Last week, a panel of federal judges ruled Virginia Republicans’ newly redrawn congressional district map unconstitutional on the grounds that it sequestered a large swath of the state’s voting-age African-American population into a single district, thereby violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. Brought to bear by Democratic operatives, the case highlights both how entrenched racial politics remains in the American political tradition and the routine and institutional cynicism with which political parties exploit it.
It’s true that Virginia Republicans’ most recent redistricting plan was politically shrewd— after all, 88 percent of African-Americans voted Democrat in the 2004 presidential election, and fully 93 percent of blacks who cast a ballot in 2012 did so for Obama. It is also clear, however, that Republican policies alienate minority voters—and in some cases actively subvert their rights. Thus, pursuing gerrymandering as a way to offset this reality is both ethically and politically suspect—and a shameless effort to not only smother African-Americans’ political agency but skirt the fundamental racial crisis that confronts the modern GOP.
Virginia is not alone among states in which the GOP has sought to manipulate voter distribution, nor is gerrymandering the only technique employed to exploit voting mechanisms for political payoff. In an ostensible effort to combat voter fraud, Republicans have championed a spate of restrictive voter identification laws in states like Georgia and Texas that require would-be voters to present government-issued photo documentation before getting access to the ballot box. The pretext for these laws is flimsy at best; independent election analysis by News21 has shown voter fraud to be “virtually non-existent.” Given that the majority of Americans without proper photo IDs are low-income, left-leaning minorities, it becomes apparent that the GOP’s goal is not so much to stamp out electoral corruption as it is to stamp out opposition votes nationwide.
It would be patently unfair, however, to pretend that only Republicans are guilty of voter manipulation. Democrats in states like Maryland have employed gerrymandering in an effort to diffuse pro-Democrat minority voters across historically right-voting districts. Indeed, the fact that both parties are guilty of these underhanded measures, which often fall along racial lines, constitutes a systemic threat to voter enfranchisement and the institution of voting itself.
The decision in Virginia against the GOP’s gerrymandering handed an important and justifiable victory to Democrats and opponents of racial politics everywhere. But the real loser is the entire American democratic project, whose institutional fixation on divisive racial politics stands squarely in the way of achieving a more perfect union. Both Democrats and Republicans have the potential to approach issues of race and social justice through much-needed policy solutions, but in order to do so they must first stop exploiting race as a numbers game intended to win elections. (Zolpidem)
