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The Effects Of Gerrymandering On Democracy

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Ever wonder why it feels like your vote does not count? The answer can be summed up with one simple word: gerrymandering. But what exactly is gerrymandering? In a nutshell, it is altering the way your votes are added up to affect how the results look at the end of the day. Gerrymandering uses this to wrongly affect how the House of Representatives looks and is therefore destroying our democracy.
Here is how it is done. In most states, the state legislature is the one in control of redistricting. Every 10 years, they get census data and use it to decide how to divide the state. It is not required for the state to redistrict, but most do. Government requires that the districts drawn must have an almost equal population and must not discriminate …show more content…
With the facts standing as they are, I believe that gerrymandering is indeed destroying our democracy. Gerrymandering has by far benefitted the Grand Old Party more than it has the Democrats. Since the Republicans were able to control many state district lines, they caused the votes of many citizens to be altered to change how the state actually voted and misrepresent them behind their backs. This is corruption. It is hiding behind a political system to force the government to act in a way that the American population did not approve of. It is wrong. Not only does this lead to a decline of Democratic representatives in the House of Representatives, it could possibly lead to a whole branch of problems. What if the republicans manage to take control of every state legislature in the country? Their campaign to do so before worked, and they are probably continuing to do it now. They may use that power to complete take control of the House of Representatives, therefore rendering the “Representative” part of it useless. Any decisions made by that branch of the Congress would be completely one sided and unjust. If nothing is done about this and it reaches this stage, this could spread uncontrollably in a disease like fashion. It could taint the image of the government and cause angry citizens to protest and revolt. It could affect other major systems if we are not careful. We could possibly be passing laws that do not benefit us as a nation. It could affect our foreign policy and our economy. What if there is a large economic depression that results from this? We are at a tipping point in the economy and this could send us over the

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