The Gerrymander: Revenge of the Jabberwock.
Have you been wondering why everyone is always complaining about gerrymandering? To hear all the talk, one would think this is a conspiracy to rob Americans of their vote. Are we just being paranoid? Let’s take a look. Let me start by explaining that gerrymandering is what we call the process to redraw a legislative district so that a given political party has an electoral advantage for House seats. The mimsical shape of some of these districts was once seen to resemble a dragon-like creature, a real-life Jabberwock.
While the primary goal of gerrymandering is always to take a bigger piece of the electoral pie than you are entitled to, which is bad enough, the real damage is much worse than that. Let me explain. Imagine three congressional districts side by side. Each district has equal numbers of Democratic and Republican voters. Every election cycle, nominees of each party will gravitate to the center to attract moderate voters in order to win a majority of votes overall. This moderation is essential to political survival. Thus, every election cycle becomes an exercise in coalition building.
Now imagine that Democrats in the state capitol take a look at this and decide to redraw, or “gerrymander,” the districts with different boundaries, so that two of the three districts become solidly Democratic. They do this by packing all the Republicans into the third district which becomes solid red. Now instead of fighting 50:50 for every seat, the Democrats have bandersnatched two of the three districts where they now have a super majority, forever.
That is the unfair aspect of gerrymandering and it has been used historically by both parties for that purpose. To gain an advantage in seats. But look what else has happened. All three districts have become solidly blue or red. Once you win the primary, you have won the district. To win the primary, of course, you need to be true blue or true red, in other words, an extremist, and the more extreme, the better.
Then, in the general election, the Democratic candidates will clearly galumph to victory in the Democratic districts, and the Republican candidate will win easily in the other gyre. In this way, the “out-group” in each district finds itself disenfranchised, as each dissenting voter has now lost her electoral voice amidst the dominant rule of the majority group. The sad truth is that all the voters have lost their voices, because every race is a foregone conclusion no matter who votes or what anyone say or does.
The good news is that Americans can dictate what they want through electoral pressure. In fact, the surest way to rise above politics in this effort is to do what a handful of enlightened states have already accomplished – turn the process over to an independent non-partisan commission. Arizona, California, Idaho, and Washington are four states which have done so. In following suit, the appropriate response by Congress would be to pass a federal law requiring independent commissions to draw district lines in every state. In a single, bold legislative act, Congress could put an end to this atrocious behavior. But don’t hold your breath.
As noted above, House representatives have no personal incentive to cure this defect, which, after all, guarantees a safe seat in their next election. So, once again, the American people must rise up and insist that their elected officials do the right thing and repair our broken system – or be sacked. Once again, the ball is in our court. Once again, our best and only opportunity to cure our fatal defect is to vote for candidates who promise to slay the tenacious gerrymander.
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