… The gerrymander of 2011 built such a firewall around GOP control of the House that when Barack Obama was reelected in 2012, Democratic congressional candidates earned 1.4 million more votes than Republicans, but the GOP retained a 234-201 majority. You might even argue it worked too well, creating the solid conservative districts that gave rise to the renegade House Freedom Caucus, forced Speaker John Boehner out of office, and fomented the grass-roots anger that fueled Donald Trump’s ascent and punctured the GOP establishment.
However, even in this most unpredictable campaign, and even with polls showing that likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would rout either Trump or Ted Cruz by double digits, the GOP’s gerrymandered fortress around the House stands strong. …
We may well have sorted ourselves into cities, suburbs, or rural America. But 435 sets of lines, drawn by experts, informed by more data than ever before, have sorted us into congressional districts. Those districts, intended by the Founders to be directly responsive to the peoples’ will, have now been insulated from it. CONT.
David Daley, New York magazine