Congress seems like the most dysfunctional branch of government going on a couple decades now.

They poll worse than the most unpopular presidents

> They poll worse than the most unpopular presidents

I would expect this to be the case generally since congress is at all times 99.5% people who you have no say in electing/recalling.

I happen to live in one of the few districts in CA that has a republican representative. I was looking forward to voting him out but then CA got gerrymandered and now we'll likely have a Democrat representative next term.

I didn't like our republican representative but it seems kinda shitty that the folks who did like him and voted for him suddenly didn't get a say in who their representative ought to be. I mean, sure they probably voted No on 50 but most of the yes votes came from outside of our district.

Edit: I strongly hate gerrymandering but I also acknowledge the need for the democrats to play dirty because the Republicans are, and "being the better person" doesn't seem to be a viable political strategy anymore.

The voters did get a say in California which at least had the process require a referendum.

The other states that have done mid cycle gerrymandering just forced it on their population.

Yeah, that's true, never thought of it that way. The way CA did it is certainly better, but I think it's still solving the wrong problem though — political power should not be able to be swayed by politicians moving borders around, with or without a vote. Redistricting is important because every district should have equal population, but they should be drawn by independent committees (and in many states they are, just for "some reason" a bunch of states decided to do it with a partisan spin).

The last time America discontinued a coin legislatively was the half cent about 150 years ago. That's a pretty long decline.

The US needed to discontinue the penny since at least the early 2010s; before you could argue it wasn't worth it. That's 25 years.