2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: How can we retake the House? [View all]Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Those narrowly gerrymandered districts will only remain Republican if they can bring their base to the polls. Exacerbating the racial divide is a tactic to engage white Republican voters who might otherwise sit out an election with an loser for the nominee. Trump still loses, but they have a better chance of stopping the overthrow of the Republican Congress.
Frankly, they have known all along that the Republican nominee will lose in November (as their field of all bad candidates demonstrated). In that context, Trump may be their best candidate because hate is what they need to hold Congress.
One of the huge problems with the United States is racial segregation of housing, an effect of unequal wealth. It is too easy to gerrymander because poor people are concentrated in ghettos while those with financial means are in the suburbs and gentrified areas.