Like I said, -*depressing*. For what it's worth, the last thing you are is paranoid. The misalignment of our representatives actions and our interests is plain for anyone to see.
That's the problem with gerrymandering: representatives are no longer accountable to public opinion. We're at the lowest level on record of people who identify as Republicans, and very close to a new low for people who identify as Democrats, and (obviously) an all time high for people who identify as independents. How many independents in the House does this translate to, you ask? 0. Zero. None. Not a single one. Public opinion is dead. NYT had a front page story yesterday about how the GOP is hitting the abortion issue hard in the midterms to stir people up. Seriously. Abortion. In these times. This is how out of touch they are, and it's by design.The misalignment of our representatives actions and our interests is plain for anyone to see.
The number of tools and tricks employed to disenfranchise voters are too many to enumerate. Extremely relevant: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/opinions.../NYT had a front page story yesterday about how the GOP is hitting the abortion issue hard in the midterms to stir people up. Seriously. Abortion. In these times. This is how out of touch they are, and it's by design.