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Hardly newsworthy. Gerrymandering is literally enshrined in our constitution. Congressional maps have always been redrawn by the party in power to ensure that they remain in power. I would expect Democrats to be doing the same thing if we were talking about California.
If Barack Obama
Told California Democrats
To gerrymander their map so he wouldn't lose the House
Conservatives would have lost their goddamned minds.
(Again.)
Are you actually going to try to say that Democrats don't engage in gerrymandering? Really?
Barack Obama wouldn't tell California Democrats to gerrymander their map so they'd keep the house. He wouldn't have to, because they'd do it anyway. Just like every other Democrat state would. And just like every other Republican state does. Trump telling Texas to do it is redundant because it's something that Texas was going to do anyway.
And yes, Conservatives lose their shit when a Democrat does it. And Democrats lose their shit when a Republican does it. Because they both try to play the game under "Rules for thee, not for me" rules. But the fact of the matter is, for better or worse, gerrymandering is a part of our electoral system that both parties routinely engage in in order to maintain their majority.
It's literally an example of "Don't hate the player, hate the game".
There are different kinds of players in the same game. But I agree that the whole ability to bend districts in any favored direction should be removed. There are impartial ways to determine districts that change over time with the population, but neither side likes them because it's a loss of control and potential loss of seats for both. The irony is that it would favor the left more, just like changing how we vote would favor that lean, but that gets into the issue of what "left" means in the US vs. reality, and maybe that's part of the problem as well.
This is why I said it's a case of "Don't hate the player, hate the game."
If our founding fathers were to have set up another method of dealing with changing populations, gerrymandering wouldn't be a thing and we wouldn't be having this discussion. But the rules set up by our founding fathers was essentially little more than a blueprint for gerrymandering without actually using the word gerrymandering. I don't have to like it, but I can't necessarily hate one party or another when they're both just trying their best to exploit the rules they were given to maximum advantage.
They tried. All those big ass states out west weren't states at the time and they all said fuck you guys with all your people and shit. So compromises were made.