As part of a broad, multistate effort by allies of President Donald Trump, North Carolina's Republicans have taken the dramatic step to try to redraw their already gerrymandered congressional districts 5 years before the normal end-of-decade cycle.
The goal is to secure one more Republican U.S. House seat in a desperate attempt to hang onto the House majority and protect Trump from political consequences.
Keep in mind, this map was already unfairly drawn up. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave it an "F," with only one competitive district, 10 safe Republican seats and 3 safe Democratic seats. The new map would be even worse.
This is happening all over the country. From Texas, where lawmakers passed a new map at Trump's behest, to Missouri, where organizers are trying to put an initiative on the ballot to overturn a recent gerrymander, to Indiana, where party leaders admitted this week they may not have the votes.
When people see these fights play out, the question they often ask is the right one: How is this legal? The answer lies not in what has been created, but in what has been dismantled.
This is a preview of Symone D. Sanders Townsend's latest column. Read the full column here. For more thought-provoking insights from Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, watch "The Weeknight" every Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
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