After the extraordinary scene of Texas Democrats fleeing their state to forestall a rare mid-decade gerrymander, Texas Republicans nevertheless moved this week to approve a new congressional map. It is designed to give their party five additional seats in Congress in next year’s midterm elections, as requested by President Trump.
California Democrats responded this week by rushing to advance their own plan to draw a new congressional map to counter Texas Republicans. Red and Blue states across the country are now predictably threatening to join this bare-knuckle political brawl.
Although partisan gerrymandering has sadly become a routine practice pushing us further into tribalism and dysfunction, the current crisis should be seen for what it is: a flashing red warning light for our democracy.
Indeed, if this race to the bottom continues, every aspect of our democratic system of governance could be captured by extreme partisanship, and every last vestige of trust necessary for that system to work could soon be lost. At that point, it may well be too late to change course.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) has proposed the best way out of the current standoff: a federal bipartisan embrace of independent commissions to draw electoral maps so that voters can choose their politicians rather than self-interested politicians cynically rigging the system to their partisan advantage.
That would solve the immediate crisis, but we must also confront the larger issue of extremism dominating our politics.
The truth is our democratic system has been completely hijacked to yield outsized power to the partisan fringes. These voters on the far left and right of the political mainstream view politics as an existential tribal struggle that must be won at all costs, and they thus demand that their elected officials engage in tribal warfare and scorched-earth politics.
That mindset all but eliminates the chances that our representatives in Congress can cooperate across party lines and reach the consensus necessary to move our nation forward.
The resulting dysfunction includes, for example, Congress’s inability to pass a responsible budget on time, with red ink soaring as public faith plummets.
The dark forces behind that dysfunction are now compelling elected officials to employ every trick to accrue and cling to power, including gerrymandering nearly every remaining competitive district into a partisan certainty, insisting on partisan primaries that reward the most extreme candidates and embracing elections whose winners do not need majority approval.
Though these forces of extreme partisanship have long existed in our politics, we have allowed them to grow out of control, and they are now building into a perfect storm that threatens our democracy.
In short, we have failed to heed George Washington’s warning that the forces of extreme partisanship and tribal politics could destroy what the founders gifted to us — a republic, if we can keep it.
In his farewell address, Washington noted that tribalism is a natural human impulse, but that if we let extreme tribal partisanship infect our democratic institutions, the result would be dysfunction and ultimately public disillusionment with the federal government the founders crafted.
Washington foresaw that path could lead to creeping authoritarianism and the end of our experiment with democracy. His warning was prescient. We continue to ignore it at our own peril.
Over the 250-year history of the American experiment, however, previous generations have taken up the charge to reform and improve our democracy as the times demanded, “in order to form a more perfect union.”
As part of our celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary, my organization has launched a “Democracy Innovation Timeline” to remind fellow citizens of that long and hopeful tradition. The times now demand that our generation takes up the mantle of democratic reform.
To move political power from the fringes to the broad center of the American electorate, four reforms are urgently needed.
- Nonpartisan primaries: Move away from partisan primaries and instead embrace unified nonpartisan primaries in which all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party, with all voters allowed to participate. Candidates willing to cooperate across party lines would thus avoid elimination by a small minority of the most partisan base voters.
- Majority vote requirement: Require that the winners of general elections earn a majority of votes, rather than just a plurality. This reform would allow third parties to compete on a more level playing field with the two established parties, without a vote for them having a potential “spoiler effect.” This reform would reward candidates who appeal to a broader set of voters and incentivize greater cooperation among elected officials.
- Independent electoral map commissions: Require that states use independent commissions to draw electoral maps, ending partisan gerrymandering and removing incumbent advantages that often result in loss of competitive districts and unrepresentative delegations.
- Nonpartisan election officials: Make elections for state officials who administer elections nonpartisan, including elections for secretaries of state. Use independent commissions to decide election rules, rather than partisan elected officials. It does not work to have elections refereed by the competing players, as should by now be painfully clear.
Our nation is on a dangerous path toward more partisan rigging of elections, more disincentives for cooperation among elected officials and steadily increasing public disillusionment. The good news is that we can reverse this downward spiral of government dysfunction and authoritarian backsliding that we are caught in, but we are running out of time.
If we fail to heed the bright red warning signs flashing on the dashboard of American democracy, it may soon be too late.
Glenn Nye is the president and CEO of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and a former member of Congress from Virginia.
