Congressman Steve Cohen appeared on msnbc this morning to promote a cause that I strongly believe in... a check on the power of Congress to draw its own districting lines. One only needs to look at the results from the 2012 congressional elections to reach a head scratching conclusion: State legislatures have drawn the lines in a way that predetermines the outcomes of elections. Republicans hold 55% of the seats in the house of representatives, while gaining only 46% of the vote. That is not to say the Democratic state legislatures aren't doing the exact same thing.
At some point, Americans have to come together and decide what is good for democracy should triumph what is good for your own political party. Gerrymandering is a proxy for the slide of our society into a defacto dictatorship. Voters in California rose up to strip the powers of redistricting from the legislature, and more states should be following their lead.
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