Earlier this week I was surprised to find a lengthy rant posted by one of my Republican friends on his Facebook page. My friend’s diatribe included allegations of treason against serving government officials. These types of allegations are often tossed around by so-called Tea Party “patriots” but my friend is nothing of the sort. He’s a well-spoken, thoughful, moderate Republican and the target of his wrath is Republican Speaker John Boehner. Boehner drew my friend’s ire for his reckless commandeering of the federal government.
A slew of comments grew out my friend’s post, from both sides of the aisle. I’d been pondering lately how we got into this political mess, too, so I weighed in with this:
In my opinion the center will continue to be ignored as long as gerrymandering guarantees the safety of extremist politicians. To fix the system we must demand fair redistricting. Currently few politicians have to worry about the wrath of voters. That has to change.
This is, I believe, the crux of our current political dysfunction. Gerrymandering has made general elections largely moot. Safe districts mean primary elections decide the races. Primaries draw candidates to the extremes. There’s no room for the middle anymore and, with their reelection a foregone conclusion, political leaders no longer feel the need to answer to voters.
Some think the answer is the creation of new political parties. While that would be a welcome change, most agree that our redistricting process is badly broken. We voters have let the deck become stacked against us. A safe election is not necessarily a fair election.
I’ve decided that I am going to put my energy into a new effort to bring some sanity to the redistricting process. No long will gerrymandered districts decide elections before they’re even held. Districts should be based on nonpartisan factors alone. No split precincts, no spaghetti tentacles crossing multiple counties.
I’m calling this effort “Fairness First” and I hope that the idea will catch on. Look for more updates soon.
Update: The N&O’s Rob Christensen makes similar points in his column today.