TigerSoft News Service
www.tigersoft.com
10/2/2013 TigerSoft News Service
www.tigersoft.com
10/2/2013
Republican
Desperation
Turns Them to Mr. GerryMander.
> John Boehner's House
District Is Typical, but hardly exceptional.
> Why Urban, Working America Is So Savagely
Slighted.
> Why The Republicans Have Shifted So Far to
The Right.
> Another Reason Why The American Government
Does Not Work.
If you think that the shapes of
Congressional districts are natural circles around
bigger cities, you're entirely wrong. If you think that
they are shaped like little states,
more square and rectanglular, you're wrong. If
you think that yhey are not compact,
community-centered or comprise contiguous geographic areas,
you're wrong.
Is this legal? Who do you think make the laws? What's
behind this is
Republican gerrymandering. Without gerrymandering,
Republicans would
be in a big decline. Demographics and Urbanization are against them as
surely as night and day. In 1790 when the Constitution was written only
about one in twenty Americans lived in an urban area. In
1920, the ratio of
urban to suburban was about even. By 1965, it was 2:1.
Now only less
than 20% of the population live outside of metropolitan areas.
Minorities are
growing in numbers and they tend not to vote Republican.
Young people
are more likely to vote Democratic, too. Men tend not to
live as long as women.
Even in the Red States, many of the big cities have turned Blue.
"Every one of Texas' major cities -- Austin, Dallas,
Houston, and San Antonio -- voted Democratic
in 2012, the
second consecutive presidential election in which they've done so. Other red-state
cities that
tipped blue include Atlanta, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Birmingham, Tucson, Little Rock,
and (amazingly!)
Charleston, S.C... In states like Nevada, the only blue districts are often also
the only cities,
like Reno and Las Vegas." Source.
Out of
desperation, Republican strategists have turned to Gerrymandering as the
onlyh way they can resist the demographic and urbanization tide.
Until 2020, Congressional Districts are mostly strangely drawn
now to place just
enough Republican voters in safe districts to all but guarantee
their representatives
"win" re-election every two years. This
effectively lets Republican subsurbs escape
being made part of the poorer urban districts. This
is rule by the wealthy, of
course. Big surprise! The hatred Americans feel for
Congress starts to make
sense, doesn't it. People don't like being ruled by a
self-perpetuating plutocracy,
but they are powerless to prevent it.
Gerrymandering highlights just
how flagrantly undemocratic America's
system of represention has become. We are taught in school that
America
is a representive Democracy. It is NOT. 51% of the voters
do not get 51%
representation. Not even close to that.
This gets to a much bigger problem. Everywhere you look, America
is decidely
unDemocratic. Look at the silly US Senate. Wyoming has the
same representation
as California. What a cruel joke! Look at the way it talkes
60 votes not 51 to
get a bill pased in the Senate. Again this is minority rule by
small rural states
where representation can more easily be "bought" by big
outside money.
We are taught that the US Constitution is sacrosanct. That
it is the "Bible". That
it was divinely inspired somehow and must not be questioned.
Rubbish!
We should be asking why there are so many obstacles to our having a
truly
democratic Government. How much longer will we let Rural America
run
Urban America? America is going to reach a breaking point soon
because urban,
working class and consumer needs are savagely slighted and
defied.
Gerrymandering is the redrawing of US
congressional districts after a decadal census to favor
one political party.
Gerrymandering savagely hurts true democracy and crushes urban America.
The House of
Representatives is now held by the Republicans. They have 235 seats.
The Democrats have 200.
But
the Democratic House candidates in 2012 won 1.4 million more
votes
than did Republican candidates. Obama, of course, won 51.3% of the popular vote.
But our govern,ent is
hopelessly divided. This occurs because the Congressional
districts are now drawn
so that the Democrats in urban areas all get lumped together. Where a
Democrat won, the
average majority was almost 2:1. This is one more reason why Congress
is despised!
Most Americans live in
cities. They do not live on farms or in very small towns.
Yet, year after year,
Congress, and the Senate even more than the House, over-represents
rural areas of the
country. This is not accidental. It is not temporary. It is in defiance
of
long-standing
demographic trends. Yet, the US Consititution was designed to do win the
support of rich
Southern plantation owners with slaves. In 1787 this was unfair but the country
was big and growing, so
the Constitution was less important. Now the country must be run more
efficiently. It
must be faired to all its its people. This is serious problem. The
Constitution makes
the country's Federal
Government increasingly unable to reflect urban, consumer and working class
needs. The US
Constitution is retrograge, regressive, oppressive and needs to be replaced..
The current Goverment
stoppage reflects not just the polariazation in America, the steep decline
in the Middle Class but
the absurdly oppressive nature of its system of so-called "representation".
America's Most Gerrymandered District is arguably Maryland's 3rd.
Some have called it a "blood spatter from a crime scene". Others
liken it to a "broken winged pterocdactyl". Its design serves a
political end, of course.
 |
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Meet Mr. GerryMander
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The Republicans were SMARTER..
" In the memo -- titled "How a Strategy of Targeting State Legislative Races in 2010 Led to a Republican U.S. House Majority in 2013" -- RSLC boasts that it "raised more than $30 million in 2009-2010, and invested $18 million after Labor Day 2010 alone" to ensure statehouse victories in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
"The rationale was straightforward," reads the memo. "Controlling the redistricting process in these states would have the greatest impact on determining how both state legislative and congressional district boundaries would be drawn. Drawing new district lines in states with the most redistricting activity presented the opportunity to solidify conservative policymaking at the state level and maintain a Republican stronghold in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next decade."
The plan worked: even as they took a beating in the races for Senate and the White House, House Republicans ended up with a 33-seat majority, thanks to friendly district maps drawn by their own state colleagues. As the RSLC memo admits, "Democratic candidates for the U.S. House won 1.1 million more votes than their Republican opponents."
Republicans who redrew the maps lopped off the Democratic parts of the states into ideologically concentrated blue districts and tipped the balance in most districts in their favor. The results were remarkable. In Pennsylvania, for instance, which President Obama carried by 5 points, Republicans won 13 of 18 House seats. In Ohio, which Obama won by 2 points, House GOP candidates won by a 12-4 margin. "
Sahil Kapur http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-memo-gerrymandering-won-us-the-house-majority
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Some Examples of Wild
Jerrymandering
Florida #20
Illinois #4
Illinois #17
Pennyslvania #12
