Yesterday, the Democrats announced that they have hired the former attorney general Eric Holder to pursue cases across America to fight against alleged Republican gerrymandering of state legislative and congressional seats. Gerrymandering is another of those myths that the Democrats like to use to explain their failures.
Let's look at a bit of history. First of all, gerrymandering is the practice of drawing district lines to favor one party or another. It began nearly 200 years ago when governor Gerry of Massachusetts and his legislature drew some rather bizarre district. Obviously, whichever party draws the district lines will do so to give its candidates an advantage; that is allowed. What is prohibited, however, is drawing districts that have no purpose other than to give an advantage to one party or the other. The key here is that for the seventy years prior to 2010, the state legislatures that drew district lines each ten years or so were controlled mostly by Democrats. The districts they drew favored -- no surprise -- Democrats. In 2010, the reaction to Obamacare and the first two years of Obama was so strong that America swept Republicans into control of a majority of the state legislatures. The GOP drew the new district lines after the 2010 census and the Democrats started talking about gerrymandering. The Democrats claim that the GOP pushed all of the Democrat voters into a few districts and left all the rest with GOP majorities.
There's a major reason why so many Democrats are in a few districts. That reason is the Voting Rights Act. The VRA requires states to create what are called "minority majority districts". These are districts in which half or more of the voters are members of minority groups. The idea of the law is that in such districts, members of the minority will be elected and join Congress. That plan worked because there are a great many black and Hispanic members of Congress today compared to the 1960's when the law was passed. But there's also a drawback to this law for the Democrats. Blacks and Hispanics strongly support the Democrats in most places across America. That means that in a district that is 65% black, there are likely to be something like 75% Democrats or more. In other words, a great many of the Democrats' most loyal voters are pushed into a small number of districts. That makes the other districts more Republican. What all this means is that the Democrats' main claim regarding supposed gerrymandering is the result of the Voting Rights Act.
The reality is that until the GOP took control of the legislatures in 2010, it was the Democrats who used gerrymandering to try to keep as many seats under Democrat control as possible outside the minority seats that were almost guaranteed to be Democrat. Starting in 2010, the GOP made the district lines outside the minority districts more fair and the result has been a surge in GOP seats. And remember, that surge for the GOP was mostly the result of the rejected policies pushed by Obama and the Democrats.
What all this means is that the effort by the Democrats and Holder to get the courts to undo the lines drawn by state legislatures is unlikely to have much success. Gerrymandering is just another of those commonly accepted excuses used by the Democrats to hide from the rejection of their policies by the American people. They will never regain the majority if they don't recognize reality.
Let's look at a bit of history. First of all, gerrymandering is the practice of drawing district lines to favor one party or another. It began nearly 200 years ago when governor Gerry of Massachusetts and his legislature drew some rather bizarre district. Obviously, whichever party draws the district lines will do so to give its candidates an advantage; that is allowed. What is prohibited, however, is drawing districts that have no purpose other than to give an advantage to one party or the other. The key here is that for the seventy years prior to 2010, the state legislatures that drew district lines each ten years or so were controlled mostly by Democrats. The districts they drew favored -- no surprise -- Democrats. In 2010, the reaction to Obamacare and the first two years of Obama was so strong that America swept Republicans into control of a majority of the state legislatures. The GOP drew the new district lines after the 2010 census and the Democrats started talking about gerrymandering. The Democrats claim that the GOP pushed all of the Democrat voters into a few districts and left all the rest with GOP majorities.
There's a major reason why so many Democrats are in a few districts. That reason is the Voting Rights Act. The VRA requires states to create what are called "minority majority districts". These are districts in which half or more of the voters are members of minority groups. The idea of the law is that in such districts, members of the minority will be elected and join Congress. That plan worked because there are a great many black and Hispanic members of Congress today compared to the 1960's when the law was passed. But there's also a drawback to this law for the Democrats. Blacks and Hispanics strongly support the Democrats in most places across America. That means that in a district that is 65% black, there are likely to be something like 75% Democrats or more. In other words, a great many of the Democrats' most loyal voters are pushed into a small number of districts. That makes the other districts more Republican. What all this means is that the Democrats' main claim regarding supposed gerrymandering is the result of the Voting Rights Act.
The reality is that until the GOP took control of the legislatures in 2010, it was the Democrats who used gerrymandering to try to keep as many seats under Democrat control as possible outside the minority seats that were almost guaranteed to be Democrat. Starting in 2010, the GOP made the district lines outside the minority districts more fair and the result has been a surge in GOP seats. And remember, that surge for the GOP was mostly the result of the rejected policies pushed by Obama and the Democrats.
What all this means is that the effort by the Democrats and Holder to get the courts to undo the lines drawn by state legislatures is unlikely to have much success. Gerrymandering is just another of those commonly accepted excuses used by the Democrats to hide from the rejection of their policies by the American people. They will never regain the majority if they don't recognize reality.
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