A few weeks ago I thought this post of mine was particularly insightful, though now I’m not so sure.

For what it’s worth that ballot initiative in Virginia did pass (similar measures are now up in other states), meaning our legislature is now set on gerrymandering its voting districts. (Thanks, Obama.) That is, assuming our courts keep their hands off this football.

The final tally was something like 51 percent to 48 percent in favor. (My own county of Loudoun put up an embarrassing number of yes votes–sorry.)

My son pointed out to me something I thought rather perceptive that I may have to add to the act.

The best you’re ever going to do in one of these votes is 51 or 52 percent of people pleased with the results. But that’s not a bad score considering the alternative. Let’s face it, a completely fair and non-partisan election district map generated by a computer would make nobody happy.

Think about that for a minute. A fair map would make everyone upset. At least with blatant gerrymandering you get slightly more than half of people happy for a few years. Then maybe the other half gets it, or maybe you get half the people in one state happy while another half of people in another state are happy. It’s a constantly shifting Rubik’s cube that’s never quite right but always a little bit right enough to make some of the people happy some of the time. (A little twist on that old supposedly Lincoln line.)

Two cheers for gerrymandered election districts!