Gerrymandering is a permanent part of the American fabric
Gerrymandering is purely political. It tends to disenfranchise voters aligned with the out-of-power party. It is controversial whenever and wherever it occurs. It is unfair. And … it is as American as apple pie.
The idea of those in power drawing political districts to benefit themselves is as old as the Republic. It first gained wider recognition in 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry designed a district that reminded the editor of the local newspaper of a salamander. And thus, the practice acquired a euphemistic name – more poetic than “dirty politics”.
Despite decades of condemnation, gerrymandering has been a staple of American politics. Partly because no one has come up with a sensible way to stop it. True … there have been efforts to handle the matter through so-called independent or non-partisan commissions. That has never worked because it is impossible for political forces to create bodies that are not political. One party or the other – whichever has the power – will produce commissions favorable to their political interest. The illusion of independence provides political cover, but the results remain partisan. Until commissions are truly insulated from political pressure – a virtual impossibility — they will serve as window dressing—not reform.
Across the American political landscape, few issues are as persistently contentious—and as cynically manipulated—as congressional redistricting. While both major parties have engaged in gerrymandering, recent developments expose a glaring double standard among Democrats As they decry Republican-led redistricting efforts – brutally political as they may be – they are offset by a long history of Democrat gerrymandering. One will find the most ridiculously gerrymandered districts in Democrat states.
Constitutional Authority and Historical Precedent
The U.S. Constitution leaves the creation of congressional districts entirely in the hands of state legislatures. There are no constitutional mandates governing how or when districts must be drawn. While it has become customary to redraw maps following the decennial census, that is merely tradition—not law. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that it lacks jurisdiction to impose standards on redistricting (other than constitutional civil rights), leaving states free to chart their own course.
Mid-decade redistricting—such as the one occurring in Texas—is not a novel tactic. In fact, the first mid-decade redraw occurred in 1816 when the Federalists took control of the Massachusetts House and redrew Gerry’s map. The courts were not involved at the time. it was pure politics.
Compact and Contiguous—In Theory
There’s a widely held belief that districts should be “compact and contiguous,” but this standard is vague and unenforceable. Some states attempt to honor it while others blatantly disregard it. The result is a patchwork of district shapes that often defy logic and geography. While Republicans have certainly engaged in gerrymandering, Democratic-led states have taken the practice to new extremes—all while claiming to be opponents of gerrymandering and champions of fairness and reform. (Feel free to laugh, if you like).
Proportionate Representation—Selective Outrage
Democrats have embraced the concept of proportionate representation in criticizing the Texas redistricting plan — arguing that congressional seats should reflect the percentage of votes each party receives. But this principle is conspicuously absent in Democratic-led states. Republican voters are systematically underrepresented.
Illinois
- Congressional Vote Share (2022): 55% Democrat
- Seats Held: 14 of 17 (82% Democrat) Illinois is arguably the most gerrymandered state in the nation – and has been for generations. The district lines are so convoluted that they’ve become a national punchline. Despite widespread public support for an independent commission—75% of voters backed the idea in a 2020 poll—the Democrat legislature remains in control, and the Democrat governor holds veto power. Reform efforts have failed, and partisan manipulation continues unabated to this day.
California
- Congressional Vote Share (2022): 63% Democrat
- Seats Held: 40 of 52 (77% Democrat) California touts its independent redistricting commission as a model of fairness. Yet the results tell a different story. Republicans received 37% of the vote but hold only 23% of the seats. Governor Gavin Newsom currently working on an effort to widen that discrepancy. And what about that highly vaunted commission? Newsom is simply ignoring it.
- New York
- Congressional Vote Share (2022): ~61% Democrat
- Seats Held: 15 of 26 (~58% Democrat) New York’s initial 2022 maps were struck down by the courts for civil rights violations. Governor Kathy Hochul has since floated the idea of redrawing them again, despite constitutional hurdles. The goal? To reclaim seats lost to Republicans in swing districts.
Massachusetts
- Congressional Vote Share (2022): ~65% Democrat
- Seats Held: 9 of 9 (100% Democrat) Massachusetts is a one-party state in terms of congressional representation. Republican voters are effectively disenfranchised, their voices drowned out by district lines designed to ensure zero GOP seats.
Fighting Fire with Fire—or Just Fanning the Flames?
Democratic leaders claim their redistricting efforts are a defensive response to Republican gerrymandering. Governor Newsom’s declaration— “We’re going to fight fire with fire”—captures this sentiment. But this narrative collapses under scrutiny. In reality, Democrats have been gerrymandering with impunity for decades. The attacks on GOP redistricting is just plain old fashion political hypocrisy.
The hypocrisy is especially evident when Democrats bypass independent commissions, ignore court rulings, or redraw maps mid-decade. These actions reveal their true priorities: maintaining control, not promoting equity.
