Don’t laugh. This is a map (left) proposed by Democrats that compares with the current map (left) which is no bargain either.

Well, not quite. They’re condemning the gerrymandering of congressional and state districts only in states run by Republicans. As for the unabashed gerrymandering that Illinois Democrats have used to run the state for decades, Obama and Holder say…nothing.

Fair is fair, so it should be pointed out that Republicans are doing the same kind of gerrymandering in other states to try to win back control of the House.

Still, Holder is chairman of the the National Democratic Redistricting Committee that describes itself as “…the centralized hub for executing a comprehensive redistricting strategy that shifts the redistricting power, creating fair districts where Democrats can compete.”

The consequences are devastating, he says:

These gerrymandered districts have had disastrous policy consequences, leading to some of the most right-wing legislation in decades both in Congress and at the state level, including assaults on women’s health, failing to address climate change, and refusing to stand up to the epidemic of gun violence. Now, politicians from gerrymandered districts are pushing through voter suppression bills at the state level to keep themselves in power by making it harder for young voters, urban voters, and voters of color to participate in our democracy.

He fails, of course, to point out that gerrymandering run by Democrats have infected Illinois with decades of corruption, disastrous economic policy, high taxes and an unprecedented exodus of people and businesses from Chicago and Illinois.

No surprise there. As Obama Attorney General, Holder politicized the Justice Department in exactly the way that critics of former President Donald Trump did.

Truth is, the 10-year redistricting of Congress and state legislatures has turned what should be an exercise in fairness into a complicated, incomprehensible and irrational political act of the crassest kind. In Illinois, it has resulted on the state level of a map that effectively guarantees incumbents (i.e. Democratic) control, even production districts in which incumbent Democrats have no opposition.

The only way too end this corruption of the basic principle that districts must be “contiguous and compact” is for the courts to reverse the caselaw that has turned redistricting into a crass, self-servicing, political exercise. The courts have turned what should be a straight-forward process into a mishmash of demographic and sociological factors that guarantees the abuses will continue long into the future.

Because the process serves entrenched politicians, I don’t see possible reform anywhere on the horizon.

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