Hi, I'm Denise, and this is your civic minute.
When a district is drawn so that one party is guaranteed to win, something happens to
the politics.
The general election stops mattering.
The only election that counts is the primary, and primaries are dominated by a small number
of the most dedicated party voters.
So candidates don't compete for the middle.
They compete for the edges.
They take more extreme positions because that's who shows up to vote in a low turnout primary.
The incentive isn't to represent the district.
It's to avoid getting outflanked by someone even more partisan.
This isn't a theory.
Watch what happens in safe districts.
The rhetoric gets hotter.
The positions get more rigid.
Compromise becomes a dirty word because compromising with the other side can cost you the only
election that matters.
Jerry Mandarin doesn't just pick the winners.
It pulls them toward the extremes, and all of us pay for it.
It's your civic minute.
Find more at civicmedia.us.
