David Brooks: There Was ‘Shame’ in Gerrymandering, Now It’s ‘Nakedly Partisan’

EXCERPT:

BROOKS: “Well, the fleeing is just a shtick they have done before and hasn’t actually worked too well in the past. The thing here is the corrosion of democracy. And this is how slow it is. And maybe this is why the streets aren’t erupting in America, because there’s always been gerrymandering, but usually there was some sense of shame, like, we’re not going to totally ring the game completely. And so, even in Texas there were Democratic seats, even in California there were Republican seats. And — but now the shame is gone. And so what we’re seeing is people just becoming nakedly partisan. And it’s people deciding — not even pretending we’re going to put democracy about party. We’re going to put party above everything. And that is what’s happening, and I guess about to happen in California as well. And so it’s funny how much of our system required some sense of you would feel ashamed of betraying your democracy. You would have thought they would have rigged all the seats already, so there’d be no seats to get through redistricting. But there was some sense of shame. But now it’s gone. And when you destroy the norms, that people feel responsible to something higher than party, when you destroy that norm, it turns out there’s still a lot left to destroy.”

(via RealClearPolitics)