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[LordOfLore]

Link.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a master at marketing, having scaled to the top of three different professions.

But these days, the former bodybuilder and movie star is taking on perhaps his biggest sales challenge since he made “Last Action Hero”: He’s trying to get people to care about redistricting, the critical but arcane process of drawing political districts.

How those boundaries are drawn, block by block, once every decade, can determine which party controls the state legislatures and Congress. In many states, the process is overseen by a few politicians or whichever party dominates the legislature. That often leads to gerrymandering — districts created to favor a single party.

This distortion perpetuates a system in which 98 percent of House members are regularly re-elected in politically safe districts and is a big reason gridlock continues in Washington: The same players return year after year with no real fear of competition at home.

That lack of competition, Schwarzenegger said, has made voters think the system is rigged. And that frustration, he said, led many to vote for President Trump.

“People elected an outsider because of frustration,” Schwarzenegger said. “That’s one way of reaction. The other way is to fix the system.”

The 70-year-old is at the forefront of a push to change that system.

Challenges to existing redistricting systems are moving through courts in several states, with a pivotal case scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court next month. Former President Barack Obama said overhauling redistricting will be one of his post-presidency priorities. This month, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, fronted by former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder and others, will ramp up its operations, focusing on changing redistricting procedures in several states, either through the ballot box or court challenges.

But Schwarzenegger could be the movement’s most influential voice.

“Nobody is probably going to change their opinion about redistricting because President Obama and Eric Holder talk about it,” said Eric Rauchway, a professor of history at UC Davis. “They might if Schwarzenegger does. He has his own platform. He’s a celebrity. And he’s a moderate Republican.”

Plus, Schwarzenegger has redistricting street cred. In 2008, he led the passage of Proposition 11 that set up a nonpartisan citizens commission to draw the boundaries for California’s legislative seats. Two years later, voters approved a measure that enabled the commission to draw the lines for California’s congressional districts as well.

The key to talking about redistricting and gerrymandering, Schwarzenegger said, is to keep it simple.

“The mistake that a lot of people make is to talk about the details,” Schwarzenegger said during a recent phone interview. “Don’t start with the details, because then people see the pine needles but not the forest.”

The twist: If the Republican Schwarzenegger and his allies across the political spectrum, including Obama, Holder and Common Cause, are successful in taking the redistricting out of the hands of partisan officials, “there’s every reason to believe that Democrats would benefit from a more neutral” way of drawing the lines, Rauchway said.

But Schwarzenegger, who has tried to cultivate a “post-partisan” image since leaving office in 2011, disagreed that improving redistricting is designed to create a partisan outcome.

“It’s an issue where there should be no advantage or disadvantage to any party,” Schwarzenegger said. “It is meant to be an advantage for the people.”

And that’s why he’s directing his pitch at the mass market.

More at the link.

 

[Arttemis]

Go Arnold, go!

 

[Mr. Sam]

As a pale Englishman, I've not much idea about what Schwarzenneger was like while in office, but he certainly seems to be covering himself in glory since he left.

That not cutting districts into indecipherable salami can be interpreted as a pro-Democrat act is telling.

 

[djplaeskool]

As a pale Englishman, I've not much idea about what Schwarzenneger was like while in office, but he certainly seems to be covering himself in glory since he left.

He tried to play tough and conservative early, but fairly quickly took up the mantle of the pragmatic centrist in order to govern a state like CA.

 

[FrontalMonk]

That not cutting districts into indecipherable salami can be interpreted as a pro-Democrat act is telling.

It's less that Democrats do it less than Republicans, and more that Republicans have been in the position to do it more often. Given the chance, Democrats gerrymander pretty hard, too.

That said, we definitely need a strong non-partisan gerrymandering effort. I don't know if getting computers to do it all for us is the right solution, but something needs to change.

 

[LiK]

Dang, I forgot Ahnold is 70 now.

 

[Hierophant]

Dang, I forgot Ahnold is 70 now.

make sure u guys exercise regularly so u can look as good as he does at that age

 

[ahoyhoy]

Won't see a lot of elected politicians in favor of this precisely because they benefit from it.

Hopefully this isn't just a fart in the wind and actually sticks around long enough to educate more people about the problem and how bipartisan it is.

 

[Joe T.]

Looks like Arnold's fight against gerrymandering is gaining support. McCain, Whitehouse and Kasich have all jumped aboard, including 36 current and former members of the House, according to Politico. Good stuff.

 

[Strike]

He wasn't a good governor, but I can definitely get behind this. Go Arnold.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

Fucking do it. Make politicians earn their fucking positions.

