Voting for the Lesser Evil in a Broken System: Gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and the Political Con We’re Forced to Play
By: The Zeitgeist Editorial Team
Here we are again—another election cycle, another “choice” between two candidates that no one asked for and even fewer actually want. And let’s face it: we’re doing this knowing full well that our votes might not even matter. Why? Because the political system that’s supposed to represent us has been hijacked. It’s a farce. A masquerade. A tragic comedy where we’re all forced to pretend we’re participating in a real democracy, even though everything we know screams the opposite. Digging into the facts only reveals the ugly truth in glaring neon: gerrymandering and the Electoral College are structurally designed to keep us in our place, quiet and out of the way, so the same political clique can call the shots.
This isn’t some minor flaw in the system; it’s the design. This design isn’t about fair representation; it’s about keeping a very specific, insulated political ruling class comfortably in power. Our votes—those little symbols of our democratic will—have become nothing more than desperate attempts to prevent the worst from happening. Welcome to America’s golden age of negative partisanship: a system where we’re voting against candidates rather than for them.
Negative Partisanship: When Voting is Just Self-Defense
Let’s talk about what political scientists call negative partisanship—a dismal concept where voters cast ballots not to support someone but to keep a disaster at bay. It’s democracy turned on its head, a sad little game of choosing the lesser of two evils while knowing full well that neither option reflects what we truly want. Researchers at places like the Brookings Institution and ProPublica have dug deep into this mess, and their findings are painfully clear: we’ve devolved into a society where most people vote against the opposition rather than supporting their own candidate. What we’re left with is an electoral dance of gritted teeth, clenched jaws, and resigned shrugs.
Here’s the cycle: every election, it’s the same sick game of grit-your-teeth, hold-your-nose, and cast your vote for whoever might do slightly less harm. It’s like being offered expired milk and rotting eggs at a restaurant—you don’t want either, but you’ll take the least toxic option to avoid food poisoning. And as long as the two-party monopoly continues to weaponize this dynamic, we’ll remain trapped in this cycle of disappointment, forced to vote for candidates we barely tolerate because we fear the alternative might bring the apocalypse.
Gerrymandering: How Power is Rigged on the Map
And then there’s gerrymandering. Ah, gerrymandering—the dictionary definition of democracy erosion. It’s the art of redrawing district lines in ways that ensure one party’s dominance, even when it’s unpopular. This isn’t just political manipulation; it’s outright electoral entrapment. ProPublica and the Brennan Center for Justice have exposed the inner workings of this shameless tactic, where politicians draw districts that look more like Rorschach tests than representations of actual communities.
Here’s the process: with “packing” and “cracking” techniques, politicians lump together or split up voting blocks to dilute the influence of the opposition. North Carolina’s political map is one glaring example; despite winning a near-majority, Republican strategists there have drawn districts that secure Republican control, even when they don’t win the popular vote. This isn’t speculation or hyperbole—this is documented manipulation, a rigging of the electoral system in plain sight. Entire communities are left unrepresented or, even worse, “represented” by politicians who oppose their interests.
This is democracy dying in silent, systematic increments. Every time a district line is redrawn to lock in a safe seat, that’s another nail in the coffin of real representation. Think about it: the very foundation of voting—citizens choosing their leaders—has been subverted. Now, it’s politicians choosing their voters. Gerrymandering is the system’s middle finger to genuine democracy, and every election that goes by with these rigged maps in place is another insult to our so-called “democratic” process.
The Electoral College: America’s DEI Program for White, Rural States
And let’s get to the grand finale of this electoral con job: the Electoral College. If gerrymandering is rigging the rules, the Electoral College is the whole damn game. Supposedly crafted to balance power between states, this system was meant to prevent populous states from steamrolling presidential elections. Fast forward to the 21st century, and here we are with a rigged relic where small, predominantly white, conservative states hold sway over the entire country. If gerrymandering locks in districts, the Electoral College locks in the presidency for certain types of states and their preferences.
Darrell West of the Brookings Institution has pointed out that the Electoral College essentially functions as a booster shot for small, conservative states, giving them influence far beyond their population or economic contribution. Imagine California, a state with around 39 million people, and Wyoming, a state with fewer than 600,000. California’s 55 electoral votes mean one vote per 715,000 residents, while Wyoming gets one vote per 193,000. This isn’t democracy. This is affirmative action for the politically privileged. The idea was supposedly to prevent states like New York and California from dominating the presidential election, but what it does in practice is allow rural, conservative states to decide the nation’s fate every four years.
The math is absurdly unfair, and that’s not just our opinion. Publications like the Washington Post have shown in painstaking detail how presidential candidates barely need to cater to the majority; they just need to secure a few key swing states where gerrymandered districts are already in full effect. And let’s not forget the five presidents who “won” the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote, Donald Trump being the most recent and controversial example. Three million more Americans voted for his opponent, but thanks to the Electoral College, the people’s choice was sidelined.
Negative Partisanship as a Survival Mechanism
So here we are, trapped in a system where the best we can do is vote for the lesser evil. The Electoral College and gerrymandering together make real choice a fantasy. When the options are “bad” or “worse,” voting becomes an act of harm reduction rather than genuine choice. This isn’t what democracy was supposed to be. We weren’t supposed to grit our teeth and vote defensively, but here we are, trying to survive in a system that treats our votes like tokens in a rigged game.
The apathy this breeds isn’t accidental. The more disconnected we feel from the voting process, the easier it is for those in power to keep gaming the system. They count on our exhaustion, our disillusionment, and our surrender to this absurd game. Because as long as we keep playing, they keep winning. Every cycle we tolerate this, every lesser-evil vote we cast, is a tacit acceptance of a system that’s set up to work against us.
A Final Plea: Demand Democracy, Not Damage Control
It’s time to face facts: America’s electoral system is a con job. Gerrymandering and the Electoral College work hand-in-hand to keep real change off the ballot. Our votes, especially in “safe” states or gerrymandered districts, are little more than symbols in a system that already knows its winners. If we want democracy to mean something again, it’s time to demand structural change: abolish the Electoral College, dismantle gerrymandering, and return power to the people.
The only way out of this mess is to stop treating voting as a survival strategy and start demanding it as a vehicle for real representation. Because if we don’t, we’ll be stuck in this cycle of lesser-evil voting, disenfranchisement, and hollow democracy. Let’s start the revolution by demanding what should already be ours: a vote that actually counts.
—The Zeitgeist
---
Bibliography:
1. ProPublica. *Extreme Gerrymandering Distorts Congressional Elections*. Retrieved from (https://www.propublica.org/article/extreme-gerrymandering-distorts-congressional-elections).
2. Brennan Center for Justice. *Extreme Maps*. Retrieved from (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/extreme-maps).
3. Washington Post. *How Partisan Gerrymandering Limits Voting Power*. Retrieved from (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/gerrymandering/).
4. West, Darrell M. *Big Ideas: Abolishing the Electoral College*. Brookings Institution. Retrieved from (https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020).
5. NPR. *How Gerrymandering is Undermining Democracy*. Retrieved from (https://www.npr.org/2018/10/10/656621752/how-gerrymandering-is-undermining-democracy).