That is a quote from the complaint in the lawsuit challenging the redistricting done this past week in Wisconsin. Read that again. Does it even pass the laugh test?
Let me trot this out again:
ADDED: Back in 1986, Justice O'Connor cogently observed that "there is good reason to think that political gerrymandering is a self-limiting enterprise":
In order to gerrymander, the legislative majority must weaken some of its safe seats, thus exposing its own incumbents to greater risks of defeat -- risks they may refuse to accept past a certain point. Similarly, an overambitious gerrymander can lead to disaster for the legislative majority: because it has created more seats in which it hopes to win relatively narrow victories, the same swing in overall voting strength will tend to cost the legislative majority more and more seats as the gerrymander becomes more ambitious. More generally, each major party presumably has ample weapons at its disposal to conduct the partisan struggle that often leads to a partisan apportionment, but also often leads to a bipartisan one. There is no proof before us that political gerrymandering is an evil that cannot be checked or cured by the people or by the parties themselves. Absent such proof, I see no basis for concluding that there is a need, let alone a constitutional basis, for judicial intervention.
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103 comments:
It reminds me of the lawsuit thrown out today -- or was it yesterday -- taken out by the Cheerleading Mom that essentially said This wasn't fair!!!!!
Even if true, this is bad, why?
You see it's not fair.
It should be a redistribution of the voters so the Democrats take it home.
The heck with the will of the people.
They may have little chance, but redistricting is not the reason.
Leftards have been rejected wholesale. kthxbisex
Link for cheerleading suit toss-out.
That said, the Republican "plan" for redistricting is worthy of derision. Districts should be compact and contiguous -- like they are in Iowa -- and those proposed are emphatically not.
Madison Man,
I'd prefer that as well. I loathe congressional districts that are shaped like earmuffs. But the courts would step in if these majority districts were dismantled to the point where we had fewer minority representatives.
And what is sad is that this encourages the firebrand representatives. They don't have to appeal to the mainstream of society, only to the their own carved-out niche.
I clicked on comments ready to write something, but David's comment at 8:52 sums things up so perfectly that there's not much point.
I think Wisconsin should give two-party politics a try. It works pretty well.
I really hate these political maps. There is something very wrong with the idea that the politicians choose their constituents. Constituents should choose their representatives.
Anyone know how the "nonpartisan" redistricting is going in California? I hope that experiment works.
Well there are many places, at many times, where that complaint could be stated. Generally the party that loses power has lost broad enough support and usually by assuming the policies and platform of the party leaders are the same as the people whose votes they take for granted.
So sorry
F^cking Democrats are squealing for getting tubed up the a** this, whereas they usually do the tubing, which is all good and proper, dontcha know?
So Democrats are incapable of making a case that will shift people into voting for them? That is how I read their arguement. They apparently think that little of their ideas.
If a WI dem politician votes for balanced budgets and doesn't raise taxes and not seek to punish business, they will have the ear of many independent voters in Wisconsin.
I have no problem with gerrymandering; it's part of our system, like it or not. I'm not sure that we'd have better policy if we didn't have it.
Besides, gerrymandering doesn't force voters to vote a certain way. The voters can always screw it up by voting other than what was expected.
I agree that the sane rational approach would be to make simple districts for voting, not gerrymandered to secure seats for one party.
That said, how does one respond to elected representatives leaving the state to prohibit a vote, and when state employees protest for months on end?
One might be excused from believing that still operating by Queensbury rules made any sense.
For the lawyers here (I am not) :
the article also reported other arguments saying the new districts were unconstitutional - African Americans could have had seven districts in which they were the majority, but only received six, and some of the Nat Amer tribes were split.
Do those arguments hold water?
If I were in charge, each time redistricting happened, the legislator's house would pushed into a different district. They'd have to move to run again, or retire.
Doesn't the Voting Rights Act mandate "minority-majority" Congressional Districts? So gerrymandering is law. Then the Socialist-Progressive-Democrats have nothing to complain about redistricting plans.
If the Democratic-Socialist-Progressives are worried about being irrelevant, perhaps it is because of what they are trying to sell.
Sort of like the dog food company that tried an assortment of advertising firms to no avail. Finally, a subordinate spoke up and queried "Well, maybe the dogs just don't like this dog food?"
