Gerrymandering Is Cancerous To Democracy

TW: Gerrymandering is hardly new (it is named after Eldridge Gerry a Revolutionary War era congressman after all). But as the piece points with modern technology combined with very detailed census data, engineering districts for political gain has become highly sophisticated and correspondingly damaging to American politics. The above chart shows how striated the congressional districts have become. The ratios reflects the Dem/Republican split in each district based on the 2004 Bush/Kerry vote (2008 data is not yet available). As one can see the two tails are steep while the middle is very low. Meaning most districts are highly partisan one way or the other with Dem districts being the most partisan. Many of those Dem district being minority districts where Republican legislatures with the connivance of Democratic incumbents have drawn very partisan districts ensuring Dem wins in those limited districts but removing minority voters from more competitive districts (with the ascendancy of Democrats over the past couple of election cycles I am sure the Dems will return the favor).

Gerrymandering is another bi-partisan conspiracy. The chart above in a more "democratic" world would be far flatter where Dems and Republicans were not shoved into electoral ghettos but spread in a more geographically relevant manner. If one is interested in good governance, then Gerrymandering should be anathema to you.

From 538.com:

"Write Brownstein and Bland: "One reason for the drop in recent years is the increasing sophistication of redistricting software...The trend has also been fueled by a resurgence in straight-ticket voting as each party's electoral coalition has grown more ideologically homogeneous since the 1960s." (Translation: Republicans cleared out many moderate House Democrats from the South and Plains states while Democrats this decade finally got around to returning the favor, so to speak, by clearing out House Republicans in the Northeast and Midwest.) And this is why the 2010 elections matter so much, because control over map-making is at stake."