The Patriot Post® · Drawing Legislative Districts to Make Everybody Happy

By Larry Craig

States across the country are now in the process of drawing new legislative districts.

And, of course, every party not in the majority is accusing the party in the majority of drawing boundary lines that favor that majority.

I submit that there is only one way to draw fair legislative districts. One.

When you do it this one way, I don’t care who draws them. Do it any other way, and there will always be people who won’t like it.

Some people think you should draw maps that match the party’s strength in a state. If half the state is Republican and half is Democrat, then you should draw maps that give party representation that is roughly 50-50. But then you are still choosing your voters, which is still the same thing as gerrymandering.

Some think districts should be drawn so each party is roughly equal in that district. So you want to ensure that half the district is never happy with their representative? Why is that good?

Some people think you should create minority-majority districts so that they can be sure to get a minority candidate in office. But that’s one of the very things they criticize gerrymandering for. You put as many people of a certain group or party into as few districts as possible. You give them their token representation, but you strengthen your majority. If minorities have distinctly different needs and wants as everybody else, they would be better served having minorities in a lot of districts.

And then, of course, if you are not of that minority but live in that district, you might never get a representative that looks like you.

You will always have people who will decide which groups of people deserve their own districts and which ones don’t. Hispanics, but not Italians. Muslims, but not Jews. And when you try really hard to load a district with one of your favored groups, you do a disservice to every person who is not of that group who lives in that district.

The idea of America is that out of many, we create one. Our government is not meant to single out particular groups for special treatment. We are not meant to all be in groups competing against each other for benefits from the government.

What benefits all is the aim of government. The Constitution calls for forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our children.

The only fair way to create legislative districts is to do it blindly. Those who draw the boundaries should have no information about the constituents of the state except where they live. And they should have information about where natural boundaries exist, like city limits, neighborhoods, county lines, any true dividing element like a major highway, large forest preserves, or cemeteries.

Any way of drawing legislative districts that is not done blindly opens the door to political abuse.

I have also proposed elsewhere creating virtual districts, but maybe next time.

Please visit my blog at poligion1.blogspot.com for articles I have written on politics, culture, and public life.