Any chance Obama could appoint Judge Maryann Sumi to the federal bench in time to hear the case?
I want to give the dems a chance at bat ;)
Does it even pass the laugh test?
Um, no.
But for me, neither did candidate Obama.
Gerrymandering is for closers ;)
Republicans are supposed to redistrict so that Democrats are guaranteed to win seats. Everyone knows that.
Madman,
That's beautiful!
The CRA is great. It allows the Republicans to pack all the Democrat minorities into as few districts as possible. Result: more Republicans. Plus it means Black voters get Black reps instead of some upper-class liberal whitey.
It is rather pathetic statement of claim. Do you think the Dems want a self pity party?
Summary Judgement this way cometh. That day they will likely wail again about the power of Scott Walker until their ceremony seems strong enough to create a political effect similar to a coven of witches.
Not that there is anything wrong with that among such highly educated Madisonians.
My proposal for congressional districts: a district's shape may follow natural geographical boundaries, such as a river, or it may follow meaningfully-established human-imposed boundaries, such as a county or state line, or a city limit. Once such lines are accounted for, a congressional district may have only five sides.
I think it's ridiculous that politicians redraw the districts. A computer algorithm should do it once every 10 years based on population changes, oriented towards drawing the most compact and contiguous shapes.
Alex -- The algorithm as however written would be forever contested. You would be adding a layer of complexity, not subtracting.
A simple constitutional amendment, either at the state or federal level: if two points are in the same district, all other points in the state which lie on a straight line between these two points must also be in that district.
One sentence, and it severely restricts the shenanigans.
I spent an afternoon with O'Connor many years ago. A wise woman and quite fun to be with.
As for drawing electoral district boundaries, why not do it by computer with no regard for political or racial makeup? That should shake things up a little. . .
ALH...I doubt the racial voting strength is an issue for Wisconsin.
But it sure is in the old Confederacy still under a re-construction disability.
In Georgia that means safe black majority districts must be maintained by law. The result is Cynthia McKinney's district.
But the white suburban districts are fair game.
When Newt was making the Dems in DC angry in the early 90s, the Dem controlled re-districting carved up his old district south of town and replaced it with one in Cobb county north of town.
These Cobb Countian snobs had a weird pride in hating the racially and Yankee inter-mixed City of Atlanta lying south of the Chattahooche River.
Cobb had been the home baseof all of the plotters and killers that had railroaded a young Jew named Leo Frank to a conviction that the Governor had to commute.
And then the Cobb power structure of its leading citizens including Senators and Judges had kidnapped and hung Frank and almost hung Governor Slaton before the National guard got to the Mansion in time .
Anyway the Cobb County based district had been hostile to Atlanta, much less the poorer working class folks in the old 6th District south of Atlanta Airport.
We all thought Newt was a goner. But that smooth talker went to Cobb County and won his old 6th District seat the Dem Legislature had moved up there.
It's a Horse Race!
Overpaid pampered babies like Althouse and Madison Man tah tahing at the rumblings of the real working class activism they're too lazy to perform themselves. Sheesh!
I live in a fine neighborhood on the WEST side dammit! We'll decide, thank you very much!
the rumblings of the real working class activism
...Like teachers with six-figure salary and benefit packages who get 18 weeks off a year picketing with stupid signs at the capitol? Is that the rumblings of the real working class activism?
Funny, dude.
Repeal the Voting Rights Act in return for a deal on automated redistricting. The VRA is the core of this problem, it creates safe districts where the representatives can do anything and still get elected.
One could generate by computer multiple district maps using an algorithm for the most compact districts. Generate 20 and let both parties discard 5 each. The select the "winner" from the remaining 10 by simple lottery.
It isn't over until they win.
Don't think for a moment that as these various methods of ignoring the voters fail much worse stuff will be attempted.
As I understand the latest SCOTUS ruling (Vieth v. Jubelirer, 2004), it is illegal to redistrict using unequal population and undesirable racial characteristics, but partisan gerrymandering at best is controversial but it is not justiciable, i.e. not subject to judicial review.
