Smith: Gerrymandering cripples Congress

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/op_ed/2015/10/smith_gerrymandering_cripples_congress

Smith: Gerrymandering cripples Congress
Monday, October 19, 2015
Hedrick Smith

So far the Republican leadership in the House has found no way to quell or mollify the right-wing rebellion of the “Shutdown Caucus” that toppled a speaker and still roils Congress. But citizen reformers may have stumbled on the way out: Fix gerrymandering.

While media has focused on the demands of the rebel group to weaken the House leadership still further, it has missed a crucial piece of breaking news. Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida, the candidate for House speaker endorsed by the rebel faction, has just seen his congressional district cut out from under him by a Florida court ruling against Republican gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering? Mention it and most of the current generation of political reporters roll their eyes, dismissing it as an age-old and therefore irrelevant political malady.

But they are missing a central point: One root cause of the mutiny that ousted Speaker John Boehner and blocked House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy is the Great Republican Gerrymander of 2011, which helped elect and now protects the 45 ideological insurgents in the House.