Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Gerrymandering

The process of re-drawing district lines to give an advantage to one party over another is called "gerrymandering".




By Christopher Ingraham
Christopher Ingraham


I chose this particular line of the article, because it defines gerrymandering in it's simplest terms. The definition may seem simple, but gerrymandering complicates our government on a drastic level. Gerrymandering usually occurs every ten years, after the Census is taken to update population counts in each of the states, the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts are then redrawn. The first concern is that it can cause disproportionate representation, because population determines the number of representative needed for that state. Also, people move around every day and migrate to different states all the time, so the statistics recorded are never really accurate. The districts are not always drawn equally or to make any sense. It has created a disadvantage because it allows one party to maintain control or have power over the other.. This is exactly the issue John Stuart Mill brings up in Civil Liberties. The majority overrules the minorities and the ugly truth is not all the decisions or practices incorporated by a majority is the right way to go. You cannot dismiss ideas without exactly hearing it. Gerrymandering can make it impossible for a party to carry out their ideas.  

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