Elke vier jaar zijn er in de VS verkiezingen net als in veel andere landen. De VS is koploper knoeien met verkiezingen. Dat gebeurt bij de tellingen (waardoor Al Gore de overwinning afgenomen werd), dat gebeurt door het uitsluiten van sommige groepen Amerikanen (vooral de zwarte bevolking) uit hun kiesrecht, en dat gebeurt ook door het voortdurend aanpassen van de grenzen van de kiesdistricten. Dit laatste heet gerrymandering (afgeleid van Elbridge Gerry die daar al in 1788 mee bezig was).
Vreemde grenzen van kiesdistricten in LA
TheAtlantic: "Every 10 years, after U.S. census workers have fanned out across the nation, a snowy-haired gentleman by the name of Tom Hofeller takes up anew his quest to destroy Democrats. He packs his bag and his laptop with its special Maptitude software, kisses his wife of 46 years, pats his West Highland white terrier, Kara, and departs his home in Alexandria, Virginia, for a United States that he will help carve into a jigsaw of disunity.
As the census shows, some states will have swelled in population, while others will have dwindled. The states that gained the most people are entitled, under the Constitution, to additional representation in the form of new congressional districts, which (since the law allows only 435 such districts) are wrenched from the states that lost the most people. After the 2010 census, eight states (all in the South and the West) gained congressional districts, which were stripped from 10 others (in the Midwest and the East Coast, as well as Katrina-ravaged Louisiana).
The creation of a new congressional district, or the loss of an old one, affects every district around it, necessitating new maps. Even states not adding or losing congressional representatives need new district maps that reflect the population shifts within their borders, so that residents are equally represented no matter where they live. This ritual carving and paring of the United States into 435 sovereign units, known as redistricting, was intended by the Framers solely to keep democracy’s electoral scales balanced. Instead, redistricting today has become the most insidious practice in American politics—a way, as the opportunistic machinations following the 2010 census make evident, for our elected leaders to entrench themselves in 435 impregnable garrisons from which they can maintain political power while avoiding demographic realities.
By July 2011, Hofeller had helped produce what a Democratic operative ruefully terms “exceptionally smart” maps—ones that, assuming they survive a lingering court challenge, may very well install a 10–3 GOP stronghold in place of the present 7–6 Democratic congressional majority."
Een zeer kwalijke tendens in de wereldpolitiek is het ontwijken van democratische besluitvorming. Je ziet het overal ter wereld, ook in de kleinste bestuurlijke eenheden. Sommige landen steken daar met kop en schouders bovenuit, in de slechtste zin, en dan vinden ze zichzelf nog de hoeder (te vuur en te zwaard) van de democratie; demockracy is een beter woord.
Worldnews: "Australia's deputy prime minister said Friday that the greatest threat to the U.S. economy are "cranks and crazies" in the Republican Party."
Vanzelfsprekend werd de Australische vice-premier van alle kanten aangevallen, want de anti-democraten zitten overal, in het pluche.