I’m a big sports fan. I deeply enjoy all aspects of athletic competition. My love for politics is similarly rooted in love of competition and self-improvement. Politics is a competition of ideas, where the public gets to weigh in and determine the outcome.
That is the objective, at least, assuming all sides play by the rules. When one team has decided to cheat, it is an acknowledgement that they cannot win fairly. This tarnishes the game for all moving forward.
The Republican supermajority in the Indiana General Assembly is considering cheating through mid-cycle gerrymandering, apparently because they know political power cannot be maintained through their ideas alone.
Making matters worse, the guidance to cheat is coming from their coach and star player, President Trump, who has no problem casting aside any of our nation’s norms as long as it benefits him.
I would like to believe that the Republican members of the Indiana General Assembly possess spines, believe in fairness and respect our traditions and political norms.
Redrawing political maps will always be an inherently political exercise. It is a process that is generally led by the party in charge, and to the victor goes the spoils.
However, when one party aims to cheat by moving the timeline for boundary changes beyond the census, as has always been the case in Indiana, that is telling that their team is not good enough to win outright.
They should play the game of politics fairly, work hard to sharpen their arguments and appeal to the people.
Cheating by changing the rules mid-game is beneath all Hoosiers.
Doran Moreland is a former aide to U.S. Senator Evan Bayh and Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Republicans plot mid-cycle gerrymandering because ideas aren’t enough | Letters
Reporting by Doran Moreland / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
