Gerrymandering For Good

I'm not sure how much of Judd Gregg's withdrawal from consideration for Commerce Secretary really had to do with the 2010 Census, but what I do think is that Gregg let the cat out of the bag.

Gerrymandering is "a form of redistribution in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral advantage. Gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder particular constituents, such as members of a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group." The Constitution of the United States, Article 1, Section 2 states: "The actual Enumeration [of the US population] shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." The Department of Commerce is responsible for the conducting of the census, through the Census Bureau. Once the Census is completed, the population data contained therein is used for Congressional redistricting. Because it is impossible to actually physically speak in person to every person within the borders of the US, data samplings are used to project actual population totals and demographic breakdowns (i.e.: the racial and religious makeup of America.) It is a generally accepted platitude that in projecting minority population totals, Republicans trend toward under-sampling (making America officially whiter, richer and more Christian), and Democrats trend toward over-sampling (making America officially more diverse, and giving census-driven representation to racial minorities.)

The 2010 Census will be the first Census conducted under a Democratic government in 30 years. (The 1980 Census was conducted under Jimmy Carter.) President Obama has been unofficial about any of it so far, giving generic reassurances that there will be no monkey business. Regardless, it appears that the 20120 Census will be directly supervised by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. While no doubt the census data will be used to benefit Democrats down the line, I also believe that President Obama wants more direct control of the census so that we can actually count the racial diversity of America. I believe this to be the real culture war, an actual battle. The White House intends to see a representative census, and the GOP is furious over it. I hope the President gets his way on this.