BTR1701 <
atropos@mac.com> wrote:
New York Times headline: The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to >the Republicans
First of all, NY Times, Gray Lady, Guardian of Truth, who exactly do you think >holds the House right now?
And if you know the answer to that question how could a SCOTUS opinion "hand >control" to any party other than the Democrats?
Which brings me to the second point: If the only way you can win is by having >someone put their thumb on the scale, then maybe you?re not really winning.
Can you please explain to me why Republicans in recent decades bitch
nonstop about the Voting Rights Act? The Voting Rights Act was a blunt instrument when flexibility in protecting minority voting rights was
required. Single-member districts was the one-size-fits-all solution,
and these have just gotten more gerrymandered over time with more and
more powerful computers able to put together exactly the right
conbination of census blocks -- even if conpactness is enforced -- to
make election outcones predictable and unconpetitive for the next two
cycles.
Putting together minority voters in a district with a supermajority (55%
for black, 60% for Hispanic because of the number of Mexican foreign
nationals; these percentages were in use for years) does not ensure ward heelers and race baiters won't rise to the top of the heap.
If the Voting Rights Act had always allowed multi-member districts,
which various federal court rulings have effectively prevented, then "minority", however defined, could vote as a bloc for whatever their
special interest is, race/ethnicity, some narrow issue of concern, or
party. If there were, say, three to be elected, two seats would go to
the "majority" or largest plurality, and one to the "minority" voting as
a bloc.
The air quotes are because, despite what those who know best think,
racial and ethnic "looks like me" representation are not always the
primary concern of voters. On occassion, some want quality
representation.
My state used to have cumulative voting for members of the House of Representatives in the state legislature. There were three members to be elected. A voter had three votes and could give three to one candidate,
1 1/2 votes to each of two candidates, two votes to one candidate and
one vote to another, or one vote to each of three candidates. This
guaranteed a Republican could be elected from a heavily Democratic
district in Chicago and a Democrat could be elected in a Republican
majority district in the suburbs or downstate. It actually made it
easier to form coalitions for legislation as geograohical interests
often overcame party interests, and individual legislators had the power
and leadership did not. The "reform" led to four decades of Mike
Madigan, with single-member districts. He just reported to prison.
Uh, I've heard a rumor that voters in other states have higher
expectations of their elected officials than voters in my states.
The bitching and moaning I'm pointoing out? Republicans literally made
huge chunis of the country uncompetitve and benefitted by packing
minority districts with Democrats, and making the rest of the state
competitive for Republicans and uncompetitive for Democrats,
If not for certain sections of the VOting Rights Act, the complete
Republican domination of huge parts of the country wouldn't have
happened.
In my state, they took the same computer programs and figured out how to
pack certain districts with Republicans so heavily that they are
uncompetive everywhere else. As this is manipulating white voters, no
protected class violation in the Voting Rights Act.
This is the worst legacy of the John Roberts court, not that chunks of
the Voting Rights Act may be a reverse discrimination equal protection violation but because gerrymandering is political and federal courts
have no say. The cure for gerrymandering is... Well you have to throw the bastards out which can't be done given redistricting, which to cure you
have to throw the bastards out, which can't be done due to redistricting,
which to cure...
Roberts makes me miss Reinquist.
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