“One of the most consequential outcomes of this redistricting cycle has been the continuing decrease in the number of competitive congressional districts,” Michael Li and Chris Leaverton of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law pointed out.
“All told, there are now fewer competitive districts than at any point in the last 52 years,” they wrote in an analysis. “If the good news is that both parties emerged with reasonable opportunities in coming years to win control of a closely divided House, the bad news is that they will fight that battle on the narrowest of terrains under maps artificially engineered to reduce competition.”
“American democracy was never designed to be democratic,” wrote American critic and essayist Louis Menand in a piece published in The New Yorker earlier this year.
“The partisan redistricting tactics of cracking and packing aren’t merely flaws in the system — they are the system,” Menand continued, stressing that the American government has never been a government “by the people.”
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 