Gerrymandering did this: How the GOPs redistricting master plan brought us Trumpcare even though

Gerrymandering did this: How the GOP’s redistricting master plan brought us Trumpcare — even though most people hate it

by David Daley at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/06/gerrymandering-did-this-how-the-gops-redistricting-master-plan-brought-us-trumpcare-even-though-most-people-hate-it/

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The key lesson from the repeal vote was this: Despite protests and polls, Republicans believed they were in greater political jeopardy if they failed to repeal Obamacare. When congressional and state legislative districts were redrawn after 2010, as they are every 10 years, Republicans seized the upper hand and used Big Data and sophisticated map-making technology to lock in their gains. The result? Republicans fear losing their extreme base more than anything else.

Democrats are determined to make Republicans pay a steep price in 2018. But can they? The decay within our democracy goes deep, and the power behind these lines is staggering. Democrats will need to garner at least 55 percent of the total vote for Congress in 2018 to have even a 50/50 chance of taking the chamber. That’s no easy task.

It means that 2018 will now present an all-important test: If Democrats are able to win a majority of votes, will they actually come away with power at any level of our government? That we even have to ask such a question — let alone that the answer is unclear — should be frightening enough.

It was an exceptionally rare example of the party with the most votes not getting the most seats — but it was no fluke. Far from it. It was part of a plan called the Redistricting Majority Project, or REDMAP for short, which is exactly what it created. Republicans set out in 2010 to take control of key legislative chambers in states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, all with an eye toward locking Democrats out of the room and taking complete control of drawing all-important district lines.


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