THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2023
In one case, this bad: Yesterday, Kevin Drum sounded off about Wisconsin's "egregiously gerrymandered legislative map."
When people talk about the gerrymanders of Wisconsin, they're generally talking about the way the state's Republicans have gerrymandered districts for the state legislature, not necessarily for Wisconsin's eight seats in the U.S. House.
So it was with Drum, who correctly said that Wisconsin's "state Senate districts are wildly gerrymandered."
That said, how wildly gerrymandered are they? How crazy does it actually get—for example, in The Gerrymanders of Dane County?
For the start of an answer, just click here to examine the gerrymandering involved in Wisconsin's 47th Assembly district.
(Full disclosure: The district has been gerrymandered to assure that a Democrat will win the seat with a gigantic boatload of "wasted votes." This helps Republicans win elsewhere.)
Go ahead! Just click on that Wikipedia map to see how crazy our world has become. We'll quote this statement from that leading authority:
In its current boundaries, the 47th district is one of several districts which violate the Wisconsin Constitution's requirement for districts to "consist of contiguous territory."
Go ahead—examine that map! The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but some Badger State districts, a bit like our nation, have come almost wholly undone!
I have posted two comments and both have been disappeared.
ReplyDeleteThis blog stinks.
DeleteSo do you.
DeleteSo do you.
DeleteWhat is Somerby's point? This has been going on forever. Is he just discovering what gerrymandering is?
ReplyDeleteThe shocking thing about election districts is they also talk about them in the news
DeleteWho knows, but it is noteworthy that the gerrymandering we have in the US is, in part, a byproduct of centrist neoliberal Dems (like Drum) rolling over for the Repubs, and a bit oddly, Somerby focuses on a Dem district, seemingly an attempt to muddy where the blame lies.
DeleteHe did this when he talked about redistricting in MD too, when it is the red states with the biggest problem.
Delete"The United States is also a one-party state, but with typical American extravagance, they have two of them." Julius Nyerere
Delete>To muddy where the blame lies
Delete>This helps Republicans win elsewhere.
(scratches head)
When looking for who to blame for anything, follow this process:
Delete1) Republicans
2) Dirty both siders
3) Return to 1
Republicans do not support the policies of the Dems and they try to block the Dems while pushing for higher defense spending, more tax breaks and subsidies for the wealthy and corporations, White and Christian nationalism, and more cultural and class oppression of the working class, people of color, women, and gender and sexual orientation minorities.
DeleteThe two parties are very different, although from Carter through Obama, the Dems were dominated by the DLC/Third Way/neoliberal wing of the party, which are much closer to the Right, but since Bernie Sanders ran for president, a more progressive movement has emerged and is the future of the party.
Like Trump, Somerby plays things coyly, and is careful to give himself deniability; he front loads criticism of Dems, and then offers empty, weak, and performative lip service criticism of Repubs, usually as an aside, to con suckers, to muddy the waters, and to manufacture head scratching ignorance.
The progressive center left is enmeshed more in the Democratic party, but the campaign finance laws will decide the success of either party overcoming sensationalizing elections and getting better policies passed.
DeleteCampaign finance laws are important, but there’s no real evidence that credibly demonstrates they are as determinative as solely deciding electoral success or getting better policies passed.
DeleteThe Mideast should be a nuclear-weapon-free zone.
ReplyDelete