Democratic donkeys and Republican elephants are equally unhappy when their oxen are gored.

In the last few weeks, Illinois Democrats have had some good laughs over Republican complaints about the newly gerrymandered federal and state legislative maps Gov. Pat Quinn has signed into law.

But Democrats in Wisconsin aren't laughing. Over there, Democrats are complaining about what they describe as gerrymandered Republican-drawn maps that give the GOP an electoral advantage over the Democrats.

"It would be laughable if it weren't so shameful," said former Democratic U.S. Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin.

The calculated effort by Illinois Democrats and Wisconsin Republicans to redraw their states' legislative district boundary lines in their party's favor reinforces the public's view that this kind of political misbehavior is routine for both parties. Unfortunately, it is.

But some states, including Iowa, have a non-partisan map-drawing process. The opposite — selfish and self-interested politics — takes place in Illinois and Wisconsin because our elected officials insist on it.

Legislators frequently talk about Republican districts, Democratic districts and those that are competitive. But that misses the point.

These are the public's legislative districts. They are not the property of either political party. When legislative district boundary lines are drawn to ensure the victory of one party or another, that's an attack on the democratic process.

This kind of maneuvering is so well known as to have a long history and tradition — gerrymandering. But that ought to be a source of outrage, not political legitimacy.

There's something wrong when legislators pick their constituents instead of the other way around. It undermines the whole idea of representative democracy — that voters are entitled to a choice on election day.

Instead, Illinois voters generally face a fait accompli when they go to the polls — non-competitive legislative and congressional elections that favor incumbents of one party or the other.

Wisconsin Democrats are threatening to go to court if the redistricting plan is approved by the majority Republicans in that state's legislature. In Illinois, congressional Republicans are planning a legal challenge to the Democratic-drawn congressional districts.

But why does it have to come to that? It's because our elected officials have forgotten, assuming they ever knew, that they're just players in the electoral process, not the owners of it.