The Influence Of Gerrymandering On American Values

The promise of America has always been that it would be a government by the people, for the people. However, gerrymandering is and ever-looming threat to American ideals, and is potentially one of the biggest threats to equal representation for Americans.By further understanding what this phenomenon is and how the nature of undermined representation manifests itself though the gerrymandering of congressional districts, it can be deduced how basic American values are potentially compromised through these actions. To gain a more holistic view on America’s tradition of gerrymandering, it is important to first grasp the basics and then the relationship the facts have with American ideals in order to properly understand the true extent gerrymandering has on American values. …show more content…
The first questions to ask are the basics; what, when, where, and how does gerrymandering manifest itself? These questions will inherently lead into studies of partisan opposition using these districts as battlegrounds for securing control. Every ten years, congressional districts get “reapportioned,” meaning that there is a, “reorganization of the boundaries of House districts,” (Morone and Kersh 272). Redistricting in 2000 led to a significantly less competitive partisan election in 2002 with only “thirty-five to forty seats,” competitively drawn between parties. The result of this was that “gerrymandering ensured that…nearly nine out of ten had been rendered safe for one party or another,” thereby solidifying certain districts for parties (Dahl