Sign O' the Times

The New York Times, that is. I seriously doubt that anyone at the New York Times is reading this blog, but this article about redistricting hits on the same points that I made here last week.

Actually, it's most likely that few people outside my family members have ever read this thing, but at least I'm not filling my family members' in-boxes with email links to all this kind of stuff.

Two quotes stand out for me. First, from Nathaniel Persily of the University of Pennsylvania Law School: "There is a problem when the turnover in the United States House of Representatives is lower than it was in the Soviet Politburo."
Second, toward the end of the article: "... redistricting contributes to polarization, as map-drawers cluster like-minded voters into the same districts. That makes it less likely that a candidate will work to appeal to swing voters."