Sunday, January 20, 2013

Can Gerrymandering Save The GOP?

In the pre-Obama era, this question would be ludicrous, regardless of which party was supposed to benefit from it.  The Obama era was supposed to make it even more ludicrous, by ushering in an era of "post-racial politics."

If only.

Our national politics today are, if anything, more dependent on racial identity than they have ever been.  This is in fact why the Republicans are willing to brag about their use of gerrymandering to save their House of Representatives majority, and why are are also talking about tying Electoral College outcomes to outcomes in congressional races.  Gerrymandering has allowed the GOP to leverage their popularity among white voters, by packaging them into majority-white districts.  And, ironically, they may have been helped by the Voting Rights Act's provisions encouraging the formation of majority-minority congressional districts.

We need to get back to a political culture where we deal with issues, not identities.  And the only way that's going to happen is with Federal legislation that cracks down on gerrymandering, and balances concerns about minority representation with rules that focus on geographic logic.  Only then can we stop pretending that gerrymandering in either direction can save either party.  In the case of the Republicans, gerrymandering isn't going to stop the demographic changes that have and are taking place in the United States.  What will they do when there aren't enough white people to stack the redistricting deck in their favor?

The gerrymandering fixation is only one of many signs of how badly unhinged the party of Lincoln has become.  What else would you expect?  It's composed of Christians who refuse to help non-Christians, and businessmen who undercut their consumer base by charging higher prices to liberals.  No wonder the few sane ones are leaving, like this Kansas state senator (and Kansas is hardly a hotbed of liberalism).  If they keep going in this direction, they'll only be buying a one-way ticket to oblivion.

Which, at this point, is fine with me.

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