Can Environmental Thinking Help Solve Gerrymandering?

10 Responses

  1. Dave Evans says:

    Great article. Given that more and more we are living among those with similar political views*, I would argue that it’s getting easier to draw regions with “a unity of interest”. Thanks for this article, Garrett, I really appreciate it.

    *http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/26/247362143/how-republicans-and-democrats-ended-up-living-apart

  2. Adam Mittermaier says:

    Thanks for sharing these ideas. I have been intrigued by the use of the “efficiency gap” in legal challenges to redistricting but, while it may prove a useful tool, it does not provide a vision of an alternative to current redistricting practices. Your point that people do not write poems and songs and novels about congressional districts brings the whole argument together for me. I see Sauer’s idea of drawing boundaries based on cultural, historical, and environmental factors as serving the ideals of democracy and “a more perfect union” in two big ways: (1) it eliminates a political tool that is divisive for the representatives and alienates or jades the citizens they represent and (2) it enhances the meaning and wholeness of representative districts and thereby gives citizens a greater sense of belonging and investment in their representative districts. Legal challenges to redistricting are important but they are a symptom of the disease and not the cure. Thanks for offering a vision of a cure.

  3. Sherry Lottig says:

    This piece was well written and very informative, thank you!

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