Michael Maloney: Democrats gerrymandered, too

Regarding the July 22 letter “Price for protesting”: A Moral Monday supporter wrote decrying the GOP’s gerrymandering, saying, “Because of gerrymandering of districts, we can no longer have faith that our vote will register our protest effectively.”

Is the writer implying that the Democrats never engaged in gerrymandering?

The Democrats controlled the legislature for over 100 years from 1898 until 2012. They controlled the governor’s office for 20 years before 2014. Does the writer expect us to believe that this hegemony over North Carolina’s government for decades was the result of North Carolinians’ love for the Democrats’ policies? Don’t insult us like that.

The Democrats have used gerrymandering just as the Republicans are using it now. To stop this gerrymandering mess requires that districts be drawn by an independent commission with the results reviewed by an independent judiciary board. Other states do this, why not North Carolina?

If the writer’s aim was to obscure history, implying that there is a difference between Republican versus Democratic gerrymandering, she should do it in a less public place than The N&O. Not everybody who reads The N&O is a Democrat or Republican hack. Some of us know state history without lectures from party hacks.

This story was originally published August 1, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Michael Maloney: Democrats gerrymandered, too."