Assingment 8: Gerrymandering

                               

                                 GERRYMANDERING

Democrats won in nine of the 10 most-gerrymandered districts. But eight out of 10 of those districts were drawn by Republicans.

This speaks to the notion that the point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a safe seat but to put your opponents in safe seats by cramming all of their supporters into a small number of districts. This lets you spread your own supporters over a larger number of districts. And the way to do this is to draw outlandishly-shaped districts that bring far-flung geographic areas together. North Carolina’s 12th district, which holds the title of the nation's most-gerrymandered, is a textbook example of this: It snakes from north of Greensboro, to Winston-Salem, and then all the way down to Charlotte, spanning most of the state in the process.

This passage explains the process of gerrymandering and provides examples of such. It explains that gerrymandering is a way to compact supporters into smaller numbers of districts so the opposing group leads. Electoral districts are responsible for re-drawing electoral districts depending on the fluctuation of their population. This is used to a particular party’s advantage and stop the larger party from growing. 

I chose this passage because it provides a better understanding of how the process of gerrymandering works. There’s a lot talk when the topic of politics comes up. One topic being how votes are manipulated to one party’s advantage, gerrynmandering is a clear example of how true this is. This process may be used to even out a minority group throughout the state but that may not necessarily be the agenda. It allows a certain party to use this method to block the opposing party and benefit their own.

Photo credit: http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2012/Pres/Maps/Nov15.html