Politicians Choosing Their Voters

In the first episode of The Consent of the Governed, host Carter Hanson introduces Gerrymandering, its impact on the American political system through the past decade, REDMAP, and the history of Supreme Court Gerrymandering rulings since 1986. This episode contains explicit language.

From the episode: “REDMAP worked. Republicans flipped 3 state senates and 6 state houses in 7 states by spending about $8.2 million [in 2010]. That’s about as much money as was spent on a single U.S. House election, the race for the Michigan 7th district, in 2010. Republican control over redistricting in those same 7 states has netted Republicans 50 seats over the past four elections relative to their portion of the vote.”

The Consent of the Governed is hosted, produced, and written by Carter Hanson, from his home in Boulder, Colorado. The Consent of the Governed is the main expression of my Kolbe Fellowship project. The Kolbe Fellowship program is a ten-week research fellowship for social sciences and humanities students at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Consent of the Governed’s theme music was written by Natalie Dolan and James Lamb. Thanks to Professor Beth Campbell Hetrick, who is the faculty advisor for this project. You can find us on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and Medium.

The sources for this podcast will be up soon.