Humpday open thread: If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere!
Well, we had a bit of big news yesterday:
New York State’s top court on Tuesday ordered a panel to redraw the state’s congressional map for the 2024 elections, a major legal win for Democrats who had fought to dismantle controversial district lines drawn by an independent expert last year.
The 4-to-3 ruling from the Court of Appeals sends the redistricting process back to the state’s fractious Independent Redistricting Commission, which failed in its bipartisan bid to make the map last year, and could offer Democrats friendlier lines in some of the closest 2024 congressional races. Nationally, both parties saw the case as a key to establishing an upper hand in the battle for the House.
The New York map of 2022 led to a raft of Republican wins in the midterm elections, which were enough to barely hand the House to the GOP.
Now, yes, as good liberals we should all be for fairly-drawn districts where the voters have the say. Here's the problem: the GOP doesn't play by these rules. In states where they have control, they gerrymander the map to within an inch of its life. Politics ain't softball. I'd love it if the two parties could come to an understanding that fair districts are the way to go. But the GOP will never do that. Why? Because in fairly-drawn districts, Democrats have an advantage. There is absolutely no reason why Democrats should unilaterally disarm in the face of Republican fuckery. If our friends on the other side won't come to an accommodation then we should use every tool at our disposal to ensure that they don't sniff at power.
We are fighting for the very survival of our democracy. Not our republic. I don't want to hear word one that "we are a republic, not a democracy." People who say that are morons and imbeciles. The idea that the people should be disenfranchised for whatever reason died with the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. The idea of "one person, one vote" is now firmly entrenched, and anything which diminishes that lodestar must be jettisoned. This applies to gerrymandering. This applies to the Electoral College. But right now, only one party believes in this, and it's the Democratic Party. And we'll be damned if we allow ourselves to play on an uneven playing field. As distasteful as I find gerrymandering, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
So, on we go. Gerrymander the hell out of New York, and retake the House. The stakes are too high to play by Marquess of Queensbury rules.
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