There are different kinds of players in the same game. But I agree that the whole ability to bend districts in any favored direction should be removed. There are impartial ways to determine districts that change over time with the population, but neither side likes them because it’s a loss of control and potential loss of seats for both. The irony is that it would favor the left more, just like changing how we vote would favor that lean, but that gets into the issue of what “left” means in the US vs. reality, and maybe that’s part of the problem as well.
This is why I said it’s a case of “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
If our founding fathers were to have set up another method of dealing with changing populations, gerrymandering wouldn’t be a thing and we wouldn’t be having this discussion. But the rules set up by our founding fathers was essentially little more than a blueprint for gerrymandering without actually using the word gerrymandering. I don’t have to like it, but I can’t necessarily hate one party or another when they’re both just trying their best to exploit the rules they were given to maximum advantage.
There are different kinds of players in the same game. But I agree that the whole ability to bend districts in any favored direction should be removed. There are impartial ways to determine districts that change over time with the population, but neither side likes them because it’s a loss of control and potential loss of seats for both. The irony is that it would favor the left more, just like changing how we vote would favor that lean, but that gets into the issue of what “left” means in the US vs. reality, and maybe that’s part of the problem as well.
This is why I said it’s a case of “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
If our founding fathers were to have set up another method of dealing with changing populations, gerrymandering wouldn’t be a thing and we wouldn’t be having this discussion. But the rules set up by our founding fathers was essentially little more than a blueprint for gerrymandering without actually using the word gerrymandering. I don’t have to like it, but I can’t necessarily hate one party or another when they’re both just trying their best to exploit the rules they were given to maximum advantage.