At least the issue is being discussed in public and litigated in the courts.

It was litigated in the courts in the USSR too. Not so much discussed in public but I am not sure that matters.

The whole issue of making such a taboo topic is that it makes it hard for opposition to mobilize. However in the US we have other ways of doing that. Hyperpartisanship is something which has a remarkably similar effect while at the same time allowing us to say with a straight face that we are not a police state.....

I'm afraid this is what you get when you architect your political system to institutionalize gerrymandering. I suspect that hyperpartisanship, and the thorough political dysfunction we're seeing over in the US at the moment, is pretty much an unavoidable consequence of developing very stable partisan electoral ghettos.

In the UK such gerrymandering is taken very seriously because it's a fundamental attack on the integrity of the electoral system. People found guilty of it have had their political and personal lives ruined, and quite rightly too. But in the US it's standard practice. I don't think this is taken seriously enough.

The UK has had bad experiences with gerrymandering too, right? I am remembering the term "pocket borough."

Yes but we reformed those in 1832! I sometimes think the US politics is still stuck in the 18th century.

Of course, the only reason I knew the term is:

"I grew so rich that I was sent

By a pocket borough into Parliament

I always voted my party's call

And I never thought of thinking for myself at all!

...

I thought so little, the rewarded me

By making me the ruler of the Queen's Navee!"

-- Arthur Sullivan, from "The HMS Pinnafore"

The scary thing is how well that verse describes American politics these days..... So maybe you are right....

I think this is the first time I've seen Gilbert and Sullivan quoted on HN. Bravo, sir. :)

...and wouldn't it be nice, if we could actually stop this kind of problem before it became something the courts dare not touch, spoken of only with rare whispers. Those types of situations historically end up rather nasty for all involved.

It's probably a bad sign when the sane legal solution to avoid a rebellion (or worse) seems like fanciful wishful thinking.

edit: As other have said: Thank you, EFF!

There is no doubt we are not living in a police state.