Final arguments were heard yesterday before a three-judge panel of the Superior Court in North Carolina in a case challenging the 2021 congressional maps for the state. Those maps, through extreme gerrymandering, would deliver a whopping 10 of the 14 congressional districts safely to Republicans even though North Carolina is nearly evenly split politically. Each and every one of the proposed Congressional districts either “cracks” Democratic bases into parts to dilute their impact or “packs” Democratic voters together to waste their votes. If upheld, the GOP stands to gain at least two and possibly three new seats in the House, so the stakes in this case are very high for the nation.
If you go back 4 years and look at the efforts of the Republican Party in the state of North Carolina you'll see a succession of legal challenges to the redistricting efforts of the Democrats. Each and every time the D's won their decisions were 'challenged', both at local State and Federal and Appellate courts, causing so much of a delay that when the final appeal was made (which lost) the judge simply declared it was too close to election time to make the changes. It's the finest example of what has been named 'weaponizing the courts, and is one of the most onerous burdens the courts (and the public) have to tolerate. I don't know what the solution is but this privileged access to the endless appeals has to be moderated somehow.
Texas has done the same gerrymandering. Despite the population increase from urban and minority voters only, the Republicans have created more secure red districts and combined the minority growth into fewer districts.
It would take a large book to list and describe all the manipulative ways that Repugs have gained unfair advantages over Dems. Time and again we find ourselves hog-tied, in part because we are so damned committed to being fair and playing by the rules, even when those rules are stacked against us. Repugs have no scruples at all about breaking rules or creating new ones with no other purpose than to gain more power.
If you go back 4 years and look at the efforts of the Republican Party in the state of North Carolina you'll see a succession of legal challenges to the redistricting efforts of the Democrats. Each and every time the D's won their decisions were 'challenged', both at local State and Federal and Appellate courts, causing so much of a delay that when the final appeal was made (which lost) the judge simply declared it was too close to election time to make the changes. It's the finest example of what has been named 'weaponizing the courts, and is one of the most onerous burdens the courts (and the public) have to tolerate. I don't know what the solution is but this privileged access to the endless appeals has to be moderated somehow.
Texas has done the same gerrymandering. Despite the population increase from urban and minority voters only, the Republicans have created more secure red districts and combined the minority growth into fewer districts.
It would take a large book to list and describe all the manipulative ways that Repugs have gained unfair advantages over Dems. Time and again we find ourselves hog-tied, in part because we are so damned committed to being fair and playing by the rules, even when those rules are stacked against us. Repugs have no scruples at all about breaking rules or creating new ones with no other purpose than to gain more power.