Tag: gerrymander

Tweet of the Day, That’s… Not What She Thinks, Surely? edition.

At least, I hope not.

https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/637310544626720768

I mean, don’t get me wrong.  2010 was exactly the right time to take control of all those state legislatures.  We were able to get a lot of anti-gerrymandering reforms done, not to mention a good deal of minority-majority district promotion; and just take a look at California, Illinois, and Maryland to see why such corrective measures were so sorely needed, too. But I think that Hillary Clinton has gotten the sequence of events entirely backward, here.

Well. Not the first time that’s happened to her, of course.

Politico calls for the end of the Voting Rights Act.

Brave of them.

…it’s past time for the Obama administration to rouse itself. If it does file, it should file at least four separate suits in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina, to name a few, all on the same day. Make it a call to battle. And be absolutely sure to sue in my own state of Illinois, where the Democrats did the gerrymandering—just to show fairness.

Except not really. The districting of four of the five states mentioned (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina) were carefully designed to take into account the requirements for majority-minority districts implied by the VRA.  The districting of the fifth… was not, which is why both Republicans and minority Democrats opposed the changes (just like the same factions opposed redistricting changes by white Democrats in Maryland).  I find it highly unlikely that a major Beltway online publication is unaware of such a famous (or infamous) feature of the American political landscape; I can only assume that Politico has a low opinion of the intelligence and education of its readers.  Or, at least, a low opinion of the ones who typically vote Democratic.

Moe Lane

(Via Hot Air Headlines)

Reminder on redistricting.

People who whine about Republican redistricting absolutely HATE it when you bring up Section V of the Voting Rights Act, and will resolutely ignore (if you let them) the racial gerrymandering that it more or less mandates.  So be sure to ask those people point-blank if their redistricting ‘reform’ position means that they’re going to openly advocate for eliminating majority-minority districts – and do that preferably when they’re in front of an audience with a decent amount of minorities in it.

Personally, I’m not fond of gerrymandering.  But the aforementioned Democratic whining on the subject mostly comes down to white Democrats whining about Republicans because they don’t have the guts to criticize minority Democrats; so I can’t say that my sympathy for the whiners’ plight is overwhelming, sorry.