Although gerrymandering is usually thought of as a bipartisan offense, the rather asymmetrical results may surprise you. Through artful drawing of district boundaries, it is possible to put large groups of voters on the losing side of every election. The Republican State Leadership Committee, a Washington-based political group dedicated to electing state officeholders, recently issued a progress report on Redmap, its multiyear plan to influence redistricting. The $30 million strategy consists of two steps for tilting the playing field: take over state legislatures before the decennial Census, then redraw state and Congressional districts to lock in partisan advantages. The plan was highly successful.
I know; the election’s over. You’re as sick of the silliness and the Sturm und Drang that ended in November as I am. That’s the problem, though, because that’s exactly what the Republican leadership is counting on as they sneak around introducing laws designed to game our electoral system to the decided advantage of Republicans.
I used to think that gerrymandering was a bipartisan concept, in that both Republicans and Democrats have used it to their advantage when re-drawing Congressional districts. While it’s true that both parties have employed gerrymandering in the past, it turns out that Republicans are particularly adept at it, to the point when we really need to call it exactly what it is- cheating, encouraged and fully supported by GOP leadership. In fact, Republican gerrymandering in just seven states created a result equivalent to 1.7 million Democratic voters staying home.
Think about that for a second. If you’re not outraged by the nullification of 1.7 million voters, you’re not paying attention. We have a political party that’s realized that it cannot compete on the issues; the GOP knows that on a level playing field, Democrats will eat their lunch. Rather than engage in some honest self-examination to determine how they can improve their appeal to the American Sheeple, they’ve decided to cheat. They can’t win under the current rules, so they’re going to do everything they can to tilt the playing field in their direction. To their credit, they’ve been spectacularly successful; their continued control of the House of Representative attests to that. Democrats received 1.4 votes in Congressional race nationwide, and yet Republican maintained control of the House. That they’re successful at cheating is truly despicable, but no informed person would call the GOP the party of honesty and integrity.
The same party that claims to stand for freedom and liberty is the party determined to seize and maintain power by any means necessary, even if it means cheating and disenfranchising those with the temerity to vote their conscience instead of reflexively voting Republican. That’s what today’s GOP has become- a cabal of dishonest, disingenuous, ant-democratic cheaters willing to disenfranchise voters if that’s what it takes to win. I’d suggest that they should be ashamed of themselves, but that would presume they possess anything resembling the ability to feel shame.
“One man, one vote?” Not if Republicans have anything to say about it. How’s that for “freedom” and “liberty?”