When large states like California, New York, and Illinois engage in gerrymandering, the national impact is profound. These states send dozens of representatives to Congress, and their skewed maps distort the balance of power.
Time to Call Out the Hypocrisy
Democrats cannot claim the moral high ground on gerrymandering while simultaneously manipulating maps to their advantage. Their criticism of Texas is not a principled stand—it’s political theater. If fairness is the goal, then reform must be consistent and bipartisan. That means applying the same standards to Illinois, California, New York, and Massachusetts as they do to Texas and Florida.
Until then, the sanctimony rings hollow. The real victims are the voters—Republican, Democrat, and Independent—whose voices are drowned out by partisan cartography. Perhaps – after all these years – we should just accept that gerrymandering is baked into that American apple pie. We should quit engaging in hypocrisy and accept the fact that the party in power has … power. And that gerrymandering is just the way a democratic republic works. It is not the best – or the worst – system. It is the only system.
So, there ‘tis.
Larry, because a bad act appears in your view to be a prevalent practice by American political parties. Therefore, Trump call asking for 5 more seats isn’t crossing over some ethical line. Trump’s demands on state Governors to comply with him on this opens the door to government groups taking over law enforcement from local departments.
Larry, you have said in the past that you don’t agree with his personality. Very few in this country actually appreciate his personality. But you agreed with his policies and defend his methods, as brutal as they are,
Even the most rabid of republicans have to cringe and look the other way hearing Trump speaking, watch what he is orchestrating with his backward view on tariffs, his upside down effect on the economy, his weak and blind fumbling in dealing with Putin, China, North Korea, and alienating our historic allies.
Trump 2.0 is gar different Trump Administration than Trump 1.0. The first time his cabinet had a few appointees who were the “Adults in the Room” providing guardrails that temporarily constrained his worst tendencies.
Since Jan 20, 2025 Trump has shown there are no constraints on what he will do. He challenges the balance of power between the three branches with intimidation and threats of retaliation.
Larry, you present yourself as a principled person with sound morals that drive your ethics. There is no way a reasonably sane person who has a strong hold on reality can not see that he and his Project 2025 cronies have designs on America that will burn it to the ground. If you and more on the right don’t see with eyes wide open what the cabal from Project 2025 are doing. They are using Trump for their own purposes. He is their puppet just like Trump is Putin’s puppet. When Trump’s downward trajectory is near bottom those like Steven Miller and his people will swoop in and plunder what remains of political power, wealth, and available resource assets.
The oligarch billionaire class will buy up gas, oil, electricity production at distressed prices.
Any condition less ominous that our country will fall to will be a miracle of greatest proportions.
My hope is that the majority of Americans will come to their good senses when they become awake from the spell brought by delusional separation from plain reality not partisan differences. The country is in peril. As in war time there is unity in survival.
Happy to be the only commentator on this sad history on gerrymandering in American politics. Larry, seems to be convinced that the practice is embedded in this country’s political culture and a hypocrisy for the Democrats to make a big deal over Trump’s 5 seats demand.
Lost, but not distracted from in the Democrats mind, is the Republican’s continued defense of Trump’s unhinged pursuit of power, wealth, and public adulation. The truth of what Trump is and what he’s up to is clear.
How far Trump and his regime believe they will take their highjacking rides on a conviction that at the Democrats have no way of stopping them. That may be accurate, the idea that anyone, even Trump, would go to the most unimaginable extremes we have witnessed our country’s political system is being tested to withstand and our Democracy hold strong.
Never before has our Judicial Branch been less able to work justly. It follows the will of our so called president. The SCOTUS rulings show none of neutrality that Lady Justice commanded in the justice’s oath. Trump’s politics command a 6-3 majority.
Larry, the evidence for gerrymandering you have given establishes a long pattern of anti-democratic wrong activity. However, there are not enough injustices perpetrated by both sides, that would make right Trump’s rigging elections for his personal gains.
It’s true that the dirt covering the leader of a scheme as unjust and advantageous for a select few as Trump’s plan promotes will spread and cover his closest loyalists first. Like a roiling dust storm of political, moral, ethical, unconstitutional, and illegal conduct, Trump’s unprecedentedly disloyal to the nation activity needs to be shared. Rightly so, all those who have sung Trump’s praise, votes given him, and laughed at those who saw Trump for the unqualified candidate and President 1.0 and 2.0 Trump has and is shown himself to be.
The big con Trump has been running on Republicans should be understood for what he wants and close him down.
History will report true facts under the Donald J. Trump. It always does, Truth will always rise. Trump has used intimidation and his position for altering or removing history being told in museums and national landmarks. History Trumps personal prejudice disagrees with. Who but a mentally unstable personality could or would want the events in known history changed to conform to one individual’s unbalanced perceptions.
