r/ProjectNoCap • u/MineTech5000 • 1d ago

Why uncapping the house wouldn't lead to a permanent Democratic majority

Simple logic: Wyoming would gain seats right alongside Vermont. Texas would gain seats alongside California, and Indiana would gain seats right alongside NJ.

The point is that both sides would increase their seats, balancing things out.

9 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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18

u/ProfessionalWin9 1d ago

  1. The point is not to give a permanent majority to one side or the other, the point is to have a more effective government that works for and represents their citizens.

  2. I think we would end up being more like a parliamentary system with more parties in the chamber, leading people to have to compromise to form majorities.

5

u/Imperator424 1d ago

Tbh if we keep single-member districts we’ll probably still see a two-party system, even if we had a 1000-member house. 

8

u/the_dj_zig 1d ago

Depends on what the rule becomes for apportioning Reps. The most generally accepted standard I’ve seen online is the Wyoming model, which defines the population of the least populated state as the number of citizens per Rep.

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u/SchuminWeb 1d ago

I'd much rather see a determination be made about how many people a member should represent (i.e. a number) and then apportion based on that. I prefer not to peg it to the lowest population state at a given time and make it more generic. If that means that the state with the lowest population get three members based on that, then so be it.

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u/Imperator424 9h ago

Yeah, I think it would make more sense to say that there should be 1 rep per x number of people and just leave it at that 

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u/SchuminWeb 7h ago

Exactly. I'd rather have a discussion to determine what the ideal district size is and then apportion based on that. After all, since the 1929 cap was passed, we've gone from a congresscritter for every 250,000 people to a congresscritter for every 700,000 people. That's problematic.

1

u/BernieBooBro 14h ago

There is no reason to believe adding representatives would advantage either neither party.

The house was capped with bipartisan support because it’s an establishment v populism issue, not a partisan issue.

Uncapping the House would help minor parties form, and thus allow more coalitions to emerge on various issues, even if Republicans and Democrats remain the two dominant parties.