Ratf**ked

wow. David Daley draws a painfully critical narrative on the reality of gerrymandering in historic and much more recent history in the United States.

I first heard about this book on the Politically Re-Active podcast with W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu when they interviewed the author. It immediately hit my “to read” pile. And there it stayed because it seemed to never be available from my library. I finally picked it up on my own.

This book is worth a listen or read. It covers so much about what political districts mean for us and for our government. Maybe if my district is designed to only include people who are like me in almost every way, I will find representatives that I agree with on many issues. However, history shows that the representatives will come to more and more reflect extreme views within those who are like me. Views that mean the very next street over might have nearly the opposite approach. We'd probably all be better off if the representatives needed to be closer to the middle (most of us are fairly moderate).

My explanations are not nearly as compelling as the author's narrative.