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Stealing our democracy
TweetStealing our democracy
There has been a lot of con- troversy surrounding Ohio’s newly redistricted congressional map. Very few people believe that the new plan is truly fair and balanced. To most, it just represents the latest iteration of gerrymandering, a sad reality that we have come to expect from state politics. The problem is that this process severely undercuts the fundamentals of our democracy.
The Constitution gives citizens both the right and responsibility to elect their representatives to Congress. But what happens when that process is so thoroughly constrained that our vote becomes irrelevant? The newly adopted Ohio congressional map does just that, creating 12 solidly Republican districts and four Democratic districts. It makes elections a mere formality.
It’s true that gerrymandering is as old as the state of Ohio, but that doesn’t mean that we should just accept it. It’s clear that this new map was formulated to divide the state into uncontestable zones, as documents from the office of House Speaker John Boehner have recently shown. We must speak out against this outrageous proposal, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Ohioans. All of our votes matter, whether we live in large cities or on sprawling farmlands. Ohio is a swing state, not a bastion of ideological extremism. In these tough times, it is more important than ever that we remain balanced, instead of being divided along cruel, partisan lines.
Shammas Malik, Akron
The writer is a political science and international studies student at The Ohio State University.
Comments
If only that could be said for Mahoning County.
Apparently the folks were not to happy with the dems in 2010. So now some liberals want balance but the state is swinging away from them and they do not like it. Perhaps the liberals would be better served by doing some soul searching and addressing why the folks went against them.
It is true that this gerrymandering business is as old as Ohio has been a state, but let's look at why this event happens.
We have allowed our elected officials this opportunity every few years because it has been written into law by our elected officials. Asking our fearless leaders to take a stand against it and change the law is like asking them to take a cut in pay...Not going to happen.
So, every few years we go through the process of complaining about Democrats moving the borders one way, then Republicans changing them to another.
This is nothing new in Ohio politics, as it has been going on for generations, but this year the complaints are higher and more powerful as liberal special interest groups flex their muscles and their new found cash stream to rail the people to their way of thinking.
When the borders are changed to favor the Democrats and their powerful Unions, there is little out-cry in this neck of the woods, but when there are attempts to change the borders to favor others, the old party lines and unions go ballistic.
The one solution I have in this issue is to have our Ohio Supreme Court settle the regions once and for all and get politics and special interest groups out of selecting our voting districts.