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Blog Post #8

Reflections on Congress
The three articles to be analyzed speak about the topic of political gerrymandering and redistricting. The argument in relation to gerrymandering is that it serves to only give a political advantage through party lines. This is considered detrimental because it defeats the representational responsibilities that Congress is supposed to have. The three articles are The 10 Most Gerrymandered Districts In America, What 60 years of political gerrymandering looks like, and America’s most gerrymandered congressional districts.
The 10 Most Gerrymandered Districts In America: This article shows examples of gerrymandered districts throughout America and reasons why they would be given unnatural sections. Places like Maryland have unusual areas of representation due to the unusual ways of counties and terrain. It also gives examples of others that are clearly a flagrant disregard to how districts should look and how they directly cut out voters that may not agree with them. One such example is district FL-22 which is in the shape of a J just to cut out a whole neighborhood.
What 60 years of political gerrymandering looks like: The same writer of the next article wrote this article a week later, the goal is to show the evolution of gerrymandering over the past 60 years. The clearest example of how gerrymandering and evolve is the third district of Maryland, it has taken on many ridiculous shapes over the years. The problem has been addressed before, in 1978 an independent advisory committee was created to give redistricting committees an oversight. Unfortunately, redistricting committees at the federal level seem to have little to no oversight regardless of how much the American people advocate for them. The writer argues the previous election where the Democrats should have won by a much larger margin with many more seats.
America’s most gerrymandered congressional districts: The article explains that Democrats won by huge margins in the previous election, however, they ended up underrepresented by 18 seats in Congress. The writer of this article believes gerrymandering is clearly to blame, explaining the goal of what gerrymandering is supposed to do. The basic goal of gerrymandering is to take as many votes away from an opponent while still guaranteeing that a victory is still in sight. The writer then explains how gerrymandering works and what sections of the united states are currently gerrymandered districts.

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