Of Grunge and Government by Krist Novoselic

Author:Krist Novoselic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Akashic Books (Ignition)
Published: 2017-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

House Odds

Incumbent politicians have many built-in advantages. Their record has constant exposure to voters. Their ability to vote publicly on legislation attracts special interests and the funds they contribute to a campaign. Incumbents generally don’t have to worry about primary challenges and can just focus on winning the general election. Proving you can do a good job as a public servant is also an advantage well-deserved.

Another advantage most candidates enjoy—similar to the house odds in a casino—is that most regions of the country favor one major party over the other, a division graphically shown by the maps with red “Republican” territory and blue “Democratic” territory (which in my state plays out with Democrats sweeping almost all seats in the Seattle area, and Republicans dominating the eastern half of the state). That natural partisan advantage is boosted by having districts drawn to benefit particular incumbents and their parties. In the fairest games, the odds are around 50/50. But the reality in this “game” is that the odds are stacked against too many voters.

Every ten years, after the release of the Census, lawmakers from the incumbent Democratic and Republican parties carve out new legislative districts. In essence, they pick the voters before the voters pick them. This is the notion of democracy turned upside down. The incumbent parties cushion their safe seats with sophisticated polling and demographic techniques that rig a district to their favor. Re-districting is a tawdry affair. It is where political-survival instincts trump the ideal of democracy or even decency. It is a blood sport where voters are the pawns. Lawmakers essentially gain the almost divine power of deciding who merits representation and who doesn’t. Like some kind of geographic lottery, citizens are included or excluded from their legislature by virtue of where they live. This is so engrained in our mentality that legislative districts are even referred to as either Democratic or Republican, depending on how the lines fall. It’s like saying, “Your candidate can’t win because you live in a Democratic district,” or vice versa. You’d think that legislative districts and their representatives would belong to the citizens who inhabit them, and not private political organizations.

Early in the history of the United States, those in power discovered the political benefits of drawing up districts. The word “gerrymander” was first used in 1812 when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, created an election district that looked like a salamander. Gerrymandered districts have all kinds of tortuous shapes. Some are like the letter K or X. Some wind like an S, resembling a serpent. Redistricting is not about looking out for democracy, it’s about incumbent parties looking out for themselves. The party in power will “pack” a district full of supportive voters, or they’ll “crack” or split another full of potential opposition. Democrats and Republicans muscle each other out in whatever state they enjoy the upper hand. In Texas in 2003, Republicans figuratively chased out the Democrats through redistricting. In retaliation, the Texas Democrats famously vamoosed from the state in an attempt to scuttle the gerrymander.

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