Racial gerrymandering is of course legal toward minorities and discriminatory to the majority, so the only game in town for the Dems is the black population in Milwaukee. Since the newly drawn Milwaukee area districts recognize the 44% increase in Hispanics, the black minority is pinched in a bit. Bad law written for the wrong reason 50 or so years ago is now the only basis for appeal by the crybabies.
The VRA is the core of this problem
In light of the fact that gerrymandering is named after a signer of the Articles of Confederation, I just don't think this is true. The Voting Rights Act is merely gerrymandering in line with the Equal Protection Clause and various other construed rights.
garage mahel...I come from a family of Wisc public school teachers. I can say without any doubt that Wisc public school teachers are not part of the "working class".
They work 8 hour days, 9.5 months a year. make great money & benies. Get paid to go to all expense paid "conferences" that are basically vacations.
Doing manual labor is as foreign to them as living in a mud hut and farming by hand.
Althouse:
Please quit playing with the comments section. I started my post using the new format and when I finally posted it, I was back to the old Blogger format.
Sure wish I could make my blog using your new format, but i cannot find the option anywhere or even HTML that I can add.
garage mahal said...
It's a Horse Race!
I misheard. I thought you were calling it a "whore's race." Hurumph
Overpaid pampered babies like Althouse and Madison Man tah tahing at the rumblings of the real working class activism they're too lazy to perform themselves. Sheesh!
You all earn more than me and yet you all out-complain me!
I'm looking for correlations (but not necessarily causes).
...Like teachers with six-figure salary
Nope, dope. Read again.
Garage -- Who are the working class heroes you speak of?
Do you even know what working class means? Here's a clue, dipshit: if you own a jet ski, you cannot be working class. If you have four people, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms in your house, you cannot be working class.
Get over yourself. It's not 1931.
My school teacher sister flys to Texas each April to lay on the beach for a weekend.
Is that working class?
garage mahel...I come from a family of Wisc public school teachers. I can say without any doubt that Wisc public school teachers are not part of the "working class".
You would have never even thought this a year ago. Shame on you.
Garage -- Maybe you should have yourself protest about it all. The unfairness! Teachers who have 80 more vacation days than everybody else and get lavish benefits have a to take a small cut in benefits. They night save for their own retirement like small business owners!
You should lock yourself to an airplane. Or set yourself on fire.
I call BS on this lawsuit. It's just another example of the decennial whining that goes on over redistricting in every state.
After all the political pigs get done wrestling in the blanket in the teepee, a a miraculous thing happens in California every 10 years. No matter how the districts are sliced--and we've got one that's 250 miles long and 10 miles wide at its widest, we wind up with nothing but "safe seats" for one party or the other in virtually every district.
The Dems and the Repubs work very hard to contest the governor's seat when a redistricting has come up. In 1980 Moonbeam Jerry Brown was da gubnah. In 1990 the Republicans called Senator Pete Wilson home to be Governor to protect themselves in the clinches.
Democract Gray Davis was in charge in 2010.
Didn't matter who was the governor the "safe seat crowd" in the legislature divvied things up so all the boys--and girls --didn't have to run against strong opposition from the other party.
I think that out of the 53 or so Congressional seats in the California delegation it's rare to have even one seriously contested general election. The winner of the primary of the favored party will take the general election in a walk.
There are some rare exceptions to the rule---if somebody in one party has seriously ticked off the other party, they'll come after him or alter the boundares of the district to take him out.
But the rule is--the incumbent hogs protect their own.
real working class activism
Oh, yeah, the pinnacle of real working class activism is a couple of former state legislators filing lawsuits over gerrymandering.
garage mahal said...
It's a Horse Race!
So you finally unhitched your mother from that Budweiser wagon and watched her do a few furlongs?
It is kinda sad how the out-of-staters that get all their Wisconsin news from Ann are being fooled into thinking this is just another case of gerrymandering that is going on, when the truth is that the WiRepublicans are literally changing the rules/laws and behaving in a totally unprecedented manner.
I'm not sure which is worse tho...Althouse for intentionally misleading her readers, or all the commentators that just drink her kool-aid without looking into what is really going on.
Overpaid pampered babies like Althouse and Madison Man ...
