Gerrymandering proves local representation matters little

A rant

In politics, from the local to the national level, we often hear about how local representation matters. It’s important to have a geographically diverse group of people speaking about issues that matter to their communities. But is it? Do people actually care about local representation?

I admit, I’m not one to care much about local representation. It doesn’t matter much to me whether the person I’m voting for lives in, is from, or even has an idea about my community. I’m all about the candidate’s specific policies. However, we see many pundits, commentators, and indeed, everyday people who claim to care about local representation.

The government embodies this by forcing individuals to run in local districts in local, state, and national elections. At-large representatives exist, but we see the localization of elections in a broad swath of American elections.

I would argue this doesn’t actually matter to most people, especially not in our current politics, and especially not in the presence of gerrymandering.