Maybe we can avoid the current catastrophe from ever happening again.

 

[Stinkles]

As a pale Englishman, I've not much idea about what Schwarzenneger was like while in office, but he certainly seems to be covering himself in glory since he left.

That not cutting districts into indecipherable salami can be interpreted as a pro-Democrat act is telling.

Intelligent pragmatist who saw which side was easy to glamor. Ironically centrist democrats.

 

[Chmpocalypse]

He wasn't a good governor, but I can definitely get behind this. Go Arnold.

On the contrary, he was a terrible governor. Just ask teachers, medical marijuana patients, or EVERYONE fleeced by Enron.

Post-office, I'm loving his activism. I think he's changed, and much for the better.

 

[Fenderputty]

Intelligent pragmatist who saw which side was easy to glamor. Ironically centrist democrats.

Grey Davis was a stink that needed washing and a new soap was tried

 

[Opto]

And in bizarre irony, he's the Apprentice host we would rather have.

 

[Inuhanyou]

If you would have told me arnold would be like this 20 years ago...wtf. He advocated a lot for climate science and green energy, so i have respect for him in that area politically

 

[Sunster]

how has the GOP not taken his membership card away at this point?

 

[poppedcollar69]

And in bizarre irony, he's the Apprentice host we would rather have.

no i think i'd rather have trump hosting

 

[Opto]

no i think i'd rather have trump hosting

forgot to add "as president"

 

[Dash_Riprock]

As a pale Englishman, I've not much idea about what Schwarzenneger was like while in office, but he certainly seems to be covering himself in glory since he left.

That not cutting districts into indecipherable salami can be interpreted as a pro-Democrat act is telling.

He tried, he really did. But our legislators are complete imbeciles at times.

 

[Neith]

how has the GOP not taken his membership card away at this point?

Conservatives do exist who are not complete idiots. You just have to find them.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Still waiting on that Constitutional amendment so Demolition Man can become real.

make sure u guys exercise regularly so u can look as good as he does at that age

He was The Terminator again in Terminator Genisys at the age of 68. Yeah.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340138/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_trv_1

Arnold Schwarzenegger worked out for six months, about three hours a day, before shooting started, by which time he had the exact same body weight and muscle measurements as he had 12 years previously while shooting Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).

 

[Geno Breaker]

So weird that the fucking Terminator was the governor of California

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

160 one liners and I can't think of a single one for this...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So weird that the fucking Terminator was the governor of California

What's so weird about it? Hollywood is in California. Ahnuld was and is worshiped as a living film legend in the state. There's nothing weird about him being popular enough to actually win a recall election against a very unpopular Democratic Governor in Gray Davis during the height of the California power crisis.

He managed to stay popular enough that he got re-elected 2 years later for a full 4 years term, so it's not as if he showed up and started ruining everything like Trump did. In fact his Governatorship was surprisingly mundane and nothing really exciting happened other than there was a sign above the Governator's office in Sacramento which said 'Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger' which become a tourist attraction for awhile.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

160 one liners and I can't think of a single one for this...

Arnold dealiing with gerrymandering

 

[hodayathink]

What's so weird about it? Hollywood is in California. Ahnuld was and is worshiped as a living film legend in the state. There's nothing weird about him being popular enough to actually win a recall election against a very unpopular Democratic Governor in Gray Davis during the height of the California power crisis.

He managed to stay popular enough that he got re-elected 2 years later for a full 4 years term, so it's not as if he showed up and started ruining everything like Trump did. In fact his Governatorship was surprisingly mundane and nothing really exciting happened other than there was a sign above the Governator's office in Sacramento which said 'Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger' which become a tourist attraction for awhile.

And it's not like it was the first time California elected an actor as governor, either.

 

[Septimus Prime]

What's so weird about it? Hollywood is in California. Ahnuld was and is worshiped as a living film legend in the state. There's nothing weird about him being popular enough to actually win a recall election against a very unpopular Democratic Governor in Gray Davis during the height of the California power crisis.

He managed to stay popular enough that he got re-elected 2 years later for a full 4 years term, so it's not as if he showed up and started ruining everything like Trump did. In fact his Governatorship was surprisingly mundane and nothing really exciting happened other than there was a sign above the Governator's office in Sacramento which said 'Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger' which become a tourist attraction for awhile.

My friends and I were like, make sure we graduate while he's still in office, so we can get his autograph on our degrees.

