The Big Voting Scam Your Legislators Want (but Say They Don't)
Gerrymandering, also known as redistricting is The Big Scam.
It’s been The Big Scam in the USA since 1812, when Eldridge Gerry, 1744-1814, a signer of our Declaration of Independence and Governor of Massachusetts, established voting districts that assured that he and his party cronies were elected and e-elected ad nauseum. Since then, the cancer of gerrymandering has metastasized to all fifty states and to dozens of other countries that allow their citizens to vote, among them Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Greece, and Ireland.
The primary purpose of this nefarious political ploy is to maximize the effects of supporters’ votes and minimize the effects of opponents’ votes. It enables legislators of either party to create, every ten years in the USA in conjunction with a new census, voting districts with complex shapes that are packed with voters who are loyal to a specific party, thus assuring that candidates of that party will carry the district and be elected.
The practice enables legislators to pick voters, rather than voters to pick legislators, and creates an unfair advantage for one party that is legal, but is surely unethical and discriminatory. In my book, The Power of Ethics, I point out that “the old adage, if it ain’t illegal it must be ethical, is deeply flawed. Ethics and the law are as different as the enforceable and unenforceable.”
Nevertheless, legislators in power embrace gerrymandering with the enduring enthusiasm of self-interest.
For example, the majority party in the Pennsylvania legislature, now Republicans, tends to favor gerrymandering; their members can control the way districts are drawn and, therefore, help assure their majority. The minority party, however, tends to see gerrymandering as unfair, but, in a classic, hypocritical flip-flop that both parties have practiced, will advocate it should they become the majority.
Given the huge incentive for being elected or re-elected, gerrymandering seems to be embedded in our political system. It needn’t be.
Transferring responsibility for redistricting from legislators to an independent, non-partisan body can minimize the effects of gerrymandering. A dozen or so states have appointed independent panels to study current districts to determine if they encompass an equal number of voters of either party. Theoretically, legislatures will then correct imbalances. This remedy has proven effective in other countries and can be most acceptable to legislators.
You can help to eliminate gerrymandering. If you agree with the above, contact your legislators and tell them that you want to eliminate gerrymandering so that your vote will influence upcoming elections.
Photo: http://all-len-all.com/Gerrymander
The Big Voting Scam Your Legislators Want (but Say They Don’t) was originally published on The Expressive Press