Admit it -- you and Jeremy are really the same person, aren't you?
literally changing the rules/laws
I will accept all that you say as true and respond thus: do you think anybody gives a fuck?
Really, you useful idiots are such incredibly naive little darlings. I mean, imagine: a legislature -- changing the rules/laws.
It really does boggle the mind that you think this argument is a good one. But tell us: did your side never change any law? Really?
...Like teachers with six-figure salary and benefit packages who get 18 weeks off a year...
I'm still waiting for someone to explain what makes the average Wisconsin public school teacher so extra-special that they should get paid twice as much ($50K salary + $50K in benefits) and work half as long (retire after only 25 years) as the rest of us before retiring.
"...what makes the average Wisconsin public school teacher so extra-special..."
'cause they're working class, baby!
♪ I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night.. ♫
Their feeling that they are "so extra special" has been assaulted and they can't handle it. Our community has a big televised event called the "golden apple awards' where these oh so special teachers are worshipped. Our businesses are expected to donate prizes for these oh so special teachers during teacher appreciation week, or when horror of horrors they have to work an evening for conferences. I too come from a family of teachers and they are the most complaining, ungrateful group of people imaginable.
seems to me that in general national gerrymandering has had the major effect of ghettoizing a few black representative: Cynthia McKinny, James Clyburn, and Sheila Jackson Lee to name three
I would argue that gerrymandering hurts minorities more than it helps them (except for a special few)--that would be the congressional black caucus
Milwaukee said...
Doesn't the Voting Rights Act mandate "minority-majority" Congressional Districts? So gerrymandering is law.
Indeed.
Yet another "right" that the left uses to take away actual rights.
What was sold as a way for blacks (let's just be honest and drop the 'minority' tag) to have the opportunity to vote for black representation in a fair election, is actually a mandate that a black get elected.
It does not allow for "fair" elections, but mandates election results.
Here in Michigan, the democrats are actually arguing that since many blacks have fled Detroit for the suburbs, the districts surrounding Detroit should comply with the Voting Rights Act and mandate those seats to the "minority".
Did I mention that Detroit is 85% black, yet still are classified as a "minority"?
Did I mention that Detroit is 85% black, yet still are classified as a "minority"?
Would a reading of the law allow for the actual minority (in Detroit, non-blacks) to seek protection under the Act?
Or is that too rational?
Last time I checked, "Democrats" are not a protected class under any civil rights legislation, and therefore any redistricting legislation that negatively impacts them is subject to the lowest level of judicial scrutiny.
If the Supreme Court hadn't ruled in Reynolds v Sims that state senatorial districts had to be equal in population (getting rid of the tradiation county-based system in most cases). Redisticting Senate seats wouldn't be a problem.
The prophetic Sen. Dirksen on what would happen under the Supreme Court's ruling in Reynolds v. Sims:
"...the forces of our national life are not brought to bear on public questions solely in proportion to the weight of numbers. If they were, the 6 million citizens of the Chicago area would hold sway in the Illinois Legislature without consideration of the problems of their 4 million fellows who are scattered in 100 other counties. Under the Court's new decree, California could be dominated by Los Angeles and San Francisco; Michigan by Detroit.."
Reynolds is one of the generally unknown cases that fueled the growth of government.
There is no proof before us that political gerrymandering is an evil that cannot be checked or cured by the people or by the parties themselves. Absent such proof, I see no basis for concluding that there is a need, let alone a constitutional basis, for judicial intervention.
And there O'Connor gives the show away. If she believed she saw evil, there would be a need and damn the constitutional basis.
Just another in the long line of decisions by Warren, Black, Douglas, Brennan, et al for which Statist will be eternally grateful.
Reynolds v Sims took "equal protection" to new heights in the Courts war on local government.
Man, "tradiation", that's a serious typo, but it would be a great word verification.
I have always held the belief the the Warren Court destroyed the very fabric of this country, and no one has suffered the consequences more than inner-city blacks.
I would like to see Althouse post a thread on "The Top 10 Worse Supreme Court Decisions"...
Stating your case....a good time by all-
The guy who did the roof on our West Side home, takes off at least a month to vacation in Florida, so does this mean he is not working class? Rather than put down folks like that, or teachers, I think the effort should be made so that more of us have longer vacations if we want them. And I think redistricting should follow populations and natural boundaries where possible and not be twisted by ideological hopes.
