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The Pros And Cons Of Gerrymandering

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Gerrymandering is a practice that stopped redistricting and goes to establish a political advantage for a specific party or group by manipulating district limits to create biased advantage districts. The process for making a congressional district map in Texas has grown more complex and significant over the years. Districts are usually drawn by politicians that typically have a vested interest in the effect of the new lines; according to laws and regulations they're subject to judicial review. This gives the state the power to control and maintain their districts. The disadvantage is that it allows representatives who could not otherwise get elected, to be elected. It’s prominent for the politicians yet not as much for voters who don’t hold …show more content…

The Federal judge John Hannah stated “The dominant political party treated all member of the opposing party as if they were “enemies of the state” instead of the respected state leaders, many with a great wealth of government knowledge and ability that has and would inure to be benefit of Texas” (133). The issue is that voting in Texas is so racially divided; discriminating against Democrats is equivalent to discriminating against minorities. Democrats fought to keep their place in legislature by concentrating on individual officeholders during the redistricting process. Republicans, instead of undertaking the chore of encouraging minority voters, would rather overpower their ability to choose their own representation.
When gerrymandering occurs, a political party draws the limitations of an electoral district in a way that benefits their party to win over the other parties. For instance, if a Republican controls a state, and it seems like the party will lose a seat in the future, the Republicans will draw the district in a way to eliminate as many Democratic voters as possible. In Texas, like most other southern states, the key for completing the transition from the traditional one-party Democratic rule to Republican control is forcing the Democratic incumbents out of the office (Winburn

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Gerrymandering Position Paper Gerrymandering is the irregular redrawing of district lines to give one political party an advantage. Gerrymandering usually starts with a census. Every ten years, it is necessary to recount the people to redistribute the seats for the members of the House of Representatives. If a state gains or loses states it is necessary to reapportion the state.

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Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing boundaries to benefit the political party in power. An example is Nevada, in which the four districts show the three forms. Gerrymandering was made after Elbridge Gerry, who was the governor of Massachusetts and Vice President of the U.S., signed a bill that redistricted the state to benefit his party, which was later called Partisan Gerrymandering. An individual observed the oddly shaped district as a "gerrymander" causing a newspaper reporter to print a cartoon of a monster based on it.

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In advising the Chief Justice, it is obvious that the voting districts should be redrawn for a multitude of reasons. As the system of drawing districts stands, it is highly vulnerable to corruption for the party in power, as they are the ones deciding the districts. Concurrently, those in power are incentivized to maintain their power through any means necessary; which, in a democracy, is obtaining the most votes. Because it is extremely difficult determining whether or not the drawing of a district is preferential to one party over another is, the risk to those in power is minimal while the potential payout is high. Thus, short of any moral reasoning to stop them, the likelihood of someone gaming the design of voting districts is high.

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Texas is unusual in that its constitution is so lengthy and detailed that much policymaking must occur through the process of constitutional amendment rather than simply by lawmaking. If Texas were to have an income tax or to change its system for selecting judges, those changes would not come from statutes enacted by the legislature, but would have to be constitutional amendments

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Gerrymandering is when district lines are drawn in such a way to give a party higher chance of getting there representatives in control of the state. Gerrymandering is a way that the government can control who has power and who does not. There is a lot of controversy behind this though some people think that politicians should not be in charge of drawing the districts that a group of un bias people should draw the boundaries. People that want to keep the process we have now that allows for gerrymandering argue that non bias people do not exist and to give the task to someone different would just lead to more gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is not new in fact its named after the first to do it in the united states Elbridge Gerry

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Gerrymandering is drawing political boundaries so that your political party has a numerical advantage over the other party.1 An illustrative example of how to win a district through gerrymandering from a Washington Post article is on the right. Gerrymandering could concentrate opposing votes into a few districts to gain more seats for a majority in certain districts. Gerrymandering can also be used to help or hinder a certain demographic, like a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group. For example, two terms used in gerrymandering are “packing” and “cracking”.

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This allows the politicians to select one representative from each district to represent the majority of the voters in that district. This can benefit a political party because it allows them to have more seats in the house. “Eliminating gerrymandering would not by itself dramatically increase the competitiveness of house and state….between the two major political parties” (Mann, Thomas

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What is “Gerrymandering”? which until now was something that never crossed my mind until I attended my Political Science class. Interestingly, Gerrymandering is a tradition vested for a political advantage by a political party to manipulate the district boundaries. Gerrymandering can also be used to utilize from a race, ethnicity, class groups or religion point of prospect, simply to benefit a political party. “The word “gerrymander” was coined at a Boston dinner party hosted by a prominent Federalist in March 1812, according to an 1892 article by historian John Ward Dean.

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What is a constituency, and why do constituencies differ for representatives and senators? A constituency is a group of individual voters in a specific area who elect a representative to a legislative body. Constituencies differ for representatives and senators: • Representatives – represent a district or area of a state and sometimes a whole state • Senators – represent the whole state Explain briefly how reapportionment and redistricting work? Why is gerrymandering frowned upon?

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Instead of focusing on picking the right person to lead, the election had turned into a complexity of race. Isbell, had many meetings about Latinos losing their right to vote, but he chose to avoid anything that would make him look racist or critical. The U.S. District Judges Xavier Rodriguez and Orlando Garcia wrote in their opinion of gerrymandering in Texas that "The record indicates not just a hostility toward Democrat districts, but a hostility to minority districts, and a willingness to use race for partisan advantage,"(1). In addition, Nina Perales said, "The court's decision exposes the Texas Legislature's illegal effort to dilute the vote of Texas Latinos." (1), which means that having Latinos move to another district it equaled to less democratic voters and more republican voters.

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Individualistic values in Texas support government activity only “to the extent that it creates opportunity for the individual achievement.” (Texas Political Culture). In other words, Texans are in favor of a limited state government and only encourage government activity when it is needed to create individual opportunities. The practice of an individualistic culture in Texas has created hostile views towards the state and federal government, and discourage their involvement in a number of

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Texas Political Culture There are multiple classifications for political cultures Moralistic political culture- ones believe that the government should promote the public good and in order to ensure that good the citizens should participate in politics and civic activities Individualistic political culture- ones believe that the government must limit their role when providing to society in order to make the citizens able to pursue their economic interests Traditionalistic political culture- ones believe that the government should controlled by political elites and must be guided by tradition. Changes in Texas

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This process is called Congressional redistricting. Congressional redistricting is the redrawing of district lines according to the state’s numbers

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In my essay I will provide three reasons why I do not believe Texas is operating within a democracy-a political system where the many rule. According to Author Robert Dahl, a democracy should provide opportunities for effective participation, equality in voting and inclusion of adults. There are socioeconomic factors- such ethnicity, education and income which are mentioned by author of our textbook, that impact voter participation. To begin, let’s look at the role a person ethnicity plays in a democracy. Next, examine the level of education and how it correlates to voting.

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The history of political parties in Texas is marked by nearly a century of Democratic Party dominance followed by a realignment that shifted the balance of power in favor if the republicans. Political science professor Cal Jilson noted that the dominance of one party in Texas has been a result of the state’s dominant values. Both parties in Texas today reflect more conservative versions of their national counterparts. The other chapter talks about the Interest groups in Texas. Interest groups plays a critical role in all democratic systems of government.

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