You voted. Does it matter?
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Why is understanding electoral maps crucial for democracy?
Newsflash, you can't think about this year's midterm elections or the coming presidential election without thinking about the maps. I know things like gerrymandering can be boring and political gamesmanship can be confusing, but understanding the maps and who gets political power in our country is vitally important to understanding the health of our democratic system. So who actually has power in our democracy and who has power in name only? Let's dig in.
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How does gerrymandering affect political power in the U.S.?
Just fill out a short questionnaire to identify your needs and your preferences and if it's not the right fit, you can switch to a new one at any time. You don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. You can sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash America Actually. That's BetterHelp.com slash America Actually. So here's one thing I never understood about the 2024 election. Why did Democrats spend so much time saying they were going to protect democracy? Now, I get it. Donald Trump has tested every single limit of our political system. And of course, the health of our democracy is an important goal. But to say you're going to protect democracy implies that democracy was working in the first place, or at least that it was working until Donald Trump came along.
And that isn't true. American democracy is broken, and most of us are written out of the political process on purpose. It's a big reason why Congress passes less legislation than ever, why the Senate rarely seems to reflect public opinion, or why presidential elections obsess over the same seven states. Let me explain. I'm going to show three charts in three minutes that help you understand why American democracy needs to be improved, not just protected, and why one person, one vote is more myth than reality. For those listening, I'm going to bring up a couple charts that show the structural health of our democracy or lack thereof. The first is about the Electoral College. Now, everybody knows that the Electoral College is a little messed up,
We don't choose the president via direct popular vote. We choose it through this funky system made hundreds of years ago. But did you know that it's not just that the Electoral College causes us to focus on six or seven states for battleground presidential results? It also means that the electoral votes themselves aren't distributed equally. Let's look at the relative voting power by state in the 2024 election. The least populous states, places like Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, all of that has the highest relative voting power, if you think about the population of those states, to their electoral votes. The smallest relative voting power belongs to populous states that don't get as many electoral votes.
Places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York. The second chart I'm going to show is about the Senate, because I think it takes the last problem and makes it a little more clear. Because the Senate has two senators for every state, it is equally distributed in terms of representation. Right? Wrong. The Senate actually shows how least populous states have more power and the racial and demographic impacts of that distribution. Take a look at this chart that the Washington Post made in 2023. It showed that one person in Wyoming had similar influence in the Senate to 68 people in California, 50 people in Texas, and 37 people in Florida. And it's not just that the numbers don't add up. It's that the type of people changes also.
Those 68 people in California who add up to one person in Wyoming, those are three black people, dozens of Hispanic folks, a dozen of Asian folks. That's also true in places like Texas and Florida, which have higher representations of non-whites. Because of the way the Senate's made up, those voices are almost intentionally suppressed.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why is understanding electoral maps crucial for democracy?
0:00–0:51
2
How does gerrymandering affect political power in the U.S.?
0:51–12:33
3
What is the significance of the Electoral College in elections?
12:33–17:39
4
How does the Senate's structure impact representation?
17:39–23:25
5
What are the implications of competitive house districts on elections?
23:25–28:36