So for the first time in my life, I have stood on a side of the room and chosen to side with one of the two parties in my country.
I became a Delegate for Bernie Sanders. I like the America he sees - one that is generous, and thoughtful, and humble, and spends the majority of its money at home, rather than overseas.
It has been eye-opening being a part of the caucus process, and on Sunday I will stand up for Sanders again, as one of four elected Delegates for my legislative district.
Getting Sanders into the big seat in the Oval Office is ... not going to be easy. And every 12 seconds there is a new article about how he's got it easy, or how he can never possibly make it.
So what? Big deal. I'm with him as far as he goes.
So.
What happens if he wins the Presidency?
He has a hostile Senate and Legislature, due to gerrymandering the Republicans have been waging for the better part of two decades. There is basically no way to get Democrats elected on a local level. (The details are obscure, arcane, and fully understanding them may require you to stick your fingers in chicken entrails. So let's just leave it with "it's complicated.")
So President Sanders takes office, has a completely ineffectual four year term, and now it is 2020.
That is the first time that we - the electorate - can make a material change in how redistricting is going to happen.
So. Thinking ahead, planning ahead, how can the Sanders Liberals - let's call us the Coffee Party, in contrast to the Republican Conservatives' Tea Party - support Sanders and a more liberal America, in preparation for the redistricting?
How do we make sure that Redistricting isn't completely hosed and gerrymandered away from accurately representing the American populace?
Maybe some kind of mandate that requires that each district represent the overall demographics of the state in the most accurate way possible? Instead of creating hotspot districts that are more likely to vote for one party, that might make things more even.
A seemingly simple idea... until you get down to the vagaries of what the actual ground looks like... where the roads are, where rivers are, where borders are, etc. Check this out if you want to be really angry about redistricting: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/05/15/americas-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts/