Their ‘Dragon’ is gerrymandering
Any documentary that opens with “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide,” an 1814 quote by John Adams, probably has a few lids to blow off. And that’s what directors Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance do with smarts, energy and integrity in “Slay the Dragon,” an instructive look at the political practice of gerrymandering. It’s also an infuriating watch on several levels, which is entirely the point of this call-to-action portrait.
Gerrymandering, named in part after Massachusetts governor (and later James Madison’s vice president) Elbridge Gerry, who signed a self-serving redistricting bill for his state in 1812, is the process by which U.S. voting districts are drawn to shield politicians from public opinion and help guarantee election results. It essentially finds legislators picking voters instead of voters choosing legislators. One observer here dubs the procedure “an astonishing manipulation of democracy.”
Using cogent examples from several states, the film clearly and comprehensively proposes how, over the last 10 years, the steroidization of gerrymandering has helped lead to our nation’s extreme political divide and enabled one political party to focus solely on preserving its base.
One of the most visible consequences of gerrymandering was the Flint water crisis. As explained here, in 2013, protected Republican politicians overrode Michigan voters and installed emergency district managers across the state. One of these unelected officials made the cost-cutting decision to switch the source of Flint’s drinking water from the Detroit water system to the corrosive Flint River. The result was contamination, illness and death — and problems remain.
The filmmakers then follow the effects of REDMAP, a plan launched in census year 2010 by the Republican State Leadership Committee and organized by Republican strategist Chris Jankowski after Barack Obama’s presidential win. The goal: to gain control of redistricting maps, neutralize demographic shifts and reclaim party dominance, particularly in such swing states as Ohio, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Aided by donations from Walmart, the tobacco industry, the Koch brothers and others, the $30-million initiative used high-tech mapping and data tools and the line-drawing practice called “packing and cracking” to ensure electoral firewalls. In 2012, Republicans won majorities or supermajorities in more than 20 statehouses.
It should be noted that Democrats have also benefited from gerrymandering, but, as the movie posits, never at such unbridled, micromanaged and calculated levels. The film also burrows into two recent, high-profile anti-gerrymandering campaigns. The first was inspired by Michigan’s Katie Fahey, an ebullient political neophyte in her late 20s who founded Voters Not Politicians in 2017. It mushroomed into a major grassroots movement that led to the creation and passage of Proposal 2, which established an independent redistricting commission for the state.
Then there were the attorneys, including married counselors Ruth Greenwood and Nick Stephanopoulos, who represented Wisconsin Democrats in a suit against their state’s 2011 redistricting plan. The case went from Wisconsin’s federal court to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in 2019, ruled partisan gerrymandering as beyond its scope.
Goodman and Durrance capture you-are-there moments and build plenty of tension as these two deeply committed operations navigate local, political and legal challenges. Archival clips, graphics and charts plus insightful chats with a host of academics, journalists, legal minds, current and ex-politicos, and such GOP gerrymandering “stars” as Jankowski and Robert LaBrant complement this entertaining exposé.
The film arrives against the rollout of the 2020 Census, which will affect this year’s redrawing of district lines. As they say, forewarned is forearmed.