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« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2017, 03:42:42 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 6-21-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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Notably, this case was not brought before the federal courts until July 2015, after Republicans had taken control of state government from the Democrats. Wisconsin has long been a Democrat stronghold which, until Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016, had not voted for a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan won the state. Wisconsin’s state-level gains for the GOP are a microcosm of America generally, where Republicans made tremendous advances. During Barack Obama’s disastrous tenure, the GOP picked up nearly a thousand state legislative seats, control of two-thirds of state legislative chambers, 63 House seats, and 10 U.S. Senate seats. The Democrat Party is at its weakest electoral position25 in nearly a century, and is desperate for a way to reverse these losses.
The courts have largely refused to intervene in gerrymandering disputes26 in the past, primarily because the drawing of such districts is an inherently political act. For the courts to intervene would be to substitute the opinion of the judiciary for the opinion of the elected branches. As Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter warned in Colegrove v. Green (1946), “Courts ought not to enter this political thicket. … The fulfillment of this duty cannot be judicially enforced.”
When the Court has chosen to invalidate redistricting lines in the past, it has generally done so based on the claim that the lines in question disenfranchise minority voters — that was the case just last month with two North Carolina districts27. However, these cases have been few and far between. In the other most recent case — 2004’s Vieth v. Jubelirer — a 5-4 majority rejected plaintiffs’ claims, unable to delineate where normal “to the victor goes the spoils” redistricting stopped and disenfranchisement began.
Interestingly, members of the minority party often work with the majority in gerrymandering districts. While the minority party will stay in the minority, its members are drawn into increasingly safe districts, protecting them from general election challenges.
It should also be noted that both parties have engaged in such gerrymandering for more than two centuries. Even now, in addition to the Wisconsin case, a challenge to the congressional districts drawn by Maryland’s Democrats is being heard by the lower courts.
Gerrymandering doesn’t always work out for the victors though. Following the 2000 census, Georgia Democrats — with absolute control of state government since Reconstruction — gerrymandered congressional districts so “nakedly partisan” a three-judge panel modified them. In 2002, voters, furious at Democrats28, elected Republican Sonny Perdue as governor, and awarded the state Senate to Republicans. The next election saw Republicans win the House. Republicans now hold supermajorities in the state House and Senate, and control every constitutional office in the state.
In these gerrymandering challenges, a move is being made to have the courts strip the power to draw districts from the elected branches and hand it to an independent panel, such as a board of retired judges equally representing both parties.
Both sides have valid arguments.
On the one hand, gerrymandering has led to safely partisan but politically polarized districts where both parties tend to cater to their base. This has made it increasingly difficult for parties to find common ground on any issues. While the Republican Party has its share of moderates, it is generally a conservative party. The Democrat Party is even more partisan, and virtually no politician supporting tax or spending cuts, or declaring themselves pro-life, can expect to survive long in that party.
On the other hand, the Constitution grants power to draw district lines exclusively to the elected branches, and to change the foundational structure of our government is not to be taken lightly.
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
The Escalating Tension in Syria29 — U.S. shoots down first enemy fighter in nearly 20 years and Russia issues its own threats.
Republicans Seek Reciprocity in DC30 — Rep. Massie introduces bill that would force Washington to accept gun-carry permits from every state.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Michelle Malkin: The Double Murder of Otto Warmbier31
Gary Bauer: The Real Danger32
Star Parker: How We Can Start Taking Back Our Country33
For more, visit Right Opinion34.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Michelle Malkin: “We may never know what brutal torture and malign neglect American student Otto Warmbier suffered at the hands of North Korea’s dictatorship before losing his life this week at the age of 22. But it wasn’t the first time the free-spirited Ohio native died. More than a year before succumbing to the unknown illness or injury that left him in a coma thousands of miles away from home, Otto Warmbier’s own countrymen murdered his reputation. His character. His humanity. Click-hungry media ghouls knew nothing about Warmbier’s small-town upbringing, his family life, politics, personality, disappointments or dreams. But they gleefully savaged a young man who made a mistake on a doomed trip to a totalitarian hell. … Otto’s saboteurs engaged in the very same bigotry and stereotyping they recklessly accuse everyone else of at every turn. … Utterly consumed by malignant identity politics, the left-wing intelligentsia have become the intolerantsia. They are bent on dehumanizing individuals, fomenting racial, ethnic and class division in the name of ‘progressivism,’ and never taking responsibility for the damage done.”
SHORT CUTS
Insight: “The intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force.” —Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Observations: “You have to look very hard — and you have to spend a long time looking — to find a genuinely happy or content left-wing political person. … The bottom line is: You just don’t encounter happy, laughing liberals. Even their comedians are consumed by hatred. The Democrat Party’s become the largest hate group in this country. Even their comedians are angry and enraged, and that suffices as comedy. I think it’s one of the reasons why left-wing comics have become primary sources of news for other left-wing liberals.” —Rush Limbaugh
A blind squirrel finds a nut: “To realize the single-payer dream of coverage for all and big savings, medical industry players, including doctors, would likely have to get paid less and patients would have to accept different standards of access and comfort. There is little evidence most Americans are willing to accept such tradeoffs.” —The Washington Post editorial board in a piece titled, “Single-payer health care would have an astonishingly high price tag”
Political futures: “I think if Democrats learn a lesson from this election, it’s that the euphoria that they felt for the last several months as Donald Trump has fallen in the polls and they began to believe that this would be not easy but doable to take over the House of Representatives and eventually replace Donald Trump, that euphoria is gone and it’s replaced with reality. And the reality is, it’s going to be a long twilight struggle.” —UVA professor Larry Sabato
For the record: “Democrats are looking almost incapable of translating the energy of their core supporters into actual election wins.” —Associated Press
And last… “Nothing preps you for next election more than concluding your team is too virtuous to win & voters are too evil or dumb to see the truth.” —Jonah Goldberg
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
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