrymandering, Senate nuclear option, Electoral College, the Republicans need their handicaps or they wouldn’t win anything at all. If it weren’t for their racist voter suppression, more minorities would be allowed to vote, that is the last thing the alt-right wants.

Oh, yeah, the ol’ “Democrats were the party of slavery” thing. Very True. And completely irrelevant to today, like refusing to shop IKEA because the Vikings looted your ancestral village 1000 years ago. The real question is, which party would support the return of Jim Crow TODAY?

Great strip today! Is Jerry Mander a new character?

National id for voting, health care and buying a gun.

How would you recognize Mr. Mander? He changes shape so often.

The tide is turning for Democrats, but they have a much higher bar to reach over thanks to redisticting.

@LEE DAWSON

If you want to know why Nixon lost, look at the 1960-61 recession. Because of the recession, Nixon lost Michigan and Pennsylvania. These 2 states had gone Republican in 3 previous elections.

Yes, Voice’s comments are quite repetitive, once you have read it once, there is no need to continue to pay attention to him.

Seriously, with all that mock-historical stuff about about “Democrats are the party of Jim Crow” (note: the character in the strip is Jimmy Crow, Jim Crow’s modern avatar) aside, I submit that one of the biggest problems of the electoral system in the US (and here in Canada and other jurisdictions) is the whole idea that a geographic region can be “represented” by one and only one “representative.” (Note also that there are some cases where gerrymandering has been used to improve representation of minority racial groups—see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering_in_the_United_States#Affirmative )

Whatever the motivation, drawing the boundaries of single-representative districts is by necessity arbitrary. Other voting systems, like the Single Transferable Vote (my favourite—http://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8530623/br-external/CherniackHoward-e.pdf ) or other forms of proportional representation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering_in_the_United_States#Alternative_voting_systems ), produce fairer results, and ones that are much less susceptible to gerrymandering.

Anyone concerned about voter fraud in America should be equally concerned about extinction level events from outer space. They occur at about the same frequency.

The Voice is very good at pointing out certain truths while ignoring others.

TRUE: Woodrow Wilson was a racist pig.

Also TRUE: Republicans had control of the White House from 1920 to 32 and did nothing to reverse Wilson’s policies.

Also TRUE: The first steps to reverse Wilson’s policies were taken by Democrats. On June 25, 1941 Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802. This barred discrimination and segregation in defense facilities and also barred private federal contractors from discriminating on account of “race, creed, color, or national origin.”

We all know that Truman ordered the desegregation of the Armed Forces.

Does one of the parties need gerrymandering to compensate for declining numbers, perhaps?

http://www.people-press.org/2016/09/13/1-the-changing-composition-of-the-political-parties/

On the surface, the I.D. requirement appears sensible, but “on the surface”, the ‘literacy’ tests of the Jim crow era also made sense, as well! It’s not necessarily the requirement but the administering of the requirement where things go ‘South’! Everyone needs to keep in mind one CENTRAL fact of American life: the ability to vote in ALL federal elections is a Constitutional RIGHT – not a privilege, and there is a MASSIVE difference between a RIGHT and a PRIVILEGE! Such things as drivers licenses and other state-issued ‘permissions’ MUST be earned and, more than likely, paid for; the right to vote in federal elections is, however, a right which you were either granted automatically by virtue of being born here in the U.S.A. or was granted you by virtue of the naturalization process. There are no conditions other than the one’s I’ve just enumerated, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, NO FEES enumerated as a requirement to voting in any federal election by either the original U.S. Constitution nor in ANY of the subsequent amendments added to the same. The individual states are permitted any ridiculous lunacy they care to inflict on their unfortunate inhabitants, in my opinion, but the imposition of ‘cockamamie’ rules on a federal process is clearly, extraconstitutional!

The republicans have tried for decades to drum up fear of ‘lawless hordes’ of sinister people subverting our electoral process by illegally voting in elections in contravention of the rules, and they have mounted study after study after study trying to prove THAT premise, and have NEVER been able to find more than a tiny, tiny percentage of ‘fraud’ which “voter I.D.” would have caught! They KEEP insisting that fraud exists while constantly proving by not finding ANY fraud to speak of tha the REAL purpose of “Voter I.D.” Laws is ACTUALLY disenfranchisement and voter suppression! The G.O.P. is losing membership at an alarming rate – the Republican party is the party of “old,white guys” and they’re dying out!