re: "The 10 Most Gerrymandered Districts In America"

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That's not surprising at all. The goal was to concentrate the Dem votes into certain districts to dilute their influence over the whole.

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You mean fewer here right? It's no secret that a lot of the states where GOP has control of the state legislature has redrawn the map to look like the far right scenario in the image below...

Extreme political gerrymandering by state legislatures, primarily in the South, is a direct consequence of the "one person, one vote" rulings by the Supreme Court in the 1960's.

Prior to those rulings, the upper body of most state legislatures in the Deep South was composed of 1 Senator per county. Now, because of the "one person, one vote" doctrine, Senators represent an equal number of people, which often requires them to represent bits and pieces of multiple counties to achieve population distribution.

If the old method returned and each county got 1 senator, almost half of SC's Senate would be composed of Black Democrats, as there are numerous minority-majority counties in the Orangeburg area, the Lower Savannah River area and the Pee Dee. The prospect of jamming through redistricting that benefited Republicans would be much more difficult in the old system, ironic as it may be.

That image should be disgusting to every American.

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Census redistricting data doesn’t use party.

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Census data may not, but that's actually exactly what a handful of state legislatures have been accused of doing. NC, PA, WI to name a few.

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lordguill

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They were hunting your people down like runaway slaves to draw that district, LG.



ETA: [brakes screech on car] "Hey? That's a fricking Monte Carlo in the driveway. Knock on that door."

The polarization of federal politics is a direct result of gerrymandering.

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The polarization of federal politics is a direct result of gerrymandering.

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You can certainly argue that. Districts densely drawn to heavily favor a particular party gives less incentive for the representative to act in a bipartisan manner or compromise against his districts ideology.

But you can’t ignore the spatial polarization occurring in states between the urban and suburban/rural population.

It’s also not a unique event happening only on the federal level. Even Louisiana politics has become a near mirror image of Congress in the makeup of the House and Senate.

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Yeah it seems like it. I'm laughing so I don't cry.

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I got it mixed up - that crazy district in Maryland is actually a White Dem machine seat (Sarbanes's seat in the 1970s, now held by his son). That is an outgrowth of the Maryland 7th which exists solely to give that brilliant orator, genius legislator the Honorable Elijah Cummings a job guaranteed for life or as long as he wants it. It's not nearly as crazily drawn, but it triggers the shape of the 3rd, but THIS is where the hunt for really good soul food was in earest(The Maryland 7th Congressional District):