Get the Ricochet app

Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

The power of gerrymandering

Dr. Bastiat
@drbastiat
Join to bookmark38likesJoin to like29comments

As you've probably heard, Texas Republicans have proposed redistricting their state to favor the Republican Party in their state legislature. Texas Democrats realize that they'll lose this vote, so they've decided to do a series of town halls and other presentations around the state, explaining why gerrymandering is bad, and why the voters should put an end to this practice.

Ha! Just kidding, of course. Texas Democrats realize that they'll lose this vote, so they left the state to prevent the Republicans from having a quorum, so they can't pass anything. Ironically, they went to Illinois, which is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country. Rich Lowry has a great article up in which he points out that Illinois Republicans won nearly 44% of the vote, but only about 17% of the state House seats. California Republicans won nearly 40% of the vote, but only about 17% of the House seats.

Democrats don't want to stop gerrymandering. They want to control gerrymandering because they understand how powerful it is. There are no Democrat states. There are only Democrat cities. If Democrats don't gerrymander, then Congress would more closely represent the views of the American people. This would obviously be disastrous for Democrats. So they don't want to stop it. That would remove any influence they have in Congress. So all they can do is try to prevent the Republicans from doing the same thing.

I was talking to a Democrat patient yesterday - he was furious about Republican efforts to gerrymander Texas. I agreed with him, saying that we should ban gerrymandering completely. He looked at me for a second, then said, "You're a Republican. Of course you would say that."

Imagine being a Democrat voter and supporting gerrymandering so that the American government will NOT represent the will of the people.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past 10 years or so trying to understand the thinking of leftists. I figured that once I understood their thought process, I would become more sympathetic to them.

I was wrong.

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (29)

  • DonG (¡Afuera!)@DonG

    Grok tells me that if all status used a compactness focused redistricting methodology like perimeter minimization, then the GOP would pick up 10-20 seats.

    As for understanding Democrats, they are just commies. The leaders will do or say anything to get more money/power and the followers are just programmed cult members. Do not attempt to apply rational thinking to any of them.

  • Old Bathos@OldBathos
    But Trump!! There is not even an attempt to rationalize the gargantuan hypocrisy in play. Texas Republicans did not initially get aggressive but made modest changes to protect incumbents. Instead of sucking it up and counting that as a win given their minority status in the state, there were threats from the usual suspects (Biden's DOJ) against any change that Democrats did not like. That, and with the likely coming end to racial gerrymandering to create near black-majority districts, there was no reason to defer to Democratic sensibilities. I live in the Maryland 6th that was redrawn to get rid of the long-time GOP rep by selectively chosen portions from Montgomery and Frederick Counties. In general, the farther north and west of DC, the more GOP votes so that has to be carefully cancelled out. Baltimore's voters are divvied up into four adjacent districts just to make sure that there is no way that a move of suburban voters defecting from the Democratic Party can change the outcome. This map below was an example of the previously proposed and eventually shelved redistricting that not even the 100% Democratic high court could stomach. That is a single district. It is the sheer brazenness of the effort that is most striking. I wish I could find it but I recall a comment by a Democratic Rep complaining about Wyoming being gerrymandered. Apparently, the fact that the lone seat is held by the GOP is proof of electoral malfeasance.
Scroll for later comments
+24 more comments
Join the conversation

You're seeing five of 29 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.