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Comment by TheAdamAndChe | Hacker News Reader

> The democracy is still in a good shape despite some challenges.

What political pathways do you see for correcting both our two-party system and increased gerrymandering? It seems to me like those two factors are large contributors to our increasing political polarization, and fixing them would require the political parties to behave irrationally from a game theory perspective.

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Easy: give the individual states more responsibility. This has already begun. There is really no reason why California and Alabama need to have 100% of the same laws on highly contentious issues.

It's not called the United States for nothing.

I'm sorry, I don't understand. How would increased state rights reverse gerrymandering within those states?

I think polarization across the country is mostly a consequence of too much centralization. The federal government has too much power, so the political parties organize themselves in that way. Everything becomes zero sum.

If states had more variation, I think you'd see less polarization, because the threat of a federal decision applying to everyone is far less of a worry.

Actually there is because southern states are well on their way to removing women's rights to do what they want with their body, installing theocratic governments, and resurrecting Jim Crow laws. If that's not a reason for more federal involvement I don't know what is.

This comment is exaggerated hyperbole and oversimplification.

No, not really, it's getting pretty bad in the southern states lately, or perhaps it's just the propaganda I prefer...but it does appear like a bunch of red states have passed abortion restrictions, some states worse than others, and these laws will be challenged in court, and with the supreme court being the way it is, it's really iffy.

Abortion is a complex moral issue and if you think it isn’t, you haven’t researched the topic well enough.

Ditto for the other issues mentioned in your comment. The lines you’ve used (“control of their bodies, Jim Crow”) are indications that you get your information from propagandistic sources.

All sources are propaganda in the United States.

Gerrymandering is being fought at the state levels with some real teeth now. A fair few states have laws already on the books, and many more are considering such laws. It's by not means a solved issue, but awareness of it is quite high and there is real activism towards ending it.

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