Divide and Conquer in The Redistricting Game

The whole "blue state," "red state" thing was a bit of a media farce, to be sure, but break things down instead by districts and it's as close to science as political map-making gets. Thanks to "redistricting" (a euphemism for gerrymandering, in turn a euphemism for "stealing the vote") your chances of unseating one party for another if you're of the minority party in a given district these days is rapidly approaching zero. If you know the political demographics of a given area--and you can bet every politician has staff mining the data daily--simply redrawing the district lines can, for instance, turn a four-point party deficit into an eight-point lead. Sound criminal? Hey, you can always move...

Or you can learn more about it, and a few savvy computer programmers at the University of Southern California have come up with a way to help. The Redistricting Game is a simulation that elucidates the elements of redistricting by placing unseemly variables like "population equality" and "whip counts" in humorous, strategically enlightening context. After selecting a party (alas, you only have two options--guess what they are) your goal tends to lean toward maximizing district lines to benefit your party. In the opening sequence, you'll look down at a topographically detailed map with districts carefully (and colorfully) carved. Blue and red dots represent democrats and republicans, and you have to drag lines around to re-tool districts. Animated lawmakers hop up and down, demanding their interests be served, and the trick is to appease a majority to get your redistricting plan through. As you progress, the game introduces missions that challenge you to implement bipartisan gerrymandering, ensure minority representation, and even test out Congressman John Tanner's redistricting proposal to see how it might work.

What a fascinating experiment, and what an inspired idea for a teaching tool that marries the accessibility of a casual game with sophisticated and politically relevant strategics. Imagine this sort of thing deployed in an American Government or Civics classroom. Between all the recent sound and fury over "killer games" and legislated ratings, it's refreshing to see the seeds of the medium's real potential as a vehicle for heightened cultural discourse quickening. Wherever you fall on the issue--and the game is careful not to take sides, or rather, to let you--I can't recommend The Redistricting Game highly enough.

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