Can Democrats Win A War On GOP Gerrymandering?

Last night subbing for Rachel Maddow, Ari Melber interviewed Kelly Ward, who has been tapped to help Barack Obama and Eric Holder push a nationwide redistricting effort for the Democratic Party.

It’s about time.

Melber points out that Republicans have been very effective in redistricting themselves into a “permanent” majority in the House of Representatives and also state houses across the country. It’s just one more form of voter suppression and anti-democratic (small d) election rigging that allows Republicans to win.

And some of it is just plain illegal.

This is what Barack Obama wants to work on post-Presidency.

[Transcript]

KELLY WARD: [Obama] is very committed to rebuilding the party from the ground up and that includes the local races, the legislative races, it also includes making sure that redistricting happens in a fair way. We’ve seen Republicans rig the system with their gerrymandering, often illegal gerrymandering. President Obama knows firsthand the impact of that. He’s been dealing with a Congress where the Tea Party Republicans elected in these very conservative unfair districts have a stranglehold on the process and where they have made obstruction their entire strategy against him. And their gerrymandering is part of why they’re doing that and how they’re maintaining that control. So he has seen firsthand the impact and now we’re thrilled as a Democratic Party and for our country that in his post-Presidency he’s focusing on this and making it a priority.

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