It seems like the news of Gerrymandering in Texas is now a lifetime ago. I guess that is the nature of the news cycle nowadays. Still, I wanted to write about this and California’s response to it, as it is an issue California voters will have to decide on shortly.
I received some mail a few weeks ago advocating against it, claiming that it was Gerrymandering and Gerrymandering is bad. While I absolutely agree with that sentiment, and in fact, we wrote a whole article about it here, I don’t think the pamphlet was making that agreement in good faith. After all, republicans are going to gerrymander regardless of the actions California takes. No, my questions and issues with the possible action are more principled in nature.
To make an analogy, can peace be accomplished via violent means? I think the answer to this question is generally no! Peace cannot be achieved via violence. Violence and escalation results in more violence. Think about all the United states invasions into the middle east, is the middle east a more peaceful place now because of it? Arguably not. War simply radicalizes the next generation.
Likewise, when we think of the issue of gerrymandering, can this be solved with more gerrymandering? Can Democrats also gerrymander in order to maintain parity with republicans? I think this is a slippery slope, and one that leads to a country where all elections are more or less decided in advance. This idea of politicians deciding voters and not the other way around is a dangerous one and is the antithesis of democracy.
All that said, I think there is an argument for voting yes for Gavin Newsom’s gerrymandering bill, and that is one of expediency. If the republicans alone Gerrymander and Democrats do nothing, the Republicans will simply win and control more of the house, without actually having appealed to more of the general population. If the Democrats do the same, at least on an aggregate level things are somewhat more balanced.
Don’t get me wrong, I am no Democrat. I have no interest in propagating the Democrats’ agenda, but I do acknowledge that doing nothing doesn’t help the country either.
In short though, I think I’m still a little undecided on the issue. Maybe you can share your thoughts below and persuade me for once.
