Rachel Maddow discussed that along with other implications of the map that Virginia’s Republicans gerrymandered during the Inauguration and on Martin Luther King Day with Virginia State Senator Donald McEachin.
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Monday was Martin Luther King Day, as well as Inauguration Day. Virginia State Senator Henry Marsh, civil rights veteran spent the day at Barack Obama’s Inauguration. Marsh’s decision meant taking part in a historic moment. Little did he know that his district would look very different when he returned from Inauguration Day festivities. It also meant the 20-20 divide between Democrats and Republicans tipped in the Republicans’ favor. If Republicans had tried to redraw the map when Marsh was present, he would have voted against it. The result would have been a vote 20-20. The Lt. Governor, Bill Bolling would have voted against the gerrymandered map, meaning defeat for the Republicans. This is why it’s dangerous to leave Republicans in control of anything, especially without sufficient adult supervision.
To say that Republicans in the state senate took advantage of the situation would be an understatement. They took out their gerrymander crayons to redraw the state’s electoral map carving into Marsh’s district while he was at Barack Obama’s Inauguration. The redrawn map would make it structurally impossible for Democrats to win more than 13-16 of a possible 40 seats in the state’s senate. Like spoiled children, these Republicans took their loss last November out on the electoral map, without considering the consequences. They sprung their plan on the Democrats in classic Republican form by claiming they just redrew the map to create another black majority district – without mentioning that it would create even more Republican controlled districts.
They also took away one Democratic district completely, and made it structurally impossible for Democrats to regain control of the Virginia Senate, no matter how blue the state will go. As if that wasn’t enough gerrymandering to accomplish in relative secrecy and on a day that was both a celebration of a true civil rights hero and the President’s inauguration, these Republicans also gerrymandered the Electoral College – as has been occurring in other Republican controlled states.
When asked about the new map, Governor Ultrasound expressed surprise. While saying he thought this was a ‘bad way to do business” – not once did Governor Ultrasound McDonnell say he opposed the new map. Then he proceeded to talk about his new transport bill, perhaps hoping that will distract people from the Sovietization of our electoral system.
This is true to form for Governor Ultrasound, who was also “surprised” to learn that a trans-vaginal ultrasound is an invasive procedure and as we all know, he still signed the bill.
By some estimates, the new map would leave Democrats with 13-16 winnable seats out of a total of 40.
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toto
Jan. 23rd, 2013 at 12:34 pm
It could get much worse.
Obvious partisan machinations like these could be in preparation for changing to awarding Virginia’s (and other Republican-controlled states that recently have voted Democratic in presidential elections) electoral votes by congressional district winner. These moves should add support for the National Popular Vote movement. If the party in control in each state is tempted every 2, 4, or 10 years (post-census) to consider rewriting election laws and redistrict with an eye to the likely politically beneficial effects for their party in the next presidential election, then the National Popular Vote system, in which all voters across the country are guaranteed to be politically relevant and treated equally, looks better and better.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections.
When the bill is enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country.
The presidential election system that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founding Fathers but, instead, is the product of decades of evolutionary change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions with 132 electoral votes – 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
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James Threadgill
Jan. 23rd, 2013 at 2:18 pm
it will take guns, blood, and treasure to take this country back from the fundamentalist GOP beast.
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Shiva(Moderator)
Jan. 23rd, 2013 at 2:40 pm
Thats the difference between us and them. I dont think it will take guns or blood. I think once they are led to the brink they will not want what they see
But I could be wrong
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gsb
Jan. 23rd, 2013 at 7:53 pm
That is why I love Rachel, she can say in few words what is fact and what is BS
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Gary
Jan. 27th, 2013 at 1:17 am
Seems to me that if there was any moderate republicans left in this society, they would vote against this kind of cheating and gerrymandering, instead of towing the party line. It has made me vow to never cast another vote for the party I was once so proud of, and a registered member of. I left that party in 2009 after I saw a president trying to right 24 of 32 years of bad policies. I still voted for republicans locally, whom I had went to school with, and as soon as they won, they turned all wing nutty, never again.
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