Here’s a suggestion for those who think that partisan redistricting, or, as is often the case with these plaints, partisan redistricting by Republicans, threatens to destroy U.S. democracy. Take a look at The Long Red Thread, the recent history by Sabato’s Crystal Ball analyst Kyle Kondik of House of Representatives elections from 1964 to the present decade.

Kondik shows how partisan redistricting, from the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s one-person-one-vote decision in 1964 through the 1980s, was employed to great effect by Democratic redistricters — and to the considerable applause and great delight of the few journalists who were paying any attention. I’m familiar with this history as the principal co-author of The Almanac of American Politics since 1972 and from social conversations with the most adept and influential of Democratic redistricters, California Rep. Phillip Burton (whose San Francisco seat is now represented by Nancy Pelosi).