VRA has come to mean there must be a certain number of "majority minority" districts in every legislative body. The effect of the concentration is you get a certain number of minority faces in your legislature at the price of creating other districts where the minority population's influence runs from "little" to "none."
Gerrymandering, on the other hand, is the practice of drawing district maps to obtain political advantage. Over the years, as polling, etc. has gotten more and more sophisticated, the artists who prepare these maps can predict with an impressive amount of accuracy whether a particular district favors one party or the other.
Pick your favorite radical bomb thrower in any legislative body - 99 times out of 100 (Alan Grayson being an exception ... yay!!!!) the district wouldn't throw him out if a dead body was found in the trunk of his car.
garage,
I would point out that unless you are retired ... anyone posting comments here during the day is most likely not in a working class job ...
California is gerrymandered to the hilt. The legislative majority did NOT have to to weaken safe seats, not when it was growing so fast that new seats were added time and time again, sustained by an influx of people who were there to capture the freebies and goodies thrown out to them by the majority party until they became weak and sick (in our current state) from eating all the Government Sugar.
I'm late to the party [again] but maybe Garbage has something here. Can someone tell me what the "two former legislators" who filed the suit are currently doing in their "real working class" jobs now?
Are they ditch diggers, or do they clean out cesspools? Perhaps they work as janitors or the roofing industry [if they're currently pouring tar roofing I really feel for them]? Maybe they're dairy farmers and have to milk a couple of hundred cows twice a day?
I'm sure Garbage can give me the info I seek.
[OTOH I have real reservations as to whether or not Garbage really knows any true working class types. Actually, if he had to spend much time with such he'd probably wet his panties.]
So they're arguing the constitution requires the Democratic Party to be competitive in the election process. How is this any different from the Frank Lautenberg case?
This assertion is an unsurprising effect of the legal system's increasing politicization toward the left.
We'll know that government has been sufficiently downsized when gerrymandering is pointless.
Iowa's non partisian system seems to work well.
But. I cant believe the Wisc. system is flawed, or the Dems would have fixed it when they were in power. In any event a judge should toss this and let the legislature do their job with out judical interference. Hasnt the judiciary done enough damage to their own reputation after Sumi mucked about in the legislative proccess?
So they're arguing the constitution requires the Democratic Party to be competitive in the election process. How is this any different from the Frank Lautenberg case?
Remember...this is the same party that thinks fleabagging is the height of democratic bravery.
This is the same party that, when faced with historic losses in the mid-term, bleated and brayed about mixed seating for the SOTU address, so as to not appear to be so outnumbered.
This is the same party that laid out very strict rules about their primary schedules for the 2008 Obama/Hillary contest, then completely folded to Michigan and Florida's demands to be counted after those two states broke those rules.
This is the same party that utilizes aristocratic superdelegates, enabling the party powerful to completely squash the voices of the "little guys".
Fun, huh? Every other political party in the country should send the DNC compasses each year on the date of the DNC's founding.
At least you all don't have to go through the ridiculous pre-clearance requirements of VRA. Why the Republicans don't purge that toxic nonsense when they control the Congress and presidency is beyond my ken.
In order to gerrymander, the legislative majority must weaken some of its safe seats, thus exposing its own incumbents to greater risks of defeat -- risks they may refuse to accept past a certain point.
O'Connor makes a good point, but as Mickey Kaus observes in California, the real problem with gerrymandering is the exact opposite of what O'Conner describes, namely that the majority party uses gerrymandering to solidify their own seats as well as those of the minority, thus ensuring a long-lasting majority.
Why the Republicans don't purge that toxic nonsense when they control the Congress and presidency is beyond my ken.
Optics. Which is PR-speak for spineless. Which is plain language speak for "not politically expedient".
Why is it that half the time, the teachers and their fellow travelers try to convince us that they are way underpaid, given their professional credentials, and then a few weeks later, they try to convince us that they're not credentialed professionals at all, but rather working class heroes?
Which is it, guys?
