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Grubble Grubble
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Wednesday, July 02, 2003 :::
rant
Apparently the Republicans are not confident in their ability to retain control of government in 2004. Of course, given what they have done to the economy and are currently doing to the poor and middle class by cutting most of them from those wonderful tax cuts, they should be nervous.
Their latest ploy is congressional redistricting. Normally, redistricting occurs once a decade after the census is completed. This means that redistricting just recently occured. However, this is not good enough for the Republicans.
The border between Texas and Oklahoma was blurred not too long ago when the majority of Texas Democratic Representatives took refuge in the town of Ardmore, OK. They stayed for the better part of a week. In fact, the Republican leader of the state legislature sent Texas Rangers out to arrest and bring them back, with blessing of the Texas Governor, also a Republican. Of course, the Democratic Governor of Oklahoma refused to give the Rangers arrest power in his state, so the Rangers could only watch impotently from motel parking lots.
Why did the Texas Democrats flee the state? Why did the state of Texas employ vast law enforcement resources to bring them back when those law enforcers could have been out investigating and stopping crime? Because the Republicans were set to gerrymander the state to give themselves clear advantages in subsequent elections. Without the Democrats, the legislature did not have enough votes present to convene, let alone vote on this issue. Suffice it to say, the redistricting bill died.
For those who do not know, gerrymandering is a term for congressional redistricting in such a way as to give clear advantage to one political party. The term was first coined in MA when Elbridge Gerry was governor. One of the new districts had a remarkable similarity in shape to a salamander. Of course, the practice has been around for a much longer time.
I wish Colorado Democrats would have done the same thing last week when Republicans redistricted the state. From what I hear, Raton, NM is quite nice this time of year. They could have worked on their tans. (Note: I do not condone tanning. Bad for the skin) And Colorado has no Rangers to come chasing after them, though I have known some Denver police officers who might have volunteered.
Thanks to the redistricting, Aspen and Boulder are now part of the same district. Never mind that they are a 5-hour drive from each other. Never mind that the district is now shaped like the letter 'K' in order to accomplish this. Pueblo County, a Democratic haven has been divided in half and placed in two strongly Republican districts. Denver's District 7 has been changed so the strong Democratic candidate was moved to another district, making it all but impossible for him to rechallenge the incumbent.
This redistricting in Colorado is being challenged on two levels in the court system and will probably reach the supreme court before the issue is settled. Democrats are threatening to retaliate in Oklahoma and New Mexico. I am wondering whatever happened to Bush's claim when he was sworn in that he wanted a healing between the parties? Apparently, that healing was more of a hostile takeover. I am beginning to wonder, with all this partisan fighting, if any of our elected officials remember us, the people. Given the state of the economy, I doubt it.
My brother and I used to fight like this. When we did, our mom would spank us and tell us to grow up. Well, I cannot spank our elected legislators, but I can tell them to grow up.
/rant
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