Hello, it's the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕
When the town criers in the pages of the Atlantic or the Washington Post pound the alarm on the struggle for democracy, they're nearly always talking about Donald Trump and his quest for the White House. The battle for democracy is scheduled for November 5, 2024.
But our slide into democratic decay has been happening long before Trump made the transition from celebrity-rich guy-famous asshole to politician. And it's happened in perhaps the most devastating way through the mind-numbingly boring reorganization and manipulation of how voters are arranged throughout a state.
"Redistricting," "gerrymandering" — words I try to keep out of my headlines, as they inevitably presage a dip in readership — mostly at the hands of Republicans have all but wiped out democracy in many states. Look at Ohio or North Carolina or Wisconsin, ranging from leaning red to true tossups, over which Republicans have manufactured such ironclad control that their legislatures are virtually impossible for Democrats to win.
That's the first step to the barrage of right-wing legislation these lawmakers pump out, both altering the trajectory of their own states and becoming models for others. It's how they became laboratories of autocracy, to crib from David Pepper.
But Republicans are not content with the very effective tools they have. Having successfully reduced the Voting Rights Act to a shell of its former strength, they're taking aim once again, hoping to strip it of what few protections it still affords to minority voters.
In Georgia — where state Republicans have done the legal version of biting, kicking and letting their bodies go limp to avoid being dragged into creating a court-ordered additional Black majority district — the legislature just passed the final version of its "remedial" congressional map. They grudgingly created the new district, but also dismantled the one currently held by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) to preserve the current 9-5 Republican House seat advantage.
In McBath's district, a coalition of Black, Latino and Asian voters typically elect Democrats. By producing this map despite U.S. District Judge Steve Jones warning them not to eliminate "minority opportunity districts elsewhere in the plans," Georgia Republicans are directly challenging the idea that the VRA protects these coalitional districts the same way it does districts with a majority of one minority group.
There's an appellate court split on the question, and the Supreme Court hasn't weighed in on it.
Beyond general power lust, there's a reason Georgia Republicans in particular are so threatened by these minority group coalitions. The state's recent, and stunning, Democratic lean came on the backs of these voters diversifying the suburbs around the main metro areas. This is a newer trend that old Republican gerrymanders don't address as well as they do urban pockets often densely populated by minority voters.
Jones will react to the map in the coming days, and intends to order a court-drawn one if he rejects it.
The war on democracy is already raging. And one side is hellbent on achieving absolute victory.
More on other news below. Let's dig in.
Share your views...
0 Respones to "The Weekender: The Battle For Democracy Is Already Raging "
Post a Comment