Raghu Ballal: Democracy not ultra-partisan

I was perplexed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s statement in the Dec. 7 editorial “On districts, beyond race” that if congressional districts were drawn with political motive, it would be fine.

I believe that one rule of democracy is that it should represent a majority of the population and not of one or other ideology. This I think is a universal truth.

If political reasons are taken into account also, it is a given that a majority of the citizenry is in the middle and not in the extremes of the party ideologies.

If one wants to be a lawmaker, he/she should have the courage to fight for the middle ground and not represent the segregated enclaves and tout themselves as representing the larger community. Only then we see a hopeful future from the past decade of essentially nonworking government, leading to the ultra-partisan Washington, led by a businessman with a show-man’s credentials!

This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 8:10 PM with the headline "Raghu Ballal: Democracy not ultra-partisan."