<story><title>Fair Representation Act (HR 3057)</title><url>http://www.fairvote.org/fair_rep_in_congress</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pmorici</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t buy the argument that &amp;quot;the system is fundamentally broken&amp;quot; because the political divisions of our times are some how uniquely worse than at any other point in US history.  If you go read books like &amp;quot;A People&amp;#x27;s History of the United States&amp;quot; or other historical accounts that go beyond the typical 8th grade &amp;#x2F; high school US history you will find a lot of examples of when things were as bad as they are today or arguably much worse.  The whole rural vs urban interests clash isn&amp;#x27;t even a new phenomenon that goes back to the beginning of the United States.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not to say that the system of government could never be improved but if your argument starts out with a premise that doesn&amp;#x27;t really seem true I question whether the whole idea isn&amp;#x27;t a little half baked.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vowelless</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t buy the argument that &amp;quot;the system is fundamentally broken&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This animation visualizes the increasing partisan nature of Congress over the last 60 years:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=tEczkhfLwqM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=tEczkhfLwqM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;So the trend does not seem to be ideal here.&lt;p&gt;It seems like the proposed act will directly impact this increasing split.&lt;p&gt;More details: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;wonk&amp;#x2F;wp&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;a-stunning-visualization-of-our-divided-congress&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;wonk&amp;#x2F;wp&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;a-stu...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Fair Representation Act (HR 3057)</title><url>http://www.fairvote.org/fair_rep_in_congress</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pmorici</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t buy the argument that &amp;quot;the system is fundamentally broken&amp;quot; because the political divisions of our times are some how uniquely worse than at any other point in US history.  If you go read books like &amp;quot;A People&amp;#x27;s History of the United States&amp;quot; or other historical accounts that go beyond the typical 8th grade &amp;#x2F; high school US history you will find a lot of examples of when things were as bad as they are today or arguably much worse.  The whole rural vs urban interests clash isn&amp;#x27;t even a new phenomenon that goes back to the beginning of the United States.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not to say that the system of government could never be improved but if your argument starts out with a premise that doesn&amp;#x27;t really seem true I question whether the whole idea isn&amp;#x27;t a little half baked.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>razorunreal</author><text>This &amp;quot;half baked&amp;quot; idea is just proportional representation. It&amp;#x27;s not like they invented it, and it seems to work well enough in New Zealand, in fact most complaints seem to be that it isn&amp;#x27;t perfectly proportional.</text></comment>