Some interesting emails on redistricting:

As a prospective Republican Congressional candidate in advance of the 1992 election, I witnessed the North Carolina redistricting process that the Wall Street Journal called, I think, "political pornography". Two "minority/majority" districts were created that ensured the election of 2 black Congressmen and those districts remain today. The net effect of this was the Balkanization of most of North Carolina's minority population, and this effort was done by a Democratic State House and Senate with the complicity of the then Bush 41 Justice Department. The result, which has been replicated through other parts of the country, has allowed Republicans to virtually assure themselves of a majority in the House and has allowed minority Democrats a similar luxury of assured reelection.

Look no further than the hard left within the Congressional Black Caucus to see what becomes of candidates who have no or token opposition. And Republicans are not without blame here either. By removing a largely monolithic voting block from diverse Congressional districts, redistricting has created largely white and quite conservative Districts, where there is also little or no opposition. And what do we get? Congressmen and Congresswomen who are primarily interested in appealing to their narrow bases back home. Only when both parties, or the Courts, realize the damage that this has done to our country, will some of the negative tenor of political discourse begin to subside. Sadly, I am not hopeful.

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Gerrymandering may be anti-democratic, but at least it's being done by partisans who make no excuse for their partisanship. In the case of appointing retired judges (often the suggestion, as if former judges don't have their own political motives), the public is supposed to trust that such committees don't have their own agendas. I would rather have politicians whose motives are out in the open do the redistricting than unelected and accountable 'worthies' do the deed.

Conservatives love to argue against campaign finance reform, arguing (fairly in my view) that disclosure is the way to go. Voters can make up their own minds based in part of the identity of the donors to a given campaign. The same spirit should be at work in the case of redistricting. I would rather have politicians whose intent is plain to see as opposed to unaccountable committees. There is no such thing as an unbiased district map.

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I think Jay Cost and Bruce Reed both missed the most insidious threat posed by gerrymandering and that is extremism. When parties have safe districts party extremists get elected. That has fueled the rancor that occurs in Congress and the dissatisfaction of the American electorate with Congress.

When the party extremist is elected over 50% of the electorate is bound to be disappointed. The partisans of the losing party grow increasingly embittered by their perpetual disenfranchisement. The moderates of both parties are often disappointed as well because the Congress is populated by extremists that are unwilling to agree on policies that seem obvious to the majority of the electorate.

The extremism in Congress means that most Congressmen think it is more important to take a stand than to be effective. Compromise is a weakness not strength. When one party won't compromise with the extremist legislators gain more power. If the Democrats won't compromise with the Republicans the details of legislation become more extreme because the party leaders can't afford to lose any votes from their right wing extremists. The same thing will occur if the Democrats gain power but it will be the left wing extremists that gain power.

Unfortunately under the present system we are perpetually condemned to swing from the radical right to the looney left. As a moderate Republican I am forced to support Republican candidates because I am more afraid of the anti-war left than I am the social reforms of the radical right. I'm sure many moderates of both parties are in the same position I am, forced to choose the lesser of two evils.