Nashville Scene's Gerrymandering Panic Ignores One Inconvenient Truth
The left suddenly discovered partisan redistricting exists. But only when Tennessee Republicans started winning with it. Illinois, Maryland, and New York Democrats wrote the playbook first.
Phillips' column treats Tennessee's mid-decade redistricting as a uniquely Republican sin. The receipts say otherwise. Mid-decade partisan redistricting is what parties do when they have the votes. Democrats have done it. Republicans are doing it. The frame changes when the party label does.
The receipts
- Illinois 2021. Democrats redrew the congressional map to eliminate a Republican seat. No special session theatrics. No Scene op-ed calling it a constitutional crisis.
- Maryland's 6th District. One of America's most-gerrymandered districts since 2011. Drawn by Democrats. Upheld by Democratic-appointed judges. Never called "Obama loyalism."
- New York 2022. Democrats attempted aggressive mid-decade redistricting so partisan it was thrown out by the state's own high court. Democrat motive, Democrat execution.
Where Phillips is right
Tennessee Republicans are drawing this map for partisan advantage. They're not pretending otherwise. The 20-15 Metro Council opposition vote is real. The Memphis split is real. The process moved fast.
Reasonable Tennesseans can oppose this map. That's a defensible position. What's not defensible is calling it a uniquely Republican phenomenon when the same playbook ran in blue states without a peep from the same outlets now writing constitutional-crisis columns.
The honest framing
Mid-decade redistricting is bad for democracy. Period. Independent commissions like Michigan's and California's are a better answer than partisan map-drawing by either side.
That argument works against Tennessee Republicans. It also works against Illinois Democrats. The Scene's column made it work against only one.
Why it matters
When outrage about partisan redistricting only surfaces when one specific party is doing it, the issue isn't really partisan redistricting. It's partisan losing. The Scene's framing tells you which they actually care about.
What you can do
Read about independent redistricting commissions at the Brennan Center. Then ask whether Tennessee should have one. Then ask why Illinois doesn't.
Both answers tell you something useful.