Gerrymandering

[jclay]

Gerrymandering isn't new but, yet again like peeling an onion, the more I read and realize the more concerned I am; frightened, really. I watched it happen to the panhandle congressional districts where I live. My middle brother managed the small team that developed Florida's first GIS system for state redistricting a couple of decades ago, and watched it get gratuitously abused by the Republican Party.

The lead paragraphs in the linked Guardian article are these, and our democratic institutions are in trouble. I suggest that concerned folks start volunteering $ and/or time to Stacey Abram's Fair Fight campaign and similar. I don't think it's a stretch to believe that the Republican Party intends to gerrymander districts to the point that it will be virtually impossible to defeat them; I've heard it before and I'm still hearing it. We are approaching what I think is the point of no return. I know that I haven't done enough and I need to change that. I hope others will seriously consider doing the same. And for those who are already doing meaningful work, thanks.

In Washington, the real insiders know that the true outrages are what’s perfectly legal and that it’s simply a gaffe when someone accidentally blurts out something honest.

And so it barely made a ripple last week when a Texas congressman (and Donald Trump’s former White House physician) said aloud what’s supposed to be kept to a backroom whisper: Republicans intend to retake the US House of Representatives in 2022 through gerrymandering.

“We have redistricting coming up and the Republicans control most of that process in most of the states around the country,” Representative Ronny Jackson told a conference of religious conservatives. “That alone should get us the majority back.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...UFlOUFKi0LNY-c

[Too Tall]

Thanks for this, I'd love the discussion.

Ronnie Jackson, oh man. hahahahaha Sorry it is hard to take anything he says seriously given his recent history.

[jclay]

Ronnie Jackson, oh man. hahahahaha Sorry it is hard to take anything he says seriously given his recent history.

I understand your reaction to that guy, Trump and everybody else associated with them but don't sell them short. Don't ever sell your opponents short. That's a sure way to have your ass handed to you. Jan 6 comes to mind...and a hell of a lot worse.

The Republican Party has been extremely effective in stonewalling progress for decades, certainly since economist James Buchanan's work. I want to give examples but I wouldn't know where to start; I mean, where do you start to count the grains of sand on a beach? But I'll pick two, right here:

When DeSantis and the Florida Legislature manage to pass legislation that prohibits teaching the truth about our history as it relates to racism and genocide, when they accuse universities of "indoctrinating" students and creating intellectually repressive environments while they pass legislation to do exactly that....to limit study to only the social and economic perspectives to which they subscribe....and a large enough percentage of the population buys the lies, we're in a heap of trouble.

The Florida legislature has manage to gerrymander my congressional district such that it's virtually impossible for anybody but a social conservative like Neal Dunn to be competitive. It was planned, executed and it succeeded, and all of it was in plain sight at the time. The Republican legislatures controlling critical states have the power to rig their voting districts to incredible advantage and they're doing it in the sunshine, in plain sight. They have the power to restrict voting to favorable demographics, and they're doing it in plain sight, without any compunction.

This really is how civilizations are lost.

[Too Tall]

This is also how Democracy rolls with the punches. Without a reason' to rise for occasion minority rule has a shot. The game is far from lost.

Oh Ronnie really is a stumbling fool. He should do more public speaking.

[theflashunc]

The VRA was gutted and gerrymandering is coming along with significant voting restrictions in states where the GOP controls the statehouse without real intervention from the Democrats in Congress.

It's pretty clear the GOP is laying all their bets on minoritarian rule, having given up on trying to win on the merits of policy. So instead just rig the system. Its Jim Crow redux, yet in some ways worse when you pair it with the emerging GOP notion -- supported by these nonsense audits -- that any election they do not win can be overturned or is viewed as inherently illegitimate.

I remember living in Charlotte and having the same Representative in Congress as my dad and step-mom, who lived 80 miles away, in a district that just cherry picked left-leaning districts from cities along the I-85 corridor.

[jclay]

This is also how Democracy rolls with the punches. Without a reason' to rise for occasion minority rule has a shot. The game is far from lost.

Oh Ronnie really is a stumbling fool. He should do more public speaking.

I hope you're right but I think you underestimate the gravity of what's happening.

Gerrymandering and targeted voter hindrance at the scale we're seeing and in the current political/social context don't constitute democracy's rolling with the punches in my view.

[Too Tall]

I hope you're right but I think you underestimate the gravity of what's happening.

Gerrymandering and targeted voter hindrance at the scale we're seeing and in the current political/social context don't constitute democracy's rolling with the punches in my view.

I'm no Polly Anna trust me. There are going to be some acute challenges. Legal challenges notwithstanding the majority (voters) will be done. Fence sitting is so 2017.

[EDS]

I hope you're right but I think you underestimate the gravity of what's happening.

Gerrymandering and targeted voter hindrance at the scale we're seeing and in the current political/social context don't constitute democracy's rolling with the punches in my view.

The gerrymandering started a long time ago so in many respects it has already happened. The republicans have been wildly successful with this so no surprise they are going back to the well.