Businesses Don’t Want Gerrymandered Election Maps Either
A national coalition of corporate leaders says monopolies in politics are as problematic as they are in business.
Photo illustration: Rebecca Wilkinson for Bloomberg Businessweek; photos: Getty Images
If you ever stumble into a roomful of capitalists (this sounds like the start of a joke but it’s a frequent occurrence in the life of a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter), try asking why competition is such a big deal. Then settle in for a good, long sermon. About how it spurs innovation. Increases efficiency. Provides choice. Improves quality. Disciplines prices. And, ultimately, fuels economic growth. Without competition, a capitalist system struggles to function. Powerful companies that rule the market make out just fine. It’s their customers who suffer.
A centrist group of executives and business owners is now invoking these same principles to caution against the push by Republicans in Texas and other states, urged on by President Donald Trump, to redraw congressional election maps in hopes of stopping Democrats from winning control of the House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections. Gerrymandering not only disenfranchises voters and breeds cynicism toward the political system, they argue, but it’s also anticompetitive—which makes it bad for government in all the ways a lack of competition is bad for business: It leads to a slothful, indifferent Congress whose members don’t need to listen to the people who elected them.