Congressional Gerrymandering

The Evils Of Gerrymandering: Texas Plans To Create Congressional Districts That Could Insure Republican House Majority Despite Fewer Voters Supporting The Party!

Ronald 6 Comments

Gerrymandering has been a curse since it was first created in the early 1800s by Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, who was also Vice President under James Madison for less than two years before his death in 1814.

Both political parties, and earlier named parties, used the political tactic to promote redistricting to favor their party fortunes, but now Texas is seemingly ready to redistrict in the middle of a decade, rather than when new census figures come out at the beginning of a new decade.

Their purpose is to make the Republican Party keep control of the House of Representatives by creating more Republican House districts, from three to five more, which likely would insure Republican continued control of Congress, at a time when the margin is just a few votes.

Those few votes make all the difference in passage of legislation and of President Donald Trump’s agenda, so clearly, the Democratic Party is trying to resist it, and may, at the end, utilize the same tactic in California, and possibly in other “Blue States”, such as New York and Illinois, and possibly even elsewhere.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Is Appealing To Right Wing Authoritarians!

Ronald 5 Comments

It has become clear that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is perceived as the likely alternative to Donald Trump, among other Republicans who might seek to run for President in 2024.

What is clear is that Ron DeSantis is smarter, more intelligent than Donald Trump, which makes DeSantis very dangerous.

DeSantis is appealing to right wing authoritarians, based on his utterances and actions in office.

He has promoted the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida, persecuting gays, lesbians, and transgenders in the public schools, and dictating what can be said by educators in classrooms regarding sexuality and students.

Along with other Republicans, he is aiming to avoid the subject of race in the teaching of history, distorting the truth of the American past. He has attacked CRT (Critical Race Theory), which is not taught in schools, but he also does not want the unfortunate reality of racism and discrimination in the American past to be taught at all in schools and universities.

DeSantis is promoting book banning, affecting libraries and schools, and encouraging parents and school boards to promote censorship, interfering with students right to read books that should continue to be available.

He has promoted the anti abortion movement, and weakened gun safety laws, making the state much more dangerous to its citizens.

Anyone who is critical of him is attacked, including Walt Disney World, and Democratic prosecutors elected to office, who he dismisses from their positions on political grounds.

DeSantis has suppressed the vote, aiming to make it more difficult for the basic right of citizens to vote.

He has promoted gerrymandering that took away two House of Representatives seats from African Americans.

DeSantis resisted the COVID 19 Pandemic, working against vaccination requirements, face mask mandates, and stay at home orders, and this has led to Florida having the third most deaths, but not far behind California and Texas, although they have much larger populations.

He sent 50 Venezuelan refugee migrants who had applied for political asylum legally to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, as part of his political strategy to challenge the Biden Administration, but showing no concern about the cost to the state of Florida, and the lack of concern or respect for people escaping a left wing authoritarian dictatorship in Venezuela.

DeSantis is very hostile and antagonistic toward the news media, and bans them from many press conferences, only allowing right wing news media, including Fox News Channel to be present.

He is seen as appealing to right wing authoritarian promoters, and therefore, is seen as a threat to American democracy and the rule of law, were he to be nominated for and elected to the Presidency!

Republican And Conservative Advantage In House, Senate, Electoral College System, Despite Popular Vote Advantage For Democrats

Ronald 1 Comment

The American political system is in bad straits, in what seems like a losing battle for popular vote to determine who runs our government.

The system has become stacked to favor Republicans and conservatives.

Republican legislatures in many states promote gerrymandering, which hurts Democrats massively, not only in the state governments, but also in setting up House of Representatives seats. An example is Florida, which used to have four Congressional seats that favored African American representation, but now has been halved to two such districts.

Fewer people regularly vote nationally for Republicans, but they have near to a majority even before the election in 2022 for the House of Representatives, and it is likely they will control the lower house of Congress despite having fewer total popular votes nationally.

Also, the US Senate has a situation in which Republican Senators, presently half the Senate, are elected by a population of about about 142 million Americans, while Democrats, presently the other half of the Senate, are elected by a population of about 184 million Americans!

So 60 percent of the nation’s population is being underrepresented, while 40 percent is overrepresented.

The idea that Wyoming has two US Senators with only about 600,000 people, while California with nearly 40 million peoples has two US Senators, is an abomination, but simply has evolved that way over time, so the US Senate is anti democracy to the extreme!

Additionally, the Electoral College favors the small, mostly Republican states, this despite the Democrats winning the national popular vote seven of the last eight Presidential elections, from 1992 through 2020, with the one exception of 2004!

So the idea of democracy is under attack, and the right wing Federalist Society has managed to “fix” the Supreme Court, with a strong 6-3 margin, with only Chief Justice John Roberts able to be considered, most of the time, as “moderate”.

So a constitutional crisis exists, with white supremacists working to insure that American democracy fails completely as we reach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026!