The World recognizes the true character Trump displays in his traveling expeditions and speaking nonsense with national leaders. Particularly Putin and Zelenskyy with millions of Ukrainians’ lives in the balance. Nothing Trump promises and orders isn’t part of a greater lie. It is who Trump is to his core, a self serving, unconscionable, and corrupt politician and businessman. If he has any redeemable traits in his personality he hides them well.
Unprecedented is a word that found its full measure in its most negative context with Trump’s entry in to the media’s attention. Its meaning used for emphasis of a singularly positive conclusion has been tarnished by over use by media reporters detailing every disgusting Trump sighting reporting what he’d said. Each time more controversial than the last he’d let loose.
The democrats have been “gerrymandering “ since the devil squatted and what came out of him was the democrat party
Willie,
So eloquent, yet succinct. Tell all what you really think.
What you describe in such graphic detail has all the makings of a devilish hoax. It’s unsubstantiated fake news. You would have us believing in your conspiracy theory in reference to the origin of your opposition in politics.
But, if hypothetically your assumption was fact, then who was your source? Don’t have one? Then, unfounded indictments have the same effect as conspiracy theories. Trump’s accusations no specific or grounded lean heavily on his no common words like hoax, or witch hunt and fake news. None of these are close to an adequate argument against their validity. Otherwise, the majority of what he dismissed as hoaxes and fake news have turned out to be indisputable proven and objective facts. With evidence as proof that during Trump 1.0 he managed the accumulation of over 30,000 untruths gathered from public speaking alone. Since January 20, 2025 POTUS is well on his pattern for misplacing truth and inserting falsehoods. In fact he has upped his customary pace by unprecedented terms, even for him.
At some point the number of prevarication of details he miscommunicates in public will reach critical mass and violently implode in his brain. Whoever is near at the time will witness something of a not too pretty sight.
If you kick a lot of Democrats on what you think is a way up with Trump. You had better not treat them with disrespect. For the time will come when Trump’s balloon will burst. When it does, you will have to go through all the same Democrats as you plummet back to earth’s hard reality. Who’s is something you will be forced to re-enter after losing Trump’s alternate state of reality.
I am sure this comment and your previous commentary on Democrat beginnings will
receive scarce notice. PBP activity in the time of Trump 2.0 does not seem as lively with comments As there were during Biden’s term in office.
Larry has something to say once it twice in a fortnight. But, he is not up to his old self. He must find his material hard to come by. Everywhere Trump’s misadventures paper the internet feeds. But, I suppose he chosen to defend Trump. Trump’s actions are indefensible and ridiculous. Following Trump is tedious and tiresome.
Committing to Trump and staying loyal while he flounders his way to defeat after weakness caused failure takes its toll on credibility, that true enough,
It would not surprise me, if before the midterms Larry will bow out of writing his commentary on PBP.
He already has disengaged from PBP readers who make the effort to reply with comments. It’s now a one way easy street With Horist.
When you’re good enough to kiss Trump’s ass I will believe you Your crowd has been trying for years and still can’t stop Trump. Get over yourself
Not a problem. There’s nothing God’s green earth that would entice me to come within three red states of Trump and his ass.
Over a decade has passed since I last saw him in person.
When some one from his entourage asked if I would like to meet him. Out of self respect II respectfully declined the invitation, this was before his first nomination.
At the time, having read a couple of the books about him written by actual authors, I was of the opinion that he was not of the right stuff for national politics. What struck me then about Trump endures to this day and reinforced many times over.
Donald doesn’t possess a single redeeming quality. Among his many possessions, that’s one thing he can’t buy. It’s nature, not nurture.
Knowing Trump’s history growing up his lack of proper nurture likely set him on the path that gave his nature a permanent twist.
He is mister slick on the outside and pure sissy bully on the inside. Watch him in a crowd or one to one with Putin and watch his face. His personality screams insecurity and in conversation he is about an inch deep. Beyond the building trades in his hometown New York City his knowledge is thin.
If you bet on this horse to go the distance and finish first. You don’t know horses and you don’t understand the sheet.
Incidentally, state legislatures gerrymandering district maps in their state and Trump the President ordering the state’s governor to find him 5 seats in Congress happen to be like oranges and car tires.
The governor has no legal right to realign districts by unilateral edict. Even when the president orders it, But, Trump is not one who lets laws get in his way. He says, try to charge me, I have immunity. In addition, state’s rights prohibit interference in state matters by a federal authority. Again, here is Trump kicking recognized division between jurisdictions to the curb. He does not play by the established plain text written rule book.
As President he has sworn an oath to protect and see that the nation’s laws are carried out as written, You date some 7 months into his term, Trump has violated his oath of office too many times that I lost count the first week.
As I said, Trump did not possess the right stuff back in 2014, or in 2016 thru 2020 snd again less of the right stuff in 2024. It takes more than the money paid to buy the presidency to actually fulfill the responsibility charged to the job of president,
Trump seems to have fooled some of the people all the time and some of the people some of the time. Mr Willie you, of course, are in the first group. Trump’s willing slave sl the time