Blog 8, 6/18: Congress

Christopher Ingraham states, “Gerrymandering is at least partly to blame for the lopsided Republican representation of the house. According to an analysis I did last year the Democrats are underrepresented by 18 seats in the house, relative to their vote share in the 2012 election.”

Gerrymandering is “redrawing district lines to give an advantage to one party over another.” As explained in the video by Daron Taylor/The Washington Post, district lines can be rearranged in such a way to give a party a majority representation within a district and thereby in Congress. This explains why in the 2012 elections, the Republicans gained 33 more representatives in the house than the Democrats even though the Democrats earned a million more votes, maintaining the majority.

I finally understand the TRUE importance of The Census; gerrymandering. Is Census data used to manipulatively redraw districts to favor a particular party? How is this even allowed/legal? House of Cards is becoming more and more probable.