# Are political parties the worst mistake America ever made?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-parties-the-worst-mistake-america-ever-made/744183>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 25, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-parties-the-worst-mistake-america-ever-made/744183 "2016-01-25T16:15:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-parties-the-worst-mistake-america-ever-made/744183/81 "2016-02-04T15:52:40Z")

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> [@bump](#):
>
> He’s sort of ignorant, and doesn’t realize that the US isn’t a straight popular democracy, but rather a federal republic.

No, he’s simply applying the meaning of the term “gerrymander” to mean voting districts of unequal population, causing inequities in voting representation. He doesn’t mean it literally. He’s not ignorant.

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**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-parties-the-worst-mistake-america-ever-made/744183/82 "2016-02-04T16:32:35Z")

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The word he was looking for is “malapportioned”. The Senate is malapportioned (by design). It is not gerrymandered.

The House (in many states) is gerrymandered. It is not malapportioned.

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**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-political-parties-the-worst-mistake-america-ever-made/744183/83 "2016-02-04T17:02:59Z")

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> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#):
>
> The word he was looking for is “malapportioned”. The Senate is malapportioned (by design). It is not gerrymandered.
> 
> The House (in many states) is gerrymandered. It is not malapportioned.

Yes, that’s the correct word. I think he used the word gerrymander for malapportioned to make a point that the Senate has its own problems that are similar to the gerrymandering problem in the House. Anyone who even knows about malapportionment in the Senate probably knows the difference between malapportionment and gerrymandering, I would think, and therefore had a good reason for using the latter instead of the former. But whatever.

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