2000 to 2008 dosent seem to change all that much tbh. It's not until the gerrymandering kicked in after 2008 did we see such extreme polarization.
These are county maps, not CD maps. So how would it be impacted by gerrymandering? The county boundaries don't change from one decade to the next.
Gerrymandering contributes to polorazation
That seems silly. Living in a heavily Republican district or a heavily Democratic district is going to make people vote for a different presidential candidate than they would if they lived at the exact same address but their CD boundary lines were drawn differently, so that their CD was more competitive? Why would that be the case, especially when (aside from ME and NE) presidential electoral votes are allocated at the state level? For how many voters does the identity of their local member of Congress even enter their mind when they're voting for president?
