What is a gerrymander? Not “a map that disappoints Democrats”

I won't defend the process that made it, but I will defend the new Congressional map itself

North Carolina officially has new congressional districts, and chances are they’ll deliver an additional Republican to the U.S. House. That was the goal, and mapmakers managed it without too many weird contortions.

I still don’t think the precedent this whole exercise sets is a good one. But the map is not an “extreme gerrymander,” as Democrats tend to describe it, and that’s worth explaining.

The argument is made most coherently by Carolina Forward, a left-wing activist organization I’ve written about many times. I appreciate their approach, even when I disagree.

Their distilled claim is simple: North Carolina is roughly 50/50 in statewide votes, so why should Republicans hold 11 of 14 seats?

That’s the wrong way to think about representation. We don’t elect an at-large, proportional slate. We elect people from places.

If what you really want is seats assigned by statewide vote share, go move to Belgium or Finland. We do districts here in America.

That argument is intellectually dishonest

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