The Bible uses many farming expressions to teach important truths. A familiar theme deals with us harvesting what we have planted. For example, in the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Gal. 6:7) Many people think they can cheat the system…and cheat God. They think that they can get away with their evil actions, that they will not be judged for their morally bad deeds. Believing that is wishful thinking. If there is a just God, justice must win out in the end.
Martin Luther King, Jr. popularized this truth in his speeches by affirming, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Evil actions might seem positive…in the short run, but sooner or later, they tend to boomerang back against us.
This is what has happened to Trump’s venture into gerrymandering. A year ago, Trump was urging Texas Governor Abbot and his Republican controlled state government to gerrymander the Federal Congress districts in their state. Essentially, this means to redraw the boundaries of the districts so that the voters of your opponents are heavily concentrated in a few districts, but that your voters are so placed that your party wins a larger number of districts, albeit with slim margins in each district. Gerrymandering is legal, but it is a risky business, based largely on estimates of how certain citizens will vote in upcoming elections or whether they will even vote at all. Texas fulfilled Trump’s wishes and redrew the boundaries. If the estimates hold true, Republicans will increase the congressional seats they will win in Texas by five (with a corresponding five seat loss by Democrats). This increase by Republicans via gerrymandering also took place in other states where the GOP controls the state legislature (Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina).
Democrats in some states decided to “fight fire with fire” with their own gerrymandering via a referendum placed before the voters. The most notable of these Democrat gerrymandering referendums took place in California, where it passed by a large margin. As a result, the new congressional maps drawn for that state will likely give five additional seats to Democrats. Virginia, a “purple” state, voted on a similar referendum on Tuesday. The “Yes” vote, which favors the Democrats won by a 51%-49% vote. If estimates hold up to form, the Democrats will increase their seats from 6 to 10 with a corresponding loss of four seats by Republicans. Without any basis in reality, President Trump denounced the Virginia vote as “rigged”. Mr. President, you began this gerrymandering craziness through your meddling in Texas. You have no one to blame but yourself. You started it. It worsened your approval rate with voters. Instead of responding to the legitimate concerns of voters, you chose to “tip the scales’ in favor of the GOP by changing boundaries. You are reaping what you have sown. When the dust settles on these boundary changing maneuvers, the gains and losses of the Republicans will be matched by the Democrats. It will be a political “wash”.
I am not a fan of gerrymandering. It is a tool that makes elected officials less responsive to the legitimate concerns of voters. Life would be better if congressional maps were drawn by independent, non/partisan commissions in each state.
Lindy Scott 