Minority Rule

January 22, 2024
Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a minoritarian Constitution are keeping unpopular Republicans in power, according to this labyrinthine political exposé. Mother Jones correspondent Berman (Give Us the Ballot) surveys the underhanded tactics Republicans deploy in order to win elections and predominate in Congress, the presidency, and state legislatures despite routinely losing the popular vote. These methods include extreme gerrymandering in Wisconsin (in 2012 Democrats got 51.4% of the votes for state assembly but Republicans won 60% of the seats), voting laws in Georgia that disproportionately reduce registration and turnout among poor and minority voters, and Donald Trump’s 2020 stop the steal campaign to pressure state officials and Vice President Mike Pence to throw out election results in states that Joe Biden won. Berman goes on to criticize how the Constitution gives small, rural, white, Republican-dominated states disproportionate weight in the Senate and the Electoral College. He also celebrates counteroffensives to Republican election meddling, including Michigan ballot referenda that established a nonpartisan redistricting commission and made voter registration and absentee ballot-casting easier. Throughout, Berman pairs wide-ranging and historically grounded analysis of America’s minoritarian political system with a trenchant critique of its departures from democratic common sense. The result is an eye-opening dissection of partisan manipulation.