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Old 10-13-2018, 05:04 PM
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ebacon ebacon is offline
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Michigan Prop 2 -- Gerrymandering Again

I am still so goddamn pissed off over the political noise in America that I can't stand myself. Fuck. Fuck. I need to scream. Here is my attempt at articulating more than screaming FUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!

Sorry.

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Michigan Prop 2 - Gerrymandering

I will vote no to prop 2. Why?

Gerrymandering is a red herring in Michigan politics. It does not matter where the lines are drawn every ten years. The bigger issue IMO is still in first amendment contrasts between types of speech, e.g. political, commercial, private, and the like. I don't know all the hairs on that animal. But what I do know is that speech is persuasive when it is done well.

The lines can be drawn anywhere in Michigan and it will not change a single thing. All that will happen is Michigan taxpayers will be saddled with financing another committee and the lawyers that feed from its infighting.

We need to take a step back from the problem and ask a different question. First we need to define the problem. What is the problem that Michigan is trying to solve with Prop 2? What is it that we are frustrated with when it comes to the outcome of our politics? What physical thing can we point to and say that, that thing, I wish was different? For me the answers are articulable. I wish that our town centers have pedestrian zones instead of ever-widening Main Streets.

I am not Main Street America. I am a different animal. Do you feel me? Do you want to Tweet or Facebook that emotion to try and grow it? If so then you are gerrymandering in mind space instead of cartography space.

Silicon Valley, NYC, and Washington DC are making a mess with their pervasive databases and their ability to persuade us minute by minute through cell phone apps and cable television. It is noisy and we know it but we can't put our finger on what is pissing us off. It's their noisy speech.

Michiganders are paying taxes for politicians to make good decisions and they are letting us down. Our politicians do not understand how fast the computers churn speech and money in Silicon Valley, NYC, and DC. Prop 2 suggests that all we need is one more layer of people on the Michigan dole. Just ten or fifteen more leeches and then the pain will go away.

It wont.

It will not go away until we build things that we like to live in and maintain. We need to bring Up North back down south. That message hints at a federal speech issue. Not a state gerrymandering issue.

A solution can manifest with sweeping our commons instead of loudly blowing them with leaf blowers and hosing them with city water. Let's make our neighborhoods quiet like campgrounds. Of course an occasional loud party is allowed. That is the spice of life. Parties are fun.

Peace!
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