To the editor:
One person, one vote is a foundational principal of democracy. We can easily see how wrong the violation of this principal is by looking at our own history.
In 1860, South Carolina’s white male population of 146,169 had six U.S. Representatives while Connecticut’s white male population of 221,851 had only four U.S. Representatives. The number of white males per Representative in South Carolina was only 24,362, while in Connecticut it was 55,463. Voters in South Carolina had over twice the representation and political power per person that voters in Connecticut had.
Congressional districts were determined by including three-fifths of enslaved people in the population count. South Carolina’s population was mostly enslaved people, so the political power of the voting white males was greatly increased. There was no allegiance to democracy in what the South Carolinians did. It was just people using our political system to get what they wanted for themselves. And for 81 years, it was legal and constitutional. Complying with the Constitution was not the same as being just, supporting democracy or being ethical.
In Kansas there are 851,882 Republican and 495,574 Democratic registered voters. In one person, one vote representative democracy, 63% of our U.S. House of Representatives’ terms would be held by Republicans and 37% would be held by Democrats. For our four House districts, Republicans would have held 25 terms and Democrats would have held 15 terms over the past 20 years. Instead, Democrats only held 7 terms. Republicans in Kansas had over twice the representation and political power per person that Democrats had.
Our Kansas congressional districts are determined by political party gerrymandering. There is no allegiance to democracy in what we have done through our elected representatives. It is just too many of us using our political system to get what we want for ourselves. It is legal and constitutional. But, similar to the slave states of the past, it is not the same as being just, supporting democracy or being ethical.
Our local legislators sincerely care about democracy. But when it came to supporting democracy, every one of them voted for congressional redistricting that put party power ahead of one person, one vote. Manipulating district boundaries to withhold just, democratic and ethical congressional representation from 495,574 Kansans was fine with them.
We need to vote for common sense, moderate, independent thinking candidates who support justice, democracy and ethical treatment of our fellow Kansas over political party empowerment.
John Sturn
Ellinwood
