Gerrymandering: Political Games with Real Consequences

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The past two days I have focused this blog on the racial gerrymandering of congressional district maps currently being rushed through a few state legislatures in the American South, with special emphasis on those of Tennessee and Missouri.  Both of those states are eliminating a Democratic (and Black) district by skillfully dividing a large urban area (Memphis, TN and Kansas City, MO), into three separate districts, each with a large coattail of enough rural Republican area to place each third of each city under the control of their country cousins.  

I have just a bit more to say on the topic, and then I will let it go.  I promise.

I promote this blog twice a day on Blue Sky.  Yesterday I received a response on Blue Sky from one of those promotional blurbs, and her remark overlayed perfectly with the final point I wanted to make today.  The nice lady from Kansas City had this to say:

"I live i KC about 15 minutes away from my sister.  She's been gerrymandered into MO-4 and I'm still in MO-5.  We'll both end up with MAGA kooks who know nothing about urban issues and won't bother to learn.  A real travesty." 

Yes, that lady is exactly right.   Every single American, whether they have have been gerrymandered or not, will still have a representative in Congress at the end of the day.  Well, not.exactly.  Many of those who have been gerrymandered will have a congressman who is LESS REPRESENTATIVE of their issues and needs.  At the end of the day both Tennessee and Missouri (as well as a few other southern states) will have more people in Congress who are representative of White rural people and their issues - and less representative of both Black AND White citizens of urban districts whose needs from the national government are distinctly different than those of rural Americans.  Those few additional votes squeezed from the gerrymandering process can be instrumental in putting America on a course that falls short of meeting the critical needs of everyone - and the American promise of equal access and opportunity.

Kansas City or Memphis might have a critical need for federal funding to replace a bridge on a busy interstate in order to keep a large factory open and maintain jobs, but if that area of the city is represented by an insurance or real estate salesman two hundred miles away in Hooterville, his interests are going to be more aligned with the needs of his friends and neighbors, the locals sitting at thr regulars' table in the coffee shop on Main Street - and they are going to be focused on the price of tractor parts from overseas or fertilizer costs.  In fact, if the people in that coffee shop each listed a hundred priorities for Congress, that critical bridge replacement in Kansas City or Memphis would not be on anybody's list.

The needs of rural and urban areas are distinctly different in many respects, as are the needs of communities which are predominantly populated by one particular race.  Ignoring those needs by denying community representation to the people, deprives people in those communities of a voice in government.  By virtue of political and racial gerrymandering, some types of communities in the states are getting more representation that they ever dreamed of having, and others are being stripped of their communal voice altogether.

Gerrymandering is about inequality.  Congressional districts should be drawn tight so they can be more reflective of the people who actually live in each area - and promote their specific needs.  Anything less is just political gamesmanship.