Valuetainment - August 21, 2025


Gerrymandering & Redistricting Explained


Episode Stats

Length

11 minutes

Words per Minute

191.22458

Word Count

2,182

Sentence Count

200

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary

What is Gerrymandering and why does it matter to you? What does it do to you and why should you care about it? California is going to flip one of the most competitive races in the country because of gerrymandering.


Transcript

00:00:00.540 Gerrymandering, aka redistricting. What does it mean? Why are people upset at Governor Abbott from Texas?
00:00:05.640 He's going to be gerrymandering. He's going to be redistricting. You know what? I'm Newsom.
00:00:09.440 I'm going to be doing it as well if you do it. I'm going to do that to the state of California.
00:00:12.360 And then Pritzker gets in there and then they're like, I should have gone in there because the people really realize what we're doing in Illinois.
00:00:17.740 This is not good. So what is gerrymandering? Let me give you an idea.
00:00:20.520 So this is something they get to do once every 10 years when census gives the reports of population,
00:00:27.020 population, blacks, whites, Asians, Middle Eastern, Democrats, Republicans, and they get to say, well, this is this district.
00:00:32.740 This is what this district looks like. If you look at Illinois, this is what Illinois used to look like back in the day.
00:00:38.500 If you look at it, these are basic districts. You see how they're like right next to each other, right?
00:00:43.260 This is what Illinois looks like today. Look at the way they're doing the district.
00:00:48.280 Specifically, that one district you're looking at, it's Illinois' fourth district.
00:00:52.100 They call it the earmuffs because there's no way you can mess it up that way.
00:00:55.660 Why would you do it that way? But what they do is they mix them up and they take a majority district of Republicans or Democrats
00:01:01.580 and they'll try to separate them into different districts to lower the percentage so they can win the additional.
00:01:07.920 It's actually very, very creative. Done by every state.
00:01:10.620 This is not a Republican or a Democratic thing, but this is something that's been going on.
00:01:14.540 And it's something you ought to know about. We're going to talk about that today.
00:01:16.700 So if you give value out of this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel.
00:01:27.580 So watch this. This is Illinois. When you look at Illinois, this is how much.
00:01:31.080 When you see the red, that's areas that Republicans live in.
00:01:34.440 Now, if you look at the state, you would say, well, it looks half and half Republican and Democrat.
00:01:38.600 If that's the case, why is it that out of the 17 seats that they have at the House level, 17, 14 are Democrats, only three are Republicans.
00:01:49.360 When they voted the state, 55% or so were Democrats, 45% were Republicans.
00:01:56.560 But because of gerrymandering, 84% of the entire state's representatives are on the left.
00:02:03.280 And only 16% are Republican, three out of 17, simply because of gerrymandering.
00:02:09.420 That should kind of give you an idea. Now, let's go back to the history of it.
00:02:12.140 How did this name come about?
00:02:13.420 There used to be a governor in Massachusetts back in 1812 called Elbridge Gerry.
00:02:18.300 This guy was the first one to say, well, what if I'm able to redistrict in a way?
00:02:23.480 And he did the district and a salamander.
00:02:26.180 If you look at this, this is exactly what he did.
00:02:28.260 This makes no sense to create this as a district.
00:02:31.020 And then they said, wait a minute, this is brilliant.
00:02:33.420 Gerry salamander gerrymandering.
00:02:36.480 That's how the name came about, right?
00:02:38.160 This guy had a brilliant idea.
00:02:40.280 Everybody said, we're going to do this.
00:02:41.740 This guy was part of the old Democratic Republican Party is what they used to call it pre-Lincoln.
00:02:46.760 So it breaks down into three different types of gerrymandering.
00:02:49.740 One of them is partisan gerrymandering.
00:02:52.480 It's purely based on politics.
00:02:54.560 Hey, you're Republican.
00:02:55.760 We're going to kind of cut this area out because there's too many rich Republicans here.
00:02:59.420 We're going to cut this Democrats out because there are too many of them.
00:03:01.660 We're going to district it.
00:03:02.960 Or number two is racial gerrymandering.
00:03:06.020 Too many whites here.
00:03:07.080 Too many blacks here.
00:03:07.840 Let's split them apart.
00:03:08.580 Let's split them apart on what they're going to be.
00:03:10.560 Or last but not least is the bipartisan gerrymandering.
00:03:13.780 Doesn't happen often, but some of them who do it, it's bipartisan.
00:03:16.360 It benefits everybody.
00:03:17.820 So you may ask, why would somebody do this?
00:03:19.280 Very simple.
00:03:19.940 It reduces competition.
00:03:22.060 If Illinois is able to do what they did, Democrats have a hard time winning.
