I wore a uniform. Now I lead a community of veterans who still serve by strengthening the rules of our democracy. Lately I’ve heard a growing chorus from people I respect from across the political spectrum: “If they gerrymander, we should gerrymander too. Fight fire with fire.” I understand the frustration, but I strongly reject the logic.

Values that only apply when your side is winning aren’t values at all. They’re cheap tactics. In the military, the standard matters most when the pressure is highest. You don’t cut corners because the mission is hard. The habits you build under stress—and the shortcuts you justify—become your character.

Our first commander in chief warned us about this. George Washington cautioned that parties could become engines of ambition that “subvert the power of the people.” You don’t need a historian to see that happening now. Gerrymandering is politicians choosing their voters so voters don’t choose them. It can deliver a quick advantage, but it hollows out consent and teaches everyone that power, not principle, is the point. You can win a map and lose the American voter’s trust.

This is not a procedural quarrel. It is a moral test. Power should rest with the people. Leaders should face real competition. The rules should be fair even when your side loses. If those are universal truths, they have to hold on the days that cost us something.

I hear the retort: “We’ll do it once to stop the other side. Later, when we’re back in power, we’ll pass reforms.” That is how standards die. Ask any platoon leader or chief. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. Bless gerrymandering today because it helps your team, and you will find your opponents blessing it tomorrow with your words on their lips.

Americans know better. Three-quarters of us believe partisan gerrymandering is a major problem and that it should be illegal. We agree on very little, but we agree on this. Politicians should listen. When they don’t, already skeptical voters lose faith in the results.

Gerrymandering also carries a quieter cost. It rewards the loudest extremes and punishes the work of building coalitions. It turns representatives into seat holders insulated from challenge. It tells the young that the lines matter more than their voice. Many veterans and younger Americans don’t see themselves in permanent party fights. They want a system that listens and works. When maps are drawn to muffle competition, they are the first to be silenced.

There is a better path. Communities can be kept intact by independent mapmakers who answer to transparent criteria instead of partisanship. Primaries can be opened so every eligible voter participates in the elections that effectively decide most offices. General elections can be designed to reward broad appeal instead of fringe theatrics. None of this tips the scales to one party. It repairs the scale itself.

Veterans understand that ethic. When we served, we didn’t ask how you voted. We asked whether you showed up, did your job, and earned the team’s trust. Bringing that mindset home is why so many veterans are stepping forward. We want a system that invites competition, lowers the temperature, and makes government more representative and responsible. We want leaders who can persuade people who don’t already agree with them.

Some will call this naïve, as if refusing to rig a map is surrender. It isn’t. There is a weapon stronger than any temporary advantage: legitimacy. People will forgive a lot if they believe the contest was fair. They lose faith when they believe it was fixed—and once that faith is gone, it is hard to recover.

A colleague said something I can’t shake: courage is what you do that costs you friends, not what inflames your enemies. This is a moment for that kind of courage. Tell your own strategists, mapmakers, and party leaders no. Choose rules you would defend even if you lost under them. Remember the oath we swore was to the Constitution, not to a party, and certainly not to a person.

So I am asking leaders in both parties—and all of us who cheer for them—to step back from the brink. Maps drawn to protect the few will fail the many, and sooner than you think. If you believe in fair maps later, fight for fair maps now. If you believe in a government of, by, and for the people, act like it when hyperpartisanship tempts you otherwise. Choose the hard right over the easy wrong. Choose country over party, people over power. That is the America my brothers and sisters in arms fought and sacrificed for. That is the America worth serving.

Alberto Ramos is a Navy veteran and CEO of Veterans for All Voters, a nonpartisan nonprofit that mobilizes veterans to advocate for election innovations that unlock competition, reduce polarization, and strengthen representative government.