THE JOHN ADAMS SOCIETY
David W. Downing Derek Suszko Christopher T. Wolff Marina Wolff
Chairman Secretary Chief Whip Chancellor
NOTE: Day of Week Change for November Only
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Location: Burger Moe’s
The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots. --Elbridge Gerry
NOTHING MAKES A LAUGHING-STOCK OUT OF “OUR DEMOCRACY” LIKE BEHOLDING A MAP OF OUR CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS. The gerrymanderers mock the republican spirit, contorting, squeezing and shoehorning until the borders of Chile and Switzerland begin to seem sensible. The patchwork of the Holy Roman Empire was fine art compared to the monstrous districting of our state legislatures. And to what purpose is this waste? All the cartographic hubbub is to ensure that congressional elections remain as uncompetitive and predictable as possible. God forbid Nancy Pelosi should ever have to worry about re-election! All the complaints about Congress – apathy to voters, never-ending careers, shady financial aggrandizement – have their origins in the never-ending meddling in the districting procedures.
We the people must not put up with it any longer. There should be only one redistricting per ten-year census! Take away the power of the state legislatures to re-district at will, and suddenly we’d have a functioning republic on our hands. The “careerists” in the Congress might have to campaign and defend their records before the electorate every two years, just as the Founders intended. Competitive elections would inject robustness in the democratic process. A re-districting only every ten years would curb hyper-partisanship, since no one would be able to rely forever on a gerrymandered supermajority. All the corrupt intrigues involved in district geography would be much diminished if the legislatures had to wait every ten years. Let’s be done with the farce of incessant re-apportionment and resolve on one redistricting per census.
ON THE OTHER HAND, the state legislatures are the “people’s representatives” too. Respect for state sovereignty is a crucial component of our constitutional system. To curb the prerogatives of the states in these matters is to undermine the importance of state elections. In the end all politics is local. Would reducing the opportunities of the legislature to re-district really make a dent in the hyper partisan character of American politics? No one, from George Washington on down, has ever been able to eradicate the two-party character of our system. At some point, we have to acknowledge that, so long as the Constitution stands, all our politics will be driven by the will of party. The best we can do is vote with as much consideration for our local politicians as we do for our national ones.
The CHAIRMAN having been ejected from his House seat on account of the inclusion of Antifa communes in his district, has nothing better to do now than summon an inquiry into the matter.
RESOLVED: One Census, One Redistricting
The Chancellor will preside over drinks beginning at seven o’clock p.m. The debate will begin at half past seven. There is no dress code, however gentlemen who wish to speak must wear a tie;