The Gerrymander Circle-Jerk

I’m not going to bore you with the full history of gerrymandering, because you learned about it in 9^th grade if you’re my age, and in college if you’re significantly younger (50 is significantly younger). I will share the origins of the term – a map most of you have seen – named for Governor Elbridge Gerry, in 1812 Massachusetts. Dunno what Massachusetts is named for, but it is a spelling bee buster. Anyway, here’s the map:

This gerrymander favored the Republicans over the Federalists, and every party in power since then has been guilty of the practice. At first the Supreme Court deemed gerrymandering a political activity, and therefore out of the reach of the Court. Later gerrymandering based on race was outlawed, the practice was determined to be justiciable, and districts were required to be of relatively equal numbers of voters in federal elections (one person one vote). We had a voting rights act, and then we didn’t, and that’s where things pretty much stand today.

You would think that a representative democracy – if that’s what the US is – would by now have found a way to be, well, representative. But no, not so much. As recently as July of last year, the 4^th Circuit Court said that the North Carolina’s voter ID law targeted people of color with “almost surgical precision.” You could almost hear the state’s liberals moan ecstatically in unison. This ruling was challenged, went to Supreme Court, and was promptly denied reconsideration. Shortly thereafter, the Supremes struck down both federal legislative and state General Assembly districts as illegal gerrymanders.  Here’s what the illegal federal map looks like:

In the lawsuit that resulted in the ruling described above, it was noted that you could drive the length of District 12 with you car doors open and kill everyone in the District.

I don’t have a good map of the 28 State senate and house seats the Court said were illegally gerrymandered. Feel free to Google it; it’s basically just a map of the state. I do have one of many proposed maps -- this one created by a computer -- that purports to represent nonpartisan districting:

There’s been a lot of pissing and moaning by members of the legislature since these rulings about “When!” and “How!” and “It’s Not Fair!” They’ve been throwing their food on the floor and weeping loudly and stamping their little feet. But they’re not complete idiots, all evidence to the contrary. They have now declared that they are going to draw maps in which they take NO ACCOUNT of race. The implication is that they are only going to consider political preference in their next effort. Purely political = not justiciable, or so they’re hoping.  And that’s damned clever, because in North Carolina race and party preferences overlap with . . . wait for it . . . almost surgical precision. Ta Dah!

Here’s a map of the State by race:

And here’s a map of voter preferences in the 2012 election (when Democrats actually got off their asses to vote):

Romney   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%

Obama   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%

Romney

  40-50%

  50-60%

  60-70%

  70-80%

Obama

  50-60%

  60-70%

  70-80%

 See what I mean? (That outlier over there on the left is Buncombe County, home of hippie haven Asheville, a very Boulder, CO kind of college town.)

And so, as we gird up for the next round of lawsuits, let me modestly suggest that In The Meantime, we do not have a lawfully elected legislature. It seems to me that actions of a racially gerrymandered political body are ipso facto racist and/or unconstitutional.

Wait, Tom! You’re not suggesting that everything the Legislature has done since those 28 gerrymandered seats were filled needs to be redone? Why, that could delay any new work for months – even years!

And the problem with that would be? According to Mark Twain (or, maybe, Gideon J. Tucker) “No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” Seriously, I wouldn’t mind at all a return to the days when we funded our schools and our Medicaid system and it was still illegal to drive over people in the streets.