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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen I was learning American history for the first time, we were taught about Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts back in the early 1800\u2019s.\u00a0 He did many important things, including serving as the Vice President of the United States. But most of what we learned about him was considered \u201cbad\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0You see, Gerry decided to redraw Congressional Districts in Massachusetts so that they favored his own political candidates.\u00a0\u00a0The resulting district looked like a salamander, and the newspapers ran with the negative term:\u00a0\u00a0Gerrymandering.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For most of American history, gerrymandering was that \u201cbad\u201d thing.\u00a0\u00a0Almost all of the political parties did it in one form or another, but it was all\u00a0\u00a0\u201cunder the table\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone acknowledged that it wasn\u2019t good for democracy.\u00a0\u00a0But all continued redrawing political maps in their own favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t until eighteen years ago that gerrymandering became more than just a good politician\u2019s guess at how areas voted.\u00a0\u00a0That’s when political district manipulation combined with high speed computers. It gave us the \u201cRed Map\u201d program sponsored by the Republican Party led by then-Chairman Michael Steele (the current\u00a0MSNBC<\/em>\u00a0host).\u00a0\u00a0They could determine voter identification of households by the street and the block, and used that information to draw narrowly defined districts with entirely predictable outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ohio had its own \u201cgerrymander\u201d for a time, this District looked more like a duck, and was represented by Jim Jordan.\u00a0\u00a0It stretched from the suburbs of Dayton, to the north towards suburban Toledo, the East to the Columbus suburbs, and even the Northeast towards Cleveland.\u00a0\u00a0It carefully skirted most Democratic areas, and made sure that Chairman Jordan could face no realistic opposition in the general elections.\u00a0\u00a0(Jordan\u2019s district now looks a bit more normal, but he still wins by overwhelming margins.\u00a0\u00a0Even the ongoing scandal of his Ohio State wrestlers getting molested with his knowledge, hasn\u2019t touched his political base.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now in Texas, at President Trump\u2019s direction, the Republican Governor and Legislature is \u201cRed Mapping\u201d (gerrymandering) on steroids.\u00a0\u00a0In a state that is, at worst, 57% Republican and 43% Democrat, currently there are twenty-five Republican Congressmen and thirteen Democrats.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s 66% to 34%.\u00a0\u00a0But, at the President\u2019s \u201crequest\u201d, the Texas legislature is re-drawing districts that were approved only four years ago.\u00a0\u00a0Trump, Governor Abbott, and the rest of the Republicans believe that with careful computer-driven manipulation, they can \u201csqueeze\u201d five more Republican districts out for the 2026 election. That would make\u00a0\u00a0Congressional representation in the Lone Star State 73% Republican to 27% Democrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their goal:\u00a0\u00a0protect the Republican Congressional majority in the House of Representatives, now with a five-seat margin of control.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what was a \u201cbad thing for democracy\u201d, Gerrymandering, that gave the old Governor a \u201cbad name\u201d; is now out in the open for all to see.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s no longer an \u201cincremental\u201d change.\u00a0\u00a0And now with the Democratic members of the Texas legislature leaving the state to prevent a quorum from being present (to do business), Governor Abbott threatens felony charges, arrest by the Texas Rangers, and removal from office.\u00a0\u00a0Trump has even mused that the FBI might be called in to drag Democratic legislators back to Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From Gerry, to Steele, to Greg Abbott in Texas; incrementally the United States is headed towards something very different from the Democracy we once held so dear.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If the government, either of Texas or the United States, is allowed to dragoon the Democratic legislators back to Austin, well, we will have crossed another line on the way towards authoritarianism.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan-mandering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTexas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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