Gerrymandering is heavily in the news these days. Almost everyone that you talk to is outraged that the other side is doing it. Sadly, the universal anger we perhaps should be feeling is missing. Gerrymandering, the process by which states create districts that the majority party is certain, or at least near certain, to win is as old as the Republic. Heretofore, it was used somewhat sparingly, almost as if there was a gentleman’s agreement to play somewhat fairly with the other side.
In recent years, the long-standing cold war between our two political parties has heated. We no longer see each other as the honorable opposition, or in fact as honorable at all. The other guys are evil. They need to be exterminated, if not lethally, at least legally. Daily, we cry out for the politicians of the opposing party to be sent to jail. Maybe some deserve it. Probably most do not.
The process of gerrymandering goes back to at least 1812. In that year, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill creating a new state senate district that wrapped around the west and north suburbs of Boston. The Boston Gazette ran a cartoon drawn by Elkanah Tisdale depicting the new district as a salamander. That salamander-shaped district became known as a “Gerrymander.”
The bill creating the new district was drafted by the Democrat-Republicans, the first real political party, founded by Thomas Jefferson. Elbridge Gerry opposed the legislation but signed it anyway and lent his name to a practice that some see as onerous. Gerry was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He fought hard for a Bill of Rights, initially opposing the Constitution altogether because it did not have one.
Elbridge Gerry was part of the diplomatic corps to France that became embroiled in the “XYZ affair” leading to what was known as the “Quasi-War” with France that caused us to build the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides.” Gerry was a congressperson who once lost a governor’s race to John Hancock. In 1812, he ran for vice president on the Democratic-Republican ticket with James Madison. They won. Twenty months after taking office, Gerry died of a heart attack. He was the second vice president to die in office.
Despite all of this, Elbridge Gerry is remembered best, if at all, for a practice that troubles our Republic to this day. And that, despite the fact that he really did not start it. In 1788, in the very first national elections, Virginia Anti-Federalists attempted to draw a district that would preclude James Madison from winning a congressional seat.
Each state controls their own election process. The states can basically do what they want. Modern algorithms allow controlling parties to redistrict aggressively to control the outcome and increase their power. And, of course, if our side is doing it, we are all for it. But God forbid the other side do it.
