When our Founding Fathers designed the United States, they built a republic, not a monarchy, not mob rule, but a representative democracy where government would derive its power from the consent of the governed. That consent was to be freely given through fair elections. But today, in too many parts of America, the promise of fair representation is being strangled by one word: gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering, the deliberate manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor one political party, is nothing less than the quiet sabotage of our republic. It is the practice of politicians choosing their voters, rather than voters choosing their politicians. And it is happening at a scale that would make the architects of our democracy shudder.

While gerrymandering is not exclusive to any one party, it is being wielded with ruthless precision in many Republican-controlled states today, aided by modern mapping software and detailed voter data. In these states, lines are drawn not to unite communities, but to fracture them, diluting the votes of some while amplifying the voices of others. The result? A minority of voters can and do control a majority of seats.

This is not a mere political inconvenience, it is a fundamental betrayal of the republic. A system where politicians hold power despite losing the popular vote is not a representative democracy. It is a distortion of it. It erodes trust, fuels polarization and creates legislatures that are insulated from accountability.

Leaving redistricting in the hands of state legislatures has failed. Partisan actors will never willingly give up the power to tilt the playing field. The solution is clear and urgent. We need independent redistricting commissions, not appointed by state politicians, but by the federal government, accountable to all Americans and bound by strict transparency and fairness rules.

These commissions must operate without political influence from either party and without being swayed by orchestrated “citizen input” campaigns designed to pressure the outcome. The guiding principle must be mathematical fairness: compact, contiguous districts that follow natural and municipal boundaries, comply with the Voting Rights Act and guarantee that each citizen’s vote carries equal weight.

Some may ask if such a system is even possible under our Constitution. The answer is yes, but it will require an act of Congress. The Constitution gives states the power to set the “times, places and manner” of congressional elections, but it also grants Congress the authority to override those rules for federal races.

Passing such a law would be politically difficult, especially when one party benefits from the current system. Yet history shows that reforms once thought impossible, such as women’s suffrage and the Voting Rights Act, became law when public demand reached a tipping point. Ending gerrymandering will take the same level of public pressure and persistence.

Critics will cry “states’ rights.” But there is no “right” for a state to deny its citizens equal representation. The federal government has both the authority and the moral duty to step in when the core machinery of democracy is being warped.

Our republic cannot survive if elections are decided before a single vote is cast. We cannot keep pretending that the system is fair when the outcome is predetermined by a handful of politicians drawing lines behind closed doors.

Abraham Lincoln spoke of a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Gerrymandering is government by the politicians, for the politicians, and it is time to end it. We owe it to our children to restore a democracy worthy of the name.

The Founders fought to free us from a government that ignored the will of the people. Will we now allow a handful of partisan cartographers to quietly dismantle that legacy? Or will we demand an electoral system where every vote counts equally and every citizen’s voice is heard?

It is time to choose. And it is time to act.