Here’s a statement that should be non-controversial: Gerrymandering is wrong.
I’ve been following the redistricting saga in Texas, and what Texas Republicans have done is unprecedented, undermining the very foundation of representational democracy through a blatant seizure of power. In retaliation, California just approved a special election to vote for a district map pushing out Republican seats.
Now, I want to be clear, I understand what California is doing and why. I don’t agree by any means, but I understand it. Even so, I don’t think it is far-fetched to say this eye-for-an-eye approach to politics is corrosive to democracy and perpetuates a dangerous race to the bottom where voters will have less and less say in who represents them.
Just as Sauron’s Ring of Power corrupts even the best-intentioned denizen of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, gerrymandering is a practice that’s too effective to ignore (especially as a retaliatory measure), even when it erodes American democracy.
I can win this race. A recent poll with an overwhelmingly Republican sample showed that when folks heard positive bios about both myself and Mike Rounds, I lead by 8 points. I can win this but I need your help
It is very easy to say this is a “both sides” issue because, technically, it is. Both parties have gerrymandered various districts for decades, but this is reflective of systemic problems with the redistricting process rather than an inherent issue. When Republicans use below-the-belt tactics to secure power, Democrats have no choice but to hit back with those same tactics. It’s a problem with the system and the network of electoral incentives, not an inevitable reality we have to accept.
Our system is broken because politicians draw their own maps. Instead of voters choosing their representatives, parties are choosing their voters. These “safe” districts cause politicians to worry more about primary challengers from their own party. Party hard-liners participate more in primary elections than moderates, so this practice also pushes candidates to political extremes over time. Under this system, the most impactful political battles take place outside of election season.
The consequences of gerrymandered districts are an adversarial relationship between candidate and party, the rise of political extremism, and voters being deprived of legitimate choice come November. Is that a system we could call democratic? I don’t think so.
That’s not the America we should settle for.
One of the very first bills I would sponsor in the Senate is legislation to create an independent redistricting commission at the federal level. These commissions already exist (and even work) in states across the country, and a federal entity would take the pen out of the hands of state parties exerting overwhelming influence over their government. This would make the process fairer, more transparent, and more representative of the people.
Political parties are a useful tool to form coalitions of aligned interests, but they are vulnerable to perverse incentives in our electoral system that don’t benefit Americans. Ending gerrymandering helps to end those toxic processes, and restores faith in government and democracy. We should have competitive districts encouraging debate, rewarding good ideas, and pushing our leaders to cooperate, not gerrymandered maps entrenching power and silencing voters.
As a Senate candidate, I am fortunate to not have to deal with gerrymandering. However, I still face the challenge of the Republican Party’s entrenched power in South Dakota. The attitudes and effects are the same as in gerrymandered states: parties direct people, rather than people directing parties. As an Independent candidate, I am taking on Senator Mike Rounds to show the Republican party that no state can be taken for granted. Support for my campaign is support for fair choice, fair politics, and an end to party-first dominance.
If we want to fix our politics, we have to start with fair maps.
They continue to show us more and more molesters, pedophiles, pornography hounds, and abusers..Nothing is precious to any of them . Nothing !!
I am delighted to be gerryed back into CA CD1, where My Friend Doug Lamalfa needs to be held accountable (along with some of my friends his local supporters) for the entirely avoidable loss of Greenville at the peak of Dixie.
And somebody needs to take credit for all those new prevailing-wage forests-recovery jobs, thinning the Ponderosa pines to optimize the carbon-bank properties of California’s National Forests. A candidate parachuted in from Sonoma County will do just fine, since Jerod Huffman's fingerprints are all over the revolution in forests policy now emerging around us, here in the Northern Sierra, Cascades, Siskyou, and down the coast to San Francisco.
Rapid City is an immediate beneficiary of the California model.
One challenge: peace truth and reconciliation is necessary to follow the path.
Pine Hill, Wounded Knee, the rape of the ancient forests of the Black Hills, careless destruction of the very tissue of Earth....there are facts on the ground, and stories, shared history, present and future.
I would have had three more great aunts and uncles had the decades my great grandparents spent ministering across South Dakota been less hard. I remember Berthe, a native of Norway, whose youngest son made it with her all the way to California.
Brian, I personally welcome your involvement in California politics. Our Golden Gate is always open.
But beware. There are wolves and wolf riders in the Northern Mountains, who answer to the ancient stewards of our shared land.
I walk Washoe. The wolves are mostly Paiute now.
It's a complex place, California.
Welcome.
Good luck with your campaign. Thank you for your service.