To the editor:
We now openly govern with unethical and unjust actions. Our elected officials openly support gerrymandering.
Just four years ago, political bosses gerrymandered district boundaries that helped their candidates. But they said they were not gerrymandering or acting unethically Now our elected officials have changed their minds. They openly proclaim they want to do even more gerrymandering so voters from the opposition party will not have equal representation in our government.
Texas gerrymandered Democrats down to a probable 21% representation in the House even though they were 42% of the state’s presidential vote. After Texas’ action, Virginia proposed redistricting that would reduce probable Republican House representation down to 9% even though they were 45% of the presidential vote.
Gerrymandering is an historical scar on our nation’s democracy. That is why states like California, New York and Virginia have enacted requirements for bipartisan redistricting. The current gerrymandering in these states had requirements like statewide votes, only going into effect if Texas acted first, and only being temporary changes. States like Texas and Kansas have no restrictions on gerrymandering.
President Trump started all of this when he told Texas to act. House Speaker Mike Johnson had no complaint about Texas, but declared Virginia’s action should not be allowed. These are billboard-sized, openly unethical and unjust actions.
The injustices corrected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not happen because we all started acting ethically. It was filibustered in the Senate for 72 days. Over 30% of House members voted against it. Roughly one in three of us wanted voting rules, education, access to public accommodations and employment to continue to be based on race.
The killings of peaceful protestors in Selma, Alabama, helped the Voter Rights Act of 1965 pass with less opposition. Only 18% of House members voted against it. In both cases, these Acts happened because enough of us decided to vote only for officials that would vote against unethical and unjust actions.
An indication of how we now govern is the current status of the Voter Rights Act of 1965. After rulings in 2013 and 2021 that significantly weakened it, our current Supreme Court completed the gutting of the Act with their Apr. 29, 2026 ruling. Essentially, this correction of injustice, that was paid for with blood, no longer exists.
The 2026 gerrymandering unleashed by Trump has been unprecedented. But the Supreme Court’s end of protections for minorities is expected to make 2028 gerrymandering even worse. These are historic changes for our nation of the worst kind.
Diminishing the ability and effect of peoples’ votes is probably the most direct assault that can be made on democracy. Lawmakers essentially look at citizens who are not going to vote the way they want them to, recognize that the lawmakers are not going to be thrown out of office, fined or imprisoned for gerrymandering, and then manipulate boundaries to try and ensure these voters never have the equal representation that they are entitled to.
There is goodness in human nature. This past Kansas legislative session, a small number of Representatives decided that political party empowerment should be restrained by ethics. They opposed gerrymandering. They denied political bosses the super majority they would have needed to enact Congressional district boundaries that are even more unjust than our current boundaries.
This prioritization of ethics over empowerment has not been shared by my Congressional delegation of Moran, Marshall and Mann, nor by my Kansas delegation of Blew and Fairchild. We need to govern with ethical and just actions. We need to elect officials that will vote against gerrymandering.
John Sturn
Ellinwood
