The Redistricting Turnaround

[applegrove]

The Redistricting Turnaround

December 26, 2021 at 8:10 am EST By Taegan Goddard 77 Comments

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/23/redistricting-turnaround/

"SNIP......

Paul Waldman Paul Waldman: “It’s still too early to say how all this will turn out, and the 2022 elections are also an uncertainty. But the big picture, as Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report says, is that ‘redistricting is shaping up to be close to a wash.’”

“And as Joel Wertheimer predicted at Data for Progress, ‘when redistricting is finished, more districts in 2022 will be to the left of Joe Biden’s 4.5-point national margin against Trump than in 2020.’ This is about as good an outcome as Democrats could have hoped for.”

......SNIIP"

[cally]

1. Fantastic news!

[Doc Sportello]

2. This should give people hope

Once omicron starts to hopefully fade (I've read it is expected to around mid-February) and the economic numbers continue to improve, Democrats' chances will also get better.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Good news!

I was wondering, too. Between California and New York, it sounds like we're picking up numerous districts, or at least making them competitive. Texas was only good for a couple of red shifts, IIRC, and the other red state pickups are pretty well scattered. I think a lot of states we were worried about have some protections in place.

Now we still have to worry about voter suppression and election subversion.

[Hortensis]

4. Good! I was justified, though, in hoping for much better from all

who threw this nation to the Republicans in 2016 and haven't changed their behavior since. Such as our recent elections which lost more seats due to their behaviors.

God knows those have had huge, repetitive in-the-face learning opportunities ever since. And apparently are satisfied with what they're doing.

Btw, @1150 children forcibly separated from their parents in mostly 2018 still haven't been found. That's missing children, not missing parents, and every one of those tragedies is on every person who isn't voting Democratic every time. As are over 800,000 dead Americans from a pandemic that would have been stopped early if Democrats were in charge.

[Septua]

5. Hmmm...

I like optimism but the last paragraphs were all I really understood.

"But there’s still a way that this round of redistricting should be considered a serious problem, no matter which party you belong to: The number of competitive seats has been drastically reduced, from 34 down to 19 among states that have completed their processes, per Wasserman’s calculations.

Which means that chances are your representative has been chosen for you before Election Day comes. You might be fine with that — perhaps you’re happy to live in a place dominated by your party and are comfortable choosing only which member of that party should win the primary.

But for millions, it means their neighborhood will be shoehorned into a district the other party controls, and they’ll feel as though they have no real representation and no chance to ever win it. If you care about democracy, that’s not a good place to be."

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. While good news, this underscores how critical passing voting rights is.

Without passing voting rights, the traditional paradigms of electoral politics, such as GOTV, will matter little in states where legislatures have given themselves the power to reject the will of the voters.

[drray23]

7. This was reported months ago already but people were too busy freaking out

instead of looking at the actual outcome.Now, if we can pass the voting rights act, we will be set.

[applegrove]

8. I missed it. I was all doom and gloom on redistricting. Till last

week where California picked up a likely 5 seats. Then I hD hope that Democrats are playing for keeps.

[drray23]

9. I think it was also largely played down by the media

They would rather stoke the "democrats are in trouble" scenario. Heck, we even see people here on DU constantly posting thats its a done deal and we will lose for sure so why bother.

[Red Mountain]

10. it SHOULD be....

a bipartisan issue.

[keithbvadu2]

11. gerrymandering chart

gerrymandering chart

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=691

[ibegurpard]

12. I've been saying this all along

Everyone has been too focused on where seats were added and not the states where they were lost.