For years, Democrats framed gerrymandering as a fundamental threat to democracy.
Former president Barack Obama once called it “a sneaky way for politicians to consolidate as much power as they can.” Obama’s former attorney general, Eric Holder, helped launch a national campaign to end partisan redistricting, warning that it disenfranchises voters and erodes trust in government.
And yet, something has shifted.
“All’s fair in love and war,” declared New York governor Kathy Hochul (D), speaking to reporters on Monday. Flanking her were Democratic Texas state legislators who had just fled their state to keep their Republican colleagues from having the quorum they needed to redraw congressional maps in their favor.
“If Republicans are willing to rewrite these rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us no choice,” said Hochul. “We must do the same.”
Since Monday’s meeting with Hochul, the Texas lawmakers have been to Illinois and Boston to meet with Democratic officials, including Massachusetts governor Maura Healey (D), who echoed Hochul’s words by saying Republican officials’ gerrymandering efforts in Texas leave states like hers “with no choice.”
Holder too now says the current crisis justifies abandoning his once-held principle that gerrymandering is a threat to democracy — at least temporarily. “Extraordinary steps” are necessary, he told the New York Times, to save democracy so it can be “ultimately healed.”
Gerrymandering is the process of drawing political maps to achieve partisan outcomes in an election. For example, a political party that controls a state legislature may decide to concentrate voters favorable to their party within certain districts — or lump together enclaves…
Auteur: Evelyn Quartz
