Gerrymandering

    “Contrary to one popular misconception about the practice, the point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a collection of overwhelmingly safe seats.  Rather, it’s to give your opponents a small number of safe seats, while drawing yourself a large number of seats that are not quite as safe, but that you can expect to win comfortably.  Considering this dynamic, John Sides of the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog has argued convincingly that gerrymandering is not   what’s behind the rising polarization in Congress”.

     Gerrymandering is really grouping the supporters of the opposing parties in a small number of districts so that you give them safe wins.  The trick is to make sure that these districts are densely populated with the opposing party’s supporters to the point that the remaining districts are comfortable wins for your party.  You essentially isolate the opposition.   

Citizenship and Social Class

“Citizenship, even in its earliest forms, was a principle of equality, and that during this period, it was a developing institution. Starting at the point where all men were free, and in theory capable of enjoying rights, it grew by enriching the body of rights which they were capable of enjoying.  But these rights did not conflict with the inequalities of capitalist society; they were, on the contrary, necessary to the maintenance of that particular form of inequality”.

We all have the basic civil rights, we are able to enjoy these rights which in no way compete with a capitalist society, for example a poor and a rich citizen share the same rights, they should both be able to exercise their rights and buy a piece of land, even though both can exercise the right to purchase property only one will be able to complete the purchase, the rich citizen.    Having the same rights does not mean we all share the same social status.