To find our problem and ultimately solve it, we simply need to look at a map. Yes, that's right a simple map.
If someone looks at a congressional map of the United States, you see a jumbled mess of districts that are microscopic, elongated, broken into pieces, narrow and in some cases random. This mess, is the result of years of state legislatures drawing Congressional lines to suit the party in power's desire to remain that way, instead of corresponding to changing demographics.
Years of gerrymandering have resulted in districts that are politically static. The parties become entrenched and it is increasingly difficult to dislodge them. In the 2011 re-districting process. I guarantee you that both the Republicans and Democrats will look at the districts, especially ones they barely win, and redraw them to give them the advantage.
It is a known fact that the less interesting and dynamic politics are, the less the electorate wants to participate because they get the feeling that they have little influence. American voter turn-out rates during Midterm elections are lucky to get above 40% and Presidential Elections barely cross 50.
So enough negativity and here's a solution to our boundary issues. It simply demands that the basic idea behind redistricting be shifted from politics to demographics. The model lies across the ocean in the UK. Every new election cycle, a boundary commission draws new boundaries, deletes obsolete districts and creates new ones, depending on the growth or decline of certain areas. This way many more districts in the UK are contested and their turnout rates are also very high. UK politics is far more dynamic and fluid than America's. There are reasons other than boundaries but boundaries play a major role in stagnating or advancing politics.
The solution wouldn't come immediately, it would take time. But in the end it would work, political participation would increase and the ice-block that is American politics melts
