The ethics of gerrymandering
This is the opinion of Will Flannery, SJU first-year
Welcome to another installment of Better Bickering, the series in which I take a popular controversial topic and analyze it from each side of the issue. Through this process I hope we can all learn to understand opposing perspectives better, and that we can all strive to argue to learn instead of to win.
This week we are talking about Proposition 50 and the issue of gerrymandering. For anyone not tapped into the news cycle, Proposition 50 was a ballot measure that passed in the election just a few weeks ago in California. It changed the congressional maps from those drawn by an independent, bipartisan commission to those drafted by the state legislature so as to give five more seats to the Democratic party in the US House of Representatives. They did this using a system called gerrymandering, clumping as many people of one party into as few districts as possible to guarantee all other districts to the opposing party. It was prompted by an earlier legislative change in Texas that gave five more seats to the Republican party in Congress.
Now this measure is objectively a win for the Democratic party, it will work to maintain the current status quo or even to give them a majority in Congress. Just as the previous measure in Texas was a win for the Republican party, doing the same thing. But both of these measures have been a loss for democracy, to the values that built this country, and our government. Politics should not be a game of maps and parties, it should be about best serving the voters of every party and every part of the country.
The US governmental system is a republic, a representative democracy. We elect representatives from given
areas to act in our best interest and to improve our welfare. When either party uses gerrymandering to fudge
the numbers, to get more seats, it poisons the waters of democracy. With unfair and biased congressional maps our votes count for less and our voices matter less. It becomes a game for state and federal politicians to see who can make the most broken map in order to control the outcomes of elections. Our government is not a puzzle to be worked out, a loophole to be abused. Every person deserves for their vote to be counted equally and fairly, regardless of party, and gerrymandering does not allow that. Elections should be won on issues, policies, and activism, not congressional maps.
If you want to send in your opinions about Proposition 50 or gerrymandering or suggest issues you want to see evaluated in a future installment please email any and all thoughts to me at wflannery001@csbsju.edu. I thank you all for reading and I hope you will all strive to argue to learn rather than to win.
