Should "Elections have Consequences"?

[DGS49]

If the people of a given state see fit to elect a majority from a given party in their legislature, and the legislature drafts the map for legislative districts after each census, is not appropriate for the said majority-legislature to craft a map that is in its own best interests?

Both parties have done it in the past, but now the technology exists to do it better. Does that make the practice (commonly called, "Gerrymandering") illegal, unconstitutional, or evil?

And keep in mind that one political party tends to live in clusters in urban areas, where they hold impregnable majorities for local elections - but that tendency works against them in state redistricting. So they WIN locally, but potentially LOSE state-wide. Isn't that a fair trade-off?

 

[Dragonlady]

If the people of a given state see fit to elect a majority from a given party in their legislature, and the legislature drafts the map for legislative districts after each census, is not appropriate for the said majority-legislature to craft a map that is in its own best interests?

Both parties have done it in the past, but now the technology exists to do it better. Does that make the practice (commonly called, "Gerrymandering") illegal, unconstitutional, or evil?

And keep in mind that one political party tends to live in clusters in urban areas, where they hold impregnable majorities for local elections - but that tendency works against them in state redistricting. So they WIN locally, but potentially LOSE state-wide. Isn't that a fair trade-off?

All three. The party should be redrawing the districts to favour the people, not the party. So that the voters are picking the party, not the other way around.

 

[Circe]

Not in Maryland.

The point is that the legislature (all dem in benighted Maryland) is gerrymandering so that NO, zero, district is Republican any longer.

 

[Esdraelon]

Not in Maryland.

The point is that the legislature (all dem in benighted Maryland) is gerrymandering so that NO, zero, district is Republican any longer.

We never hear complaints about this, at least through media outlets, until it works against Democrats. Crybabies, the lot of them. We also have never seen a presidential election where the top of the ticket lost, yet many state legislatures favored the bottom of the ticket. "Negative" coattails, as it were. Just more evidence that the steal was kept as simple as possible and the false ballots were only against Trump. It's been a long time since high skrool, so I had to look up the Gerrymandering factoids.

How Gerrymandering Began in the US | HISTORY

Long before it got its name, Gerrymandering was already happening in the United States.

www.history.com

The concept-in-action predates America but it's been around here since the 1800s and has been refined in the computer age. To my knowledge (limited), no Constitutional challenge to it has ever been made. My guess is that is because it long favored Democrats and they saw no problem with it. As they become a more and more polarizing party that has trouble being elected fairly, we will see such fits gaining in volume and frequency.