Um... WHAT? Republicans have 9/13 CDs in NC. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 12/11/2012 08:26:45 PM
Look at North Carolina, where Democrats engineered a district to ensure a minority representative (Democrat, of course) would emerge. It happens all over the place on the part of both parties and it's gross. Moreover, I think that the courts have been too permissive of the districts. They taught us in school that gerrymandering was not allowed, but now it is.
No argument there, except that the NC was drawn to ensure minority representation, not because the evil Dems in the state legislature gerrymandered it in their favor, but because the Voting Rights Act of 1965 REQUIRES that. If they had not done it, the SCOTUS would have done it for them (as they did when TX could not manage to preserve minority representation in either of its 2010 redistricting maps.) Funny how your view of gerrymandering changed so radically in just a few days though....
They should use a universal formula: take the southwest corner of your state and draw a square, expanding it until you reach a district size of population. Then move east and keep doing it, and then shift the borders slightly if, at the end of the process, you have a narrow strip at the top of the state. Period.
Works for me. Dems are totally boned under this scenario, of course, but, once again, "cui bono?" is not the operative question. Equal protection under the law should make its answer "everyone."