As published on Saturday

I must respectfully take exception to the June 19 E-R editorial, "Good and bad of redistricting." Any attempt to differentiate one voter from the next is counterproductive. To that end, there is no such thing as a "competitive district;" there are only competitive ideas. The U.S. Constitution makes no reference to political parties, because representative government is based upon the concept that voters elect others with whose philosophy of government they agree, and it is incumbent upon the elected to know what the majority of the members of their district wants, and legislate accordingly. Certainly, public officials are free to attempt to adjust the thinking of their constituents, but, in the end, they must subordinate their own opinions to the will of the majority.

The system informs that all voters are equal. U.S. citizens who vote are called Americans, and residents of California are additionally referred to as Californians. For purposes of representative government, hyphenated designations such as African-American, Latino-American and any and all other racial, ethnic, religious or sexual semantic adulterations do not exist.

The only voting bloc is that of proud Americans who vote their consciences on an individual basis. Attempting to create "competitive districts" subverts that original intent.