I oppose the current NFL draft because under the draft, the Denver Broncos have little chance of attaining and retaining a Super Bowl victory, or even an AFC championship.
Garage-
What is it about your ideas that require lawsuits to enable them? What deficiency is it that your "working class" exhibits that requires them to join unions and force non-union members to finance their benefits and pensions? What is it about your ideology that requires you to claim every election you lose rigged or the result of a voter tantrum? Who told you that "fairness" is king? Why do you approve of merit-based compensation in everything but "jobs liberals like to hold"? It's not fair that I cannot play in the NBA. What are you going to do about it to make it fair? Why is the NBA different than any other job? A political belief left unexamined...
I'm all for "working-class activism." What seems to have happened here is that a handful of lobbyists and attorneys moored their yachts at their expansive lakefront homes a few weeks early so they could drive their 750s into town, don their $2500 suits, and type up paperwork saying "Waaaaaah, that's not fair!" I don't quite think that qualifies as working-class activism.
The term "working class" is ridiculous applied to people who are in the upper half economically, as teachers obviously are. (I've been amused by the posturings of the young people among the Wisconsin protesters who like to feel that they are fighting for "the workers.")
The term is a shibboleth of left-wingers.
Wikipedia:
"Working class (or lower class, labouring class) is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs (as measured by skill, education and lower incomes), often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes. Working classes are mainly found in industrialized economies and in urban areas of non-industrialized economies.
"As with many terms describing social class, working class is defined and used in many different ways. When used non-academically, it typically refers to a section of society dependent on physical labor, especially when compensated with an hourly wage. Its use in academic discourse is contentious, especially following the decline of manual labor in postindustrial societies. Some academics question the usefulness of the concept of a working class.
The term is usually contrasted with the upper class and middle class, in general terms of access to economic resources, education and cultural interests. The cut-off between working class and middle class is more specifically where a population spends money primarily as a lifestyle rather than for sustenance (for example, on fashion versus merely nutrition and shelter). Problematically, relying on this method of distinction would rule out many of the people who are often identified as working class."
So... show me the Americans who spend all their money on food and housing. There's your "working class." No wonder we can't get a revolution around here.
"I would point out that unless you are retired ... anyone posting comments here during the day is most likely not in a working class job ..." Hold your horses there Tonto, there are many of us who work non-traditional shifts.
I find it most difficult when everyone assumes that the day shift is the only shift and schedules everything for the evenings...when I am working. Kind of leaves me out of a lot of cool stuff.
purplepenguin sez
It is kinda sad how the out-of-staters that get all their Wisconsin news from Ann are being fooled into thinking this is just another case of gerrymandering that is going on, when the truth is that the WiRepublicans are literally changing the rules/laws and behaving in a totally unprecedented manner.
OK. Perhaps you have some facts to back up that assertion? Those facts should highlight any illegal rules/laws changes and should be compared and contrasted to previous rules/laws changes implemented when the donks ruled your roost. Until then, I'll assume that every dog has his day and every pig his Martinmas.
garage babbles on...
It's not Wisconsin, but here is Barney Franks' Mass 4 district. It runs from Cambridge - that bastion of working class folks, 60 miles through Newton - as rich a collection of limousine liberals as you'll find anywhere - down through the economic disasters of New Bedford, Taunton, and Fall River in a torturous geography of gerrymandering that includes the ivory tower elites, the wine and brie liberals, and the 'working class' folks dependent on government largess.
Wisconsin doesn't have a clue how to properly gerrymander a district to create a politicians lifetime sinecure .
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=MA&district=4
Lamar63:
If you think the Redistricting Commission here in CA will draw non-partisan districts, you need professional help.
This commission is chaired by a Leftist activist from the Bay Area who staffed up with a bunch of co-Leftists from UC-Berkeley.
The commission is delivering a series of maps that cement a Dem/Hispanic Majority into place for the next 10-years in the Assembly, State Senate, and in the House.
Their plan will be contested in the CA Courts, and nothing will be settled for years.
Game over Russ...until you guys come up with, you know, actual ideas? Ones that aren't rehashed union slogans or begin with "Hey Hey, Ho Ho"
May it happen out here in CA also.
