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In 1812, Elbridge Gerry, one of the Founding Fathers, was Governor of Massachusetts. He signed a bill that created a bizarre legislative district that looked a bit like a salamander. “Gerry’s Salamander” was obviously clumsy, so it became known as a “Gerry-Mander.”
What Gerry did (with the help of the legislature) wasn’t new. It’s been done for a very long time in a vast number of places documented on Wikipedia. As Wayne Dawkings describes it, gerrymandering allows politicians to choose their voters rather than having voters choose their politicians.
Yesterday the Supreme Court ducked ruling on gerrymandering by claiming that it would improperly insert the courts into an inherently political process. We can argue with this decision on obvious fairness grounds. The Constitutional question seems completely embedded in the question. And since the Fourteenth Amendment “guarantees the opportunity for equal participation by all voters in the election,” gerrymanders interfere with the ability to vote and the “one man one vote principle.”
My own Congressional district used to be highly gerrymandered to create a safe seat for Corinne Brown. Most of it was in black areas of Jacksonville, but it had a sliver of unoccupied land connecting it with Eatonville, “the oldest black township in America.” My home in next-door Maitland got sucked into her district to get enough total voters. By packing every black voter the Republicans could find into a single “minority-majority” district, they guaranteed not only her election, but the election of a few Republicans. Nice trade. A few white voters like me got stuck.
Voters in Florida passed an initiative requiring “compact” districts that used existing boundaries such as rivers and roads. But the Republican Florida legislature could resist Gerry’s siren song, even after the voters spoke. The fight continues.
With SCOTUS’ abdication of the field to the states, it appears that no real solution is at hand. Thus, since I am clearly smarter than anyone else, I will propose an answer that may even have a chance of success. Since there are two levels, state and federal, I will propose the answer for the more difficult question. The answer at the state level can then be left to the student.
We have 435 voting seats in the US House. That number was set in 1911, and reinforced by a statutory cap in the Reapportionment Act of 1929. There’s nothing magical in that number, and it’s not set by the Constitution. All the Constitution says is that you can’t have less than one Congressman for 30,000 people and every state has to have at least one. That’s it. The 435 limit is something that Congress picked for itself.
What does this limit do? It means that each CongressCritter “represents” 800 thousand-odd people. Give me a break. They do no such thing. Because there are no term limits, and the incumbent has a pot-full of power in Congress, each CongressCritter, with rare exceptions, serves his seat, not the people. There’s just no way 800 thousand people can have any meaningful contact with him.
But suppose that we change the calculus a bit. Let’s increase the number of seats in the House. We won’t be radical. Let’s make the number of people in a district 200,000. (We could go to 40,000, like the Founding Fathers discussed without changing the core of the proposal. We might even make it better.) It’s still tough to talk directly to your Congressman, but it’s not impossible. And when a rich donor tries to buy a majority of the House, he’s got to tackle a lot more districts. The math becomes a lot harder.
But won’t that make the House completely unmanageable? In a good sense, yes. Because there are so many Representatives who are closer to their constituents than before, it becomes harder for a power broker to get them all in line. Instead of being able to corral one questionable vote, now four votes have to be dealt with. Power has just moved toward the people.
But what about that historic building that seats about 600 people? Now we’re talking about 1,800 Congressmen, and they won’t all fit. And that’s a good thing. This will require that Congress physically decentralize. And there’s nothing that even requires the Congress to ever assemble in D.C., although there are many who will want to continue the theatrical aspects of that body. The need to physically assemble has passed.
With our modern technology, it is more than practical to “do Congress” from a distance. There are many teleconferencing apps, and I’m sure that the DoD and CIA can supply secure versions so that when a Representative casts a vote, we can be sure who actually cast it. All the hearings can be similarly conducted. In fact, it’s not physically necessary for a Representative to leave home for any Constitutionally mandated tasks. One may argue that face time is very important, but that can largely be supplied with FaceTime, Zoom, or Skype.
And that brings us back to Elbridge Gerry’s bastard stepchild. If we have 1,800 Congressional districts, the task of creating “safe” districts becomes more difficult, simply because there are so many. (Imagine 9,000 or so if we make each district 40,000 people!) Certain areas, such as Airhead-Cortez’ home, will be very safe Democrat districts. Others in flyover country will be very safe Republican districts. Surprise!
The key difference is that when the granular data on party affiliation is collated and matched against the map, those bizarre districts, such as the one I was in, will largely disappear. Because you’ll fill a district with fewer people, a smaller area will be required. And it won’t be hard to define easy boundaries. The smaller the number of people, the harder it will be to get cute. In NYC, a district might just be a couple of city blocks.
When Representatives are forced to actually represent, then we will find ourselves returning to competitive Congressional races. Each race will be less expensive, and will be more likely to respond to old-fashioned shoe leather. Our 90% re-elect rate will probably change. Berkeley will still get its hard-Left choice. Orange County, California will move from all-blue to a mix of blue and red.
Finally, how many Representatives will have to fear that the Speaker will discover the skeletons in their closets to pressure votes? Will they fear their constituents more, and be pressured to actually work for the American people?
Hmmmmmm.
We are currently forming the American Conservative Movement. If you are interested in learning more, we will be sending out information in a few weeks.
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