TOW #26 "Letting Citizens Decide"

 

North Carolina's 4th Congressional District

 "Gerrymandering" is a word of which I was unfamiliar until now, but I have seen maps of the crazy ways congressional districts are laid out in the United States and heard of the ways that these districts are drawn in order to maximize votes for certain parties. In an article in the May 4 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Congressman Alan Lowenthal from California discusses the political manipulation involved in drawing congressional districts and promotes his proposed legislation called the "Let the People Draw the Lines Act". He does this by explaining the issue of gerrymandering and primarily appealing to the public's desire for elimination of political manipulation. 

   Lowenthal starts off his article by comparing the drawing of congressional districts to an unfairly run baseball game. He writes "Can you imagine a baseball game where... the rules are not just set by the home team, but that the home team players are also the umpires[?] This is what is happening in nearly every state in the nation when it comes to drawing congressional district maps," (Lowenthal par. 1). With this analogy Lowenthal attempts to make a connection to his general audience right away, by attempting to explain the unfairness of this issue in terms that a person not associated with politics is more likely to understand. However, I think the analogy serves less to clearly explain the complicated process of drawing congressional districts and more to get the audience to react to the issue by linking it to something that many Americans get emotionally invested in: namely, sports. This intro helps to prime the audiences emotions to react with indignation towards the unfair aspects of the issue discussed in the article.

   Through the body of the article, Lowenthal gives examples of who draws the districts now and how, citing the illogical shape of North Carolina's Fourth District (pictured above). He then explains the bill he proposed which would create standards for drawing the districts and allow committees of citizens to be in charge. Throughout these explanations, the article is infused with diction that appeals directly to the citizens ideas of their rights and freedoms to be involved in the government. For example, words like "control", "unfair", "undemocratic", and "electoral advantage" inspire resentment towards the current political practice and phrases such as "transparent, accountable, and democratic", "rebuild people's trust", and "fair and equal voice" help to encourage support in the audience for this legislation that the author believes will give them greater influence on the way the government is run. 

   I was left wondering at the end of this article why a California congressman would put this in a Philadelphia newspaper. It was personalized with the line "redistricting in most states, including Pennsylvania" but the rest of the article was about the country as a whole. This makes me wonder if this congressman is attempting to promote this legislation across the country and is submitting articles to cities in multiple states. The article appeals to Americans as a wider community who, as Lowenthal writes, "deserve true representation".