Gerrymandering Is for Creeps and Cowards

In 2025, there were 14,700 reported injuries from fireworks in the United States, a 52% increase over 2023. Tragically, firework-related deaths were up 38% over the same period.

The moral of the story is simple: if you play with fire, you are bound to get burned.

And so, President Trump and the GOP must feel a bit burned today after voters in Virginia narrowly approved a redistricting plan that almost guarantees four new Democrat seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after this year’s midterm elections. The worst part is that they have no one to blame but themselves, because it was the Republicans – coerced by President Trump – who fired the first salvo in the Great Redistricting War of 2025.

The GOP won that early skirmish, picking up a potential five House seats in Texas, but the Democrats soon countered in California by adding five of their own. Now that the smoke has cleared in Utah (+1D), Ohio (+2R), Missouri (+1R), North Carolina (+1R), and Virginia (+4D), it appears that the Democrats will pick up a net one seat.

As William Shakespeare titled one of his comedies, it seems it was all Much Ado About Nothing.

Of course, the Free State of Florida is still considering holding a special legislative session to tackle redistricting. Gov. Ron DeSantis supports the concept, but House Speaker Daniel Perez opposes it.

Meanwhile, two states – one red (Indiana) and one blue (Maryland) – shot down the idea.

Good for them.

You see, I think that mid-decade redistricting is really a fancy word for gerrymandering… and gerrymandering is not only an enemy of democracy, but a haven for cowards and corruption.

For the record, the word “gerrymandering” was named after Gov. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who also served as Vice President of the United States under James Madison. As Governor, Gerry signed a bill that carved out a partisan legislative district in Boston, the shape of which resembled a salamander. Today, the term gerrymandering is defined as “the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency”.

There are two methods to gerrymandering. The first is called “cracking”, which is the diluting of the voting power of the opposing party’s supporters by spreading them over many different districts. The second is called “packing”, which is concentrating the opposing party’s voting power in one district to reduce its influence in other districts.

In other words, it’s a legal version of cheating. Highly unethical, totally repulsive, and yet, practiced by cowards and corrupt career politicians in both parties.

Creating safe legislative districts does a severe disserve to “We, the people” for multiple reasons. First, it disenfranchises the minority party in that district by making their votes of little to no consequence. Second, it creates a safe haven for career politicians and a breeding ground for corruption. Why work hard if your re-election is virtually guaranteed every two years? And why not help yourself to the public treasury if no one is going to hold you accountable?

Third, gerrymandering fosters extremism. In a safe Republican district, candidates will try to out-MAGA each other whereas in a safe Democratic district, the tendency is to keep running progressively to the left to fend off an even more liberal challenger. The result is an increasingly polarized Congress, where battle lines are drawn in blood and virtually nothing of consequence gets accomplished.

Simply put, gerrymandering is a tool for lazy, power-hungry, and short-sighted politicos… and I, for one, can’t stand it.