Faux Outrage

Democrats all across America are screaming their outrage at Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s plan to redraw the Congressional districts in the state. Democratic legislators denounce the flagrant gerrymandering by the governor at the behest of President Trump and shout that  the redistricting will be the “end of democracy” in the state while they flee into the arms of JB Pritzker in Illinois, a state that has been gerrymandered more than almost any other. You see, politicians can’t stop themselves from gerrymandering. It’s in their blood. And the Democrats do it as much (or more) than the Republicans. I drew up a little chart comparing the vote total by state in the last presidential election to the party percentage of their Congressional delegation (you can find the chart on my website www.edificeoftrust.com) . In Pritzker’s Illinois, Kamala Harris got 54.4% of the votes, but 82.7% of their Congressional delegation is from the Democratic Party. So many Republican voters were packed into gerrymandered districts 15 and 16 in Illinois that the Republican candidates ran unopposed. Similar results come from California, New York and other Democrat-led states.

Chart comparing presidential vote to representation in the House of Representatives by state

So, spare me the drama and faux outrage. Gerrymandering appears to be an unfortunate side effect of democracy but it should be fairly easy to get rid of gerrymandering. With the vast computing power of artificial intelligence, it would be simple for AI to configure compact contiguous districts without regard to the strength of political parties in certain areas. But. There is always a “but” isn’t there?

In order to eliminate gerrymandering the AI formulated districts would not only have to ignore political affiliation but also race, ethnicity and religion. Here’s the “but.” The Voting Rights Act requires majority-minority districts so that minorities can be assured representation in Congress. This law was believed to be necessary in order to assure that black people are represented in Congress but it requires racial gerrymandering in order to accomplish this goal. Even now there is a case before the Supreme Court (Louisiana v. Callais) regarding who gets to gerrymander a second black district in Louisiana as mandated by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

As long as racial gerrymandering exists, political gerrymandering will also exist. It has been sixty years since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. The United States has changed a lot since then. It is time to get rid of section 2 of the VRA. Then we can get rid of all forms of gerrymandering. Just like the Democrats are demanding.