I'm not saying that getting rid of Gerrymandering would solve any real substantial problem that the US has, but like, why is this still a thing?
It's easily solvable, and it seems like neither party really gets all that much more out of it than the other, so why not just get rid of it?
Doesn't the redistricting process fall under federal control? So, they could just tell the states they can't do it anymore, right?
neither party really gets all that much more out of it than the other
I imagine this is part of the point. It is another mechanism that perpetuates partisan gridlock and thereby gives both parties excuses for why they don't get anything done.
Wouldn't it be the opposite? Closer elections would give the winners less of a mandate to get things done
Neither party actually gives a fuck about mandates or the will of the people.
Right but if they're looking for an excuse they'd want the election to be as close as possible, no?
It doesn't matter they thrive on the two party dichotomy and red state blue state divide.
Seems like they can get things to be close enough as they are, why screw it all up?
If it ain't broke don't fix it. It's kept the two parties in power for a long time. They aren't particularly concerned about the optics because it has been hypernormalized.
Yeah from what I remember reading about gerrymandering from some lib publication, probably Vox if I remember correctly tbh, the Republicans just do it more intensely to their own benefit than the Democrats do when it's their turn so to speak, which is probably rooted in good old bipartisanship on part of the Democrats
Anecdotally, one district that my mom lives in (she doesn't have multiple houses, rather there are different sets of districts for different legislative bodies) contains, per square mile, probably upwards of 80% white af suburbs (which I suppose could be mostly equally sub-divided into areas more like most of non-rural Appalachia and areas more like most of exurban Connecticut), and probably <20% two urban neighborhoods in the nearby major city, one of which is undergoing rapid gentrification, and the other is simply staying poor as far as I'm aware.
Regardless of how my mom's house is situated as it relates to all this, shit certainly sucks, but imo the current manifestation of gerrymandering in the US is very much a result of our liberal/bourgeois democracy and its domination by the two massive capitalist parties (yes I'm sure this is not a hot take here, I just wanted to be sure to properly drown out my inner :LIB:)
Getting rid of gerrymandering is broadly popular among the US electorate. So there have been referenda and other measures attempted to do away with it and have districting done by neutral parties (insofar as those exist), but these efforts are consistently frustrated by the largely right wing courts and state legislatures, as part of a larger program of limiting or destroying any truly democratic avenue for legislation at the state or local level.
The Democrats have no longterm planning, hence the abysmal situation in re courts and legislatures, so their recent strategy has mostly been to get better at gerrymandering.
The GOP does actually want power and Dems occasionally do, and gerrymanyis a way to get or keep power in a way that is much cheaper than running campaigns. Sometimes gerrymandering is mutually beneficial for both by keeping third parties unviable.
Because so many people are concentrated in cities, and because there are geographic differences in political opinions, even a very logically drawn maps can lead to similarly bad outcomes to a map that's gerrymandered to hell.
