Federal Court Strikes Down "Unconstitutional" Gerrymandering in North Carolina

[robkelk]

I may make a rather unpopular statement now, but I will be making it;

Due to how the US voting districts are supposed to provide voters with representatives that can adequately present their issues to the US Congress, some degree of gerrymandering is a good thing, especially on racial and/or class grounds. It's important however to keep in mind that votes should not be distributed across the districts in such a way that it doesn't matter how you vote; swing and unpredictability in a voting district are a good thing, they force politicians to pay attention to their constituents' opinions.

In that case, why not go whole-hog? Make every Congresscritter a Member-At-Large, sent to Congress by a petition signed by 300,000 electors (or whatever number is appropriate for one's state) who have signed only one petition each election cycle. That way, all of the representatives have the support of every elector, no votes are "wasted", and political parties can still ask their members to send particular candidates to DC. The downside - and I think it isn't a downside at all, but some people do - is that one can't vote against somebody under this system, only for somebody.