00:03:26.460 By the way, those are numbers for Illinois we're talking about.
00:03:28.960 California is very similar.
00:03:30.520 In California, Newsom is threatening, saying, if Governor Abbott goes out there and does what
00:03:35.840 he does, I'm going to lower the Republican seats, which is roughly 17% in the state of
00:03:41.440 California, they have 83% of it.
00:03:44.020 Let me say this one more time.
00:03:45.260 California is going to flip.
00:03:46.280 California is going to flip.
00:03:47.320 Well, unless he can flip the gerrymandering that's going on today and make it bipartisan,
00:03:50.820 they're going to have control for a long time.
00:03:52.920 83% seats are controlled by the left.
00:03:55.940 Only 17% are controlled by the right.
00:03:59.360 He wants to bring it down to 8% if, if, if Abbott pursues with the gerrymandering that he's
00:04:06.580 about to be doing right now.
00:04:08.360 So now that threat is a real threat to go from 17 to 8, but this is what happened in Texas.
00:04:13.280 In Texas, the Senate passed a redistricting map and the Senate who approved this, they
00:04:22.220 voted on this, the senators of Texas, the state senators, they voted 19 to 2.
00:04:27.920 Nine Democratic senators walked out in protest.
00:04:31.540 They didn't even show up because they knew they were going to lose.
00:04:34.220 The map is designed to add up to five GOP seats while eliminating or weakening several Democratic
00:04:40.780 ones, potentially flipping districts held by figures like Representative Jasmine Crockett.
00:04:46.700 That's why she made a comment yesterday.
00:04:48.040 You can't get rid of me.
00:04:49.500 I ain't going nowhere.
00:04:50.740 But that's one of the people they're going after.
00:04:52.640 Republicans argue it's necessary to reflect population shifts and counter perceived Democratic
00:04:57.360 advantages elsewhere, but critics call it partisan gerrymandering.
00:05:01.740 Obviously, this is going to frustrate a lot of people on the left, especially in the
00:05:04.460 state of Texas, because they've been trying to take over state for a while.
00:05:07.160 So many of them are upset.
00:05:08.400 They left.
00:05:08.880 They went to states like Illinois.
00:05:10.360 Some of them went to New York, Massachusetts.
00:05:12.940 More than 50 House Democrats from Texas have left those places.
00:05:18.040 And Governor Abbott comes out and authorize civil arrest warrants for absent lawmakers and
00:05:25.500 threaten special sessions over and over until the Democrats return.
00:05:30.980 And Attorney General Ken Paxton is exploring legal options to vacate the absent member seats.
00:05:37.840 It's chaotic of this taking place in Texas.
00:05:41.120 Now, if we look at the numbers, California, 83, 17, right?
00:05:44.900 If we look at Illinois, 84, 16.
00:05:47.860 The amount of gerrymandering going on in California, Illinois, a lot of these states.
00:05:51.840 If you go to Texas, this is what it looks like right now.
00:05:54.280 For Texas, out of 38 representatives, 25 are Republicans, 66%, 13 are Democrats, 34%.
00:06:03.980 Nothing near where it's at in California or Illinois.
00:06:07.360 But of course, this gerrymandering is upsetting anybody and everybody.
00:06:11.620 Why?
00:06:11.880 I'm going to go back to the point.
00:06:13.240 What are the effects of gerrymandering?
00:06:15.200 Reduced competition, increased polarization, skewed policy outcomes.
00:06:20.140 Some may say this is exactly what's going to be happening in Texas.
00:06:23.580 So obviously, a lot of people are losing their minds.
00:06:25.660 Pritzker goes on.
00:06:26.460 Stephen Colbert goes on the Kristen Walker show.
00:06:29.020 Let me tell you, Newt, you know what Abbott is doing.
00:06:31.520 And then everybody says, well, this is your district and you've been kind of doing this.
00:06:35.020 So what do you have to say about the fact?
00:06:36.460 Because you have the worst gerrymandering.
00:06:38.040 Well, yeah, I mean, but you know what they're doing is very because our people voted for this.
00:06:42.080 And then Kathy Hochul is calling it insurrection.
00:06:46.360 This is the governor from New York.
00:06:47.640 And the best one is by Texas State Representative Jolanda Jones compared it to the Holocaust.
00:06:54.300 That's what they're comparing it to.
00:06:55.660 Okay, this is her saying it, not me saying it.
00:06:57.460 She's saying this is what compared it to.
00:06:59.020 Let me continue with you so you can understand what's going on.
00:07:01.460 This is Maryland, District 3.
00:07:03.660 Take a look at this one here.
00:07:04.960 Tell me if this makes any sense.
00:07:06.840 This is like the ultimate example of what gerrymandering looks like.
00:07:10.580 Here's Pennsylvania, District 7.
00:07:13.080 Look at Pennsylvania's District 7.
00:07:15.180 So somebody may be watching and say, well, that's unfair, Pat.
00:07:18.820 I don't care what happens.
00:07:20.880 Texas cannot be doing something like this.
00:07:22.540 I said, well, maybe there's a reason for it.
