Gerrymandering — a long tradition in the U.S. going back more than 200 years (by Eldridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, a signer of the Declaration of Independence) but, in the age of computers, able to allow representatives to choose their voters and not the voters choosing their representatives as was originally intended. (Also, Gerry created his salamander-shaped districts prior to the enactment of the later 14th amendment that requires equal protection of the law.)
Gerrymandering is only one of the ways RepubliCONs have successfully rigged elections.
Democrats had more “popular vote” (or as they call it in the rest of the world, “the vote”) for President, Senate and House but are not allowed to control any of them.
Presidency: For the second time in 16 years (two out of the last five elections), the person with the most popular votes did not win the Presidency because of an antiquated system invented to protect slave holders in smaller population states. African Americans were not the moral equivalent of 3/5 of a European American, and a California voter is not the moral equivalent of 1/4 a Wyoming voter. We have won four out of the five last presidential elections but only allowed to serve two of those terms.
Senate: The Senate stays Republican, even though there were more votes for Democratic senate candidates (because the senate is weighted in favor of rural, small population states).
House: The House stays Republican, even though there were more votes for Democratic house candidates (because of gerrymandering).
Supreme Court: the end of 2018, four out of nine Supreme Court justices will have been appointed by “presidents” who came into office with fewer votes than their opponent.
No, I do not respect or accept the legitimacy of a government in which every elected branch is now controlled by the party that got fewer votes in all of them.
It is no longer “we the people,” but “we the oligarchs, plutocrats and corporate special interests.”
Gerrymandering — a long tradition in the U.S. going back more than 200 years (by Eldridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, a signer of the Declaration of Independence) but, in the age of computers, able to allow representatives to choose their voters and not the voters choosing their representatives as was originally intended. (Also, Gerry created his salamander-shaped districts prior to the enactment of the later 14th amendment that requires equal protection of the law.)
Gerrymandering is only one of the ways RepubliCONs have successfully rigged elections.
Democrats had more “popular vote” (or as they call it in the rest of the world, “the vote”) for President, Senate and House but are not allowed to control any of them.
Presidency: For the second time in 16 years (two out of the last five elections), the person with the most popular votes did not win the Presidency because of an antiquated system invented to protect slave holders in smaller population states. African Americans were not the moral equivalent of 3/5 of a European American, and a California voter is not the moral equivalent of 1/4 a Wyoming voter. We have won four out of the five last presidential elections but only allowed to serve two of those terms.
Senate: The Senate stays Republican, even though there were more votes for Democratic senate candidates (because the senate is weighted in favor of rural, small population states).
House: The House stays Republican, even though there were more votes for Democratic house candidates (because of gerrymandering).
Supreme Court: the end of 2018, four out of nine Supreme Court justices will have been appointed by “presidents” who came into office with fewer votes than their opponent.
No, I do not respect or accept the legitimacy of a government in which every elected branch is now controlled by the party that got fewer votes in all of them.
It is no longer “we the people,” but “we the oligarchs, plutocrats and corporate special interests.”