Gerrymandering and the Individual

     A few weeks ago we talked about gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is when the border of a political district is redrawn to give certain peoples a political advantage. It is only legal in the U.S. when it guarantees political representation of a minority. Both Republicans and Democrats are in favor of gerrymandering but for different reasons. Democrats favor them because they give minorities their own voting district. Republicans favor them because they put all the people of a minority in a certain district, so then they do not influence their surrounding districts. This way if the majority is Republican they can beat them with their higher number of congressional districts. This later example is a good example of using political geography to your advantage. All this talk of gerrymandering made me wonder if it was right and whether or not I support it.

     If one looks at the U.S.’s Electoral College one can tell that it favors minorities. We had an entire debate on the Electoral College in class and whether it was a good system or not. Whether you agree with the use of the Electoral College or not, at the end of the day the Electoral College does favor minorities. The minorities in this case being little states versus big states. Little Wyoming’s amount of votes and Texas’s amount of votes are not proportional to their respective populations. The Senate also favors minorities with two senators to every one state. It would seem our founding fathers set our government up to favor minorities, at least in this fashion.

      All this talk our minorities makes me think once again of Les Misérables where Victor Hugo uses these miserable peoples’ lives to emphasize the importance of the individual in society and to combat Marx. The U.S. does think the individual is important. We take pride in men who strike out on their own and make it big by themselves. The “rags to riches” idea is so engrained in Americans and I believe this idea is very individualistic and want to give chances to minorities. I believe that Americans’ fear of communism also shows our individualistic culture. These ideas do not always coincide with my Catholic faith which focuses on a community rooted in Christ. But I digress.

     Gerrymandering favors minorities. Minorities are important because the individual in society is important. Does this mean gerrymandering should continue? The strategy for Republicans and their use of gerrymandering certainly does not support the individual. Throwing them all in one district so that they do not influence the other districts does not support the individual. I think gerrymandering is one of those things that looks good on paper but in reality does not do what it is intended to do. In reality this is not the best way to represent minorities. Instead we should keep minorities in districts with the majority. Representatives will then have to appeal to both them and the majority. I believe this is the only fair way to represent them. If they join together within their communities, the voice of the individual within society will still be heard and representatives will have to listen to them.