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Originally Posted by wnker85
As the Texas congress remark in the article.
The redrawing of lines actually fixed the jerrymandering of before. I live in one of these districts that was split 10 years ago to allow a democrat to represent me. My town was split into three. My section was cut out drawn down a highway into a highly democratic area. If i had a map of it you would see how bad it was. I should not be voting for the same represenative as those who live on the south side of Houston (me being in the North) Now the district has been redrawn and those in my town (highly republican) have one represenative.
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Gerrymandering is a problem, no question about it, and both parties are guilty. Take a look at the districts in any given state and you will see bizarre contortions all designed by the party drawing the lines to make the seat safe for their colleagues.
Ok, this may not be true of states with only one representative in Congress, but you get the idea.
The problem with the Texas redistricting was the way it was done: the Texas Republican party ignored very longstanding tradition, rewrote the rules in theif favor and pushed the matter through. This is symptomatic of a larger problem of Republicans doing away with the procedural (formal or informal) safeguards that make our country run so well.
Another example: I have heard Senator Bill Frist suggest that the Republicans may change the centuries-old Senate fillibuster rules to prevent Democrats from blocking Republican judicial nominees. This is just plain shocking, and reeks of the Republicans taking an attitude of "nyah nyah, we have more votes than you so we will do what we damn well please".
This kind of behavior is unprecedented, and, I fear, threatens to seriously undermine the political life of this country.