Day 904 Saturday June 29, 2019
492 Days until the 2020 election and 570 days until the Inauguration
Of Gerrymandering, Willie Horton, and Roe v Wade
It’s hard to know where to begin with the Supreme Court’s decision to allow political gerrymandering.
I started by reading the decision. I haven’t read a Supreme Court decision since the DC gun law, which was a strange majority opinion written by Scalia and an excellent dissenting opinion. If you want to understand the history of how the second amendment came to be read the dissenting opinion in that case. If you want to read some legal argle-bargle read Scalia’s majority opinion. I remember getting to the end of Scalia’s piece that finishes with “It is so ordered.” I had to ask myself, “What is so ordered?” I had no idea. I went back and reread parts. I couldn’t figure it out. What had he ordered?
The other weird thing about that opinion was that Scalia started his decision by arguing with the dissenting opinion, rather than making his case. Weird, very weird.
The gerrymandering case (Rucho et al. v. Common Cause et al.) looks at two gerrymandered states: one by Republicans (North Carolina) and one by Democrats (Maryland). The majority opinion says basically that there is no judicial basis for them to rule on a politically proportioned state district. Racial yes, political no. They go on to say things like just because the majority of people are of one party doesn’t mean that is the way they will vote in local races, even if they did statewide. Basically, they are saying they don’t want to be involved and it’s too hard to figure out and they don’t want to be referees in every squabble that comes up over districting.
The dissenting opinion asks the fundamental question, “Isn’t this about the basis of our democracy? About one man – one vote and the like?”
I’ve got to wonder what will happen when (and if, but given the make up of the court and think it’s “when”) a test case of Roe v Wade comes before the court will the conservative justices who said they didn’t want to be involved have a similar opinion when it comes to playing god? Will they say, “Hey, we con’t want to get involved with deciding when life begins” ?
As far as the gerrymandering issue goes, maybe this is like the porn cases of a few decades ago, “You know it when you see it.” In fact in the North Carolina case it was so extreme that it’s hard to fathom the reasoning that the justices weren’t sure what was going on. They had written evidence from the people who did the gerrymandering that this is exactly what they were trying to do. Leaving it to a state to undo that has purposely twisted itself in this knot is hard to understand how they think this will undo itself. Like many of the ultra-conservative viewpoints it depends on miracles and magic.
Now we get to Willie Horton. Remember him? He was the guy who was in prison and released under some Massachusetts program while Mike Dukakis was governor. Horton went on a rape and murder spree. Lee Atwater, the Republican dirty trickster of the day, decided to run ads tying Horton to Dukakis and this helped George Bush win the White House. (Please don’t try to tell me what a great decent guy Papa Bush was. Remember he was one of the messengers for Dick Nixon during Watergate. And oh yeah, later in life he thought it okay to grab young women by the ass. Like our current president. Whoops sorry, he grabs them by the pussy.)
Fox News went crazy when those Democratic candidates raised their hands saying they would support a public option on health care. This will be the Willie Horton attempt by the Republican dirty tricksters this time around. “Socialism!” “They want to take away your health care!” Blah blah blah.
The choice is obvious: Do you want to be guaranteed health care at a savings of 40-50% or do you want to keep paying what you are and having to pay deductibles and fight for coverage? Maybe, some want the coverage they have. Great. Most people on the stage said they wanted to let folks have a choice. Some said there should be no choice because it was a no brainer.
Regardless, you know what the battle cry will be.
Most interesting to me in the analysis the next day was a comment Joy Reid made. She said that when you look at Biden and you look at Harris what you are looking at is the choice between nostalgia and change.
I think that’s correct. Joe has a lot of experience and has done a lot. Is it time for him to step aside and let a younger generation take over? That is what Eric Swalwell asked Biden to do. When I listen to Ms Ocasio-Cortez that is what I hear: change, not nostalgia. Not the old rhetoric and chants of “Socialism” or whatever distraction fear mongering statement the right wingers are trying to push.
I think it is time for Joe to step aside. I fear that if he gains the White House, he will be like Papa Bush. Once he gets there he won’t really know what to do. He will be hamstrung by all those years of making deals and back slapping.
I want someone unencumbered, unafraid. with vision and who has thought out issues and has policy and programs already in mind.
492 Days until the 2020 election and 570 days until the Inauguration
PS What are you looking at?
Leave a Reply