 

[devilhawk]

I've been thinking about the solutions to gerrymandering and say an unbiased computer dissection of the state, while it is certainly trivial for places like Iowa where there mostly single family homes and the state can be nicely divided into practically squares. I do wonder about the large cities though, where you can have thousands of people living in one apartment tower. If that state is evenly divided across the parties, it would seem likely that a group of people living in the same place and community would likely vote similarly and would essentially gerrymander themselves. For the better or worse in their specific case.

I guess my question would be if anyone has run into articles discussing how unbiased redistricting would handle the dichotomy of the dense cities and rural areas? If a state was 50-50 currently would it be best to redistrict every district to 50-50? Or should a computer just do a random one-time generation knowing that an obvious outlier could occur?

 

[Sobriquet]

What's so weird about it? Hollywood is in California. Ahnuld was and is worshiped as a living film legend in the state. There's nothing weird about him being popular enough to actually win a recall election against a very unpopular Democratic Governor in Gray Davis during the height of the California power crisis.

He managed to stay popular enough that he got re-elected 2 years later for a full 4 years term, so it's not as if he showed up and started ruining everything like Trump did. In fact his Governatorship was surprisingly mundane and nothing really exciting happened other than there was a sign above the Governator's office in Sacramento which said 'Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger' which become a tourist attraction for awhile.

He was OK except for forgiving the $9 billion that Enron owed the state. And for not keeping Hollywood in Hollywood.

I've been thinking about the solutions to gerrymandering and say an unbiased computer dissection of the state, while it is certainly trivial for places like Iowa where there mostly single family homes and the state can be nicely divided into practically squares. I do wonder about the large cities though, where you can have thousands of people living in one apartment tower. If that state is evenly divided across the parties, it would seem likely that a group of people living in the same place and community would likely vote similarly and would essentially gerrymander themselves. For the better or worse in their specific case.

I guess my question would be if anyone has run into articles discussing how unbiased redistricting would handle the dichotomy of the dense cities and rural areas? If a state was 50-50 currently would it be best to redistrict every district to 50-50? Or should a computer just do a random one-time generation knowing that an obvious outlier could occur?

The lines have to be drawn so there's even populations in every district. So it can't be a grid.

 

[StrategyFan]

I've been thinking about the solutions to gerrymandering and say an unbiased computer dissection of the state, while it is certainly trivial for places like Iowa where there mostly single family homes and the state can be nicely divided into practically squares. I do wonder about the large cities though, where you can have thousands of people living in one apartment tower. If that state is evenly divided across the parties, it would seem likely that a group of people living in the same place and community would likely vote similarly and would essentially gerrymander themselves. For the better or worse in their specific case.

I guess my question would be if anyone has run into articles discussing how unbiased redistricting would handle the dichotomy of the dense cities and rural areas? If a state was 50-50 currently would it be best to redistrict every district to 50-50? Or should a computer just do a random one-time generation knowing that an obvious outlier could occur?

an unbiased process would look purely at geography and population sizes, not based on political affiliation counts

the districting can still be unbiased if the state is 50%D 50%R and the house ends up more lopsided

it's just completely random whether it'll be 75%D 25%R or 25%D 75%R, as opposed to politicians deciding how to rig it

 

[hodayathink]

I've been thinking about the solutions to gerrymandering and say an unbiased computer dissection of the state, while it is certainly trivial for places like Iowa where there mostly single family homes and the state can be nicely divided into practically squares. I do wonder about the large cities though, where you can have thousands of people living in one apartment tower. If that state is evenly divided across the parties, it would seem likely that a group of people living in the same place and community would likely vote similarly and would essentially gerrymander themselves. For the better or worse in their specific case.

I guess my question would be if anyone has run into articles discussing how unbiased redistricting would handle the dichotomy of the dense cities and rural areas? If a state was 50-50 currently would it be best to redistrict every district to 50-50? Or should a computer just do a random one-time generation knowing that an obvious outlier could occur?

In theory, if a state was 50/50, you would want a perfect non-partisan map to mean that the representatives in the state legislature would be 50/50 as well. Clustering means that drawing every district to be 50/50 would be hard, so it'd be more along the lines of if normal voting patterns were followed, then this map would result in an even amount of republican and democratic representatives. And we should still re-draw every 10 years or so to account for changing demographics. At least, that's my opinion on it.

 

[Neo C.]

His CNN interview some weeks ago: https://youtu.be/b31cA9LzQpw

Here's the longer version (including talk about climate change, Trump, Jerry Brown, productive legislation): https://youtu.be/JQYRKZ8nNEI