If for a minute any of your Democratic friends ever say that gerrymandering is a bad idea, please refer them to this or any of the other congressional districts in Chicago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%27s_7th_congressional_district
Try these three rules:
* A district shall not abut other districts along a boundary longer than the perimeter of a square of the same area.
* This limit is doubled for districts that are entirely enclosed by other districts (not touching a state line, national border, or seacoast).
* If a boundary line splits a town, the entire town may be assigned to the district in which the Town Hall is located, without affecting the perimeter calculation.
roesch-voltaire said...
The guy who did the roof on our West Side home, takes off at least a month to vacation in Florida, so does this mean he is not working class? Rather than put down folks like that, or teachers, I think the effort should be made so that more of us have longer vacations if we want them.
All you need to know about libs in one narrative. Unable to make the distinction between a roofer who works hard enough and earns enough so that he can take a month off in Florida, and a teacher who is highly compensated despite not being required to work for 3+ months of the year.
DK is right on the mark. A GOP majority in Congress is the best thing for CA in that there will be no bailout financed by the rest of the country. Most of us will hunker down and survive, or leave if we can, leaving our own limo liberals with nothing to steal.
California is heading toward being an upscale Haiti, but with a 1st and 2nd Amendment. I can only hope that the notion of liberty being preferable to a broke nanny state re-penetrates the left coast.
oesch-voltaire said...
"I think the effort should be made so that more of us have longer vacations if we want them."
What do you mean "more effort should be made"? What do you suggest?
"What do you mean, more effort should be made? What do you suggest?"
Something along the lines of stopping the cruel overseer from forcing R-V to work 27 hours in the mines and his dad slicing him in two with a bread knife when he gets home. Either that or some variation of "let me slack off more, but pay me the same wages, you greedy plutocrat bastard boss."
The Voting Rights Act is merely gerrymandering in line with the Equal Protection Clause and various other construed rights.
The "Equal Protection Clause" contains no language allowing the creation of congressional districts based on race.
Also, the law in question is not the "Voting Rights Act", which was passed in 1965, but the very different and much more noxious VRARA, or "Voting Rights Act with Revisions and Amendments" of 2006, passed by a majority Republican Congress and signed by a Republican President.
It's not called "The Stupid Party" for nothing. Here is a good overview of the topic. (Can 38 pdf pages be an overview?)
In the South, nobody has to sue, all redistricting has to be approved by the federal courts. This is because the South lost the late unpleasantness between the states. Everyone knows that no Northerners have ever discriminated against anyone for anything.
Possible duplicate, it made me re-post.
I guess since I'm a welder, I am considered ,"working class"
most bleeding heart lefties like 'garage' wouldn't last a day on the shop floor.
I also have a degree in anthropology. I quit grad school and decided to work with my hands and my brains.
I found early on that the folks with phd behind their names are usually biggotted shit heads. At least in the humanities.
So the Democrats are after all the power, all the time. What else is new?
At a guess, "Civil War 2: This Time, It's Blue vs. RED!"
Democrats are the Weiner Party. The media are their pubic hairs.
Discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin is prohibited.
Discrimination based on political desires is inherent in the Constitution and has never been banned, limited or over turned... The Supreme's Have Spoken.
If I wuz a lawyer I could cite the case, but you can lookit up
Gerrymandering is not something that we have to put up with. Washington and Iowa have got rid of it. It requires the full attention of the voters in order to break up gerrymandering--which in most states is a bipartisan effort to protect incumbents.
Despite what some commenters here seem to think, VRA does not REQUIRE racial gerrymandering except in a few places.
Would it kill us to use the Google?
I believe the formal legal response to an allegation of such unthinkable tragedy is, "And?"
"Non Partisan" district commissioning is a misnomer as most of these purported redistricters are democraps and socialists in ideology. If the democrats want to avoid such gerrymanders they best not lose majority status in census implementation years. They also could run non socialist candidates who might compete competitively even in republican leaning districts. What a concept.
Every time a Pharmacist fills an extra month prescription for a Medicaid recipient, going on vacation again, it redefines working class.
The best thing about this redistricting is that it gets me out of a Doyle rubber stamp Democrat's district, finally. No longer a minority in my own district and it feels good to know I will be represented again. Thank You Legislators.
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