I'm against gerrymandering, but I voted Yes in Virginia
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Rachelle and I voted early yesterday morning. The only thing on the ballot was redrawing the Virginia congressional voting map. Yes means you're in favor of redistricting, and No means you're not.
I voted Yes.
I'm not in favor of gerrymandering as a principle, but that's not really the question. The real question is: should Democrats be allowed to redraw districts now that they're in power in Virginia?
In the current US political environment, it seems naive of me to vote my principles because I don't feel there are equally principled people on the other side of the aisle. It feels like there are no longer opportunities to politely disagree about things. I hate that it feels like we're in a fight for our democracy. I don't know how to lower the temperature.
The obvious answer to our winner-take-all gerrymandering problem is proportional representation. The rest of the world will chuckle and mutter "no shit," but this is a novel idea for us Americans. I would 100% vote for implementing a proportional system in the US. However, I will not allow my vote to be used for my own destruction[1].
With apologies to Joseph Goebbels, who in 1928 mocked democracies for being "the big joke" that "gives its mortal enemies the tools to its own destruction." Cited in Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich (2003), p. 451. ↩︎
