everyone’s been doing it since the idea came around because it’s not illegal, and it’s not illegal because the people making the laws are the people benefitting from the practice. it’s true of democrats and republicans in america, but only democrats to my knowledge have a history of attempting and in some cases (notably, california) actually succeeding in getting independent redistricting comittees to make this form of cheating illegal. here, check the proposed bill out directly:

https://legiscan.com/CA/text/ACA15/2025

notably, the bill will only take effect if other states attempt to gain an unfair advantage over them; it’s only retaliatory. Also, california could redistrict every republican district but one or two in the state but has carefully chosen to only cheat the exact same 5 seats texas cheated; it’s directly proportional. finally, the bill includes a sunset feature that will automatically revert to the fair redistricting comittee in 2031. California’s retaliatory gerrymandering simply does not reflect badly on democrats as you seem to believe, incompetent cowards though they may in general be. and that’s a fucking problem. If anything, them acknowledging that they could cheat harder but are “taking the high road” by only cheating 5 seats is the real fuck up here honestly. If you’re going to cheat because the other guy is cheating, cheat better than the other guy ffs.