Assignment 7

“What's at stake, after all, is citizens' representation in Congress. Partisan gerrymandering undermines the whole notion of a representative government.”

What the author is explaining in this part of his passage can be easily understood. The politician has created a system to stay in power. But, at what cost? Are the constituents actually being looked after? One district the author mentions is the Sevenths district in Pennsylvania. The shape of the district has transformed from 83rd to the 113^th Congress, It is unrecognizable. As he said, “While a compact district may be desirable, it doesn’t necessarily reflect how people live or what county and city boundaries look like." Or, as John succinctly puts it, "Representation is about people, not polygons."  

I believe gerrymandering is an issue that has a solution. Like any law, citizens or politicians will do their best to make the law benefit them as much as possible. Democracy is being hurt by this because the politicians are focusing more on reshaping the districts on the map instead of serving the people who placed them in power. The problem is that the office-bearers understand that to control, they must gerrymander or at least understand it. I can understand why this action is being taken and it is because it is an old game that the rules has not been changed. The government needs to be more progressive with actions to benefit the people and change the rule of this old game in the political arena.

Democracies in America has matured in many ways and there is still a lot that can be done to improve it. The system has to be pegged to the interest of the people, not map making.