North Carolina Gerrymanders Its Way to 'Democracy'
MSNBC, ever so gently, tells us North Carolina is set to pass legislative maps. What they gloss over is how this isn't just 'drawing lines'; it's strategically carving up districts to ensure one party maintains power regardless of voter preference. This isn't a new phenomenon, of course. For decades, both major parties have engaged in this electoral cartography, transforming democracy into a game
of partisan Pictionary. The Supreme Court, in cases like Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), essentially threw its hands up, declaring federal courts have no role in partisan gerrymandering, effectively giving states a green light to rig their own elections. So, North Carolina joins the proud American tradition of 'free and fair elections' where the winners are decided before a single ballot is cast.
How else does one reconcile a representative democracy with districts shaped like abstract art, designed solely to dilute the votes of one segment of the populace? It appears the only 'complaint' that truly matters is how effectively one party can entrench itself, not whether citizens actually get a say.