The title was shortened. It should have been Another Step on the Road to Destroying Democracy. This move was highly recommended by Mr. Trump but has been happily followed by Mr. Abbott and the Republicans in the Texas legislature. They weren’t satisfied with the redistricting that occurred after the census which is when redistricting normally is done. They wanted to eliminate five Congressional districts that have been held by Democrats through gerrymandering. Three Democratic seats are in urban areas and two are in South Texas. By diluting the voters in these districts by dissecting them and adding more Republican voters, they believe they can turn five more Texas seats Republican. Of course, this was more important than addressing the disaster caused by the recent flooding in Texas.
Currently, 25 Congressional seats are held by the GOP and 13 by Democrats in Texas. The redistricting bill is coming up for a vote in a special summer session of the Texas legislature called by Governor Abbott. And with the legislature controlled by Republicans, the redistricing is likely to pass. So we have a situation where instead of citizens voting for their representatives, the representatives are voting for those citizens who are likely to support them. A complete reversal of the Democratic system.
However, to pass the redistricting bill, the legislature must have a quorum. The Democrats in the legislature have left the state to block the bill when the vote comes up. But whether this will be successful or just delay matters is unclear. And a number of other states with Republican legislative control are considering gerrymandering themselves to increase GOP Congressional seats.
These undemocratic actions are also spurring states with Democratic legislative majorities to gerrymander their districts as well to favor more Democratic candidates. These states include California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey. The problem is that some of these states have non-partisan redistricting committees and these would have to be somehow bypassed.
This Trump-inspired gerrymandering war is totally anti-democratic, but our esteemed president doesn’t care. Given the degree of partisanship that exists in America at present, it appears that the voters will not take these legislative actions to heart even though they are destructive of democracy. If this is carried through to fruition, we may see gerrymandered redistricting coming up in different states on a regular basis whenever one party has enough of a majority to pass the redistricting. Instead of the state legislatures concentrating on the business of running the state, they will pay more attention to getting members of their own political parties elected. Is this any way to run a state and the country?
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Posted at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Gov Abbott, redistricting, Republican Party, Texas legislature, Trump
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Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020