00:07:24.160 Because, by the way, when they do this, the census gives a report every 10 years.
00:07:28.440 Most states, you can gerrymander as many times as you want because there's no federal authority on this.
00:07:35.220 The federal government doesn't get to say anything about this.
00:07:37.540 The governor, the local, the representative, the Senate, they vote for it.
00:07:41.180 And if you've got control over it, you can do it all you want.
00:07:43.340 There are some states that you can only do it once a decade.
00:07:47.320 Carolina is once a decade.
00:07:50.460 It's about six or seven states that you can only do it once a decade.
00:07:54.100 Some even you can only gerrymander or redistrict it on the year that ends with the number one.
00:07:59.040 So 2021, 2031, 2041.
00:08:02.360 But all the other states, guess what?
00:08:04.240 Gerrymander all you want.
00:08:05.140 But Republicans are upset because they're saying the following.
00:08:07.880 Well, in 2020, when he gave us a census, you overcounted Democratic states and you undercounted Republican states.
00:08:17.720 So some are arguing that part, that maybe there was some advantages there.
00:08:22.340 Let me read some of the numbers here.
00:08:23.720 See how you look at this map here?
00:08:25.340 See how it says green and there's purple?
00:08:27.440 Green are the states that were overcounted.
00:08:31.180 And purple are the states that were undercounted.
00:08:34.340 Let me give you some of the numbers.
00:08:35.680 Hawaii was overcounted by 6.8%.
00:08:39.980 New York, population 19 million, overcounted by 3.4%.
00:08:45.900 That's somewhere around 700,000 people.
00:08:49.140 The size of an entire congressional district, which means they could have one additional seat just because of this overcounting.
00:08:56.040 It's a big deal when you look at it.
00:08:57.300 Massachusetts, overcounted by 2.2%.
00:08:59.760 Minnesota, overcounted by 3.8%.
00:09:02.140 Delaware and Rhode Island were also overcounted.
00:09:05.240 Out of all the states that were overcounted, if you look at this list here, and by the way, of the overcounted states, Utah and Ohio were the only ones that got overcounted.
00:09:13.900 All the other ones that got overcounted were all on the Democratic states.
00:09:16.620 And the undercounted states, very interesting when you look at the numbers here, look at that.
00:09:21.160 Arkansas, 5%.
00:09:23.000 Tennessee, 4.8%.
00:09:25.820 Mississippi, 4.1%.
00:09:28.340 Florida, minus 3.5%.
00:09:30.860 Texas, minus 1.9%.
00:09:33.080 Undercounted.
00:09:34.520 In this case, to be fair, we have to also show that Illinois was minus 2% undercounted.
00:09:40.000 So when you look at these numbers here, some people could say, wait a minute, you're doing this, you're forcing us to have to protect our state because we know the Democrats are targeting taking over Texas.
00:09:49.440 Because once they take over Texas, guess what?
00:09:51.700 Democrats could win year after year after year presidential election.
00:09:55.580 It's a massive state to take over and take control of.
00:09:58.360 So a lot of people on the right are concerned.
00:10:00.600 Now, President Trump's a little bit concerned about this long term because he's trying to see what's going to happen next in 2028, 2032.
00:10:05.460 What about these 15 million illegal immigrants that came in the last four years under Joe Biden?
00:10:10.680 Do you count them towards the census?
00:10:13.200 According to the 14th Amendment, it's yes.
00:10:16.520 It tells us U.S. Constitution requires a congressional appointment be based on the whole number of persons in each state with no distinction between citizens and non-citizens.
00:10:25.760 But the president and his team is going to try to do something about it if they do, say they succeed.
00:10:30.400 Here's the differences it would make.
00:10:32.040 It would low representation for states with large unauthorized populations such as California, 1.8 million.
00:10:39.960 Even Texas, 1.6 million.
00:10:42.920 And Florida, 1.2 million.
00:10:45.400 But a lot of people on the other side say that's not going to happen simply because of the 14th Amendment that we have in place.
00:10:51.180 Hopefully now you have a better idea what gerrymandering and redistricting is.
00:10:55.400 If you want all these notes and the research that our team did, all you have to do is go to Manac, download the app, go to the PBD Entrepreneur Circle.
00:11:02.600 It's five bucks a month.
00:11:03.500 You'll get all the notes in there.
00:11:04.740 And the community talks to each other.
00:11:06.300 You get all these notes.
00:11:07.540 Click on this QR code, download the app.
00:11:09.820 You'll have those notes there for you.
00:11:11.020 And if you enjoyed this video, we did another video since a lot of people may be saying, well, maybe it's time for a third party.
00:11:16.420 Elon Musk was talking about America's party he wants to start.
00:11:19.860 If you've not seen it, maybe click here.
00:11:21.920 The video will be here for you to watch.
00:11:23.480 Take care, everybody.
00:11:24.280 Bye-bye, bye-bye.