An Update to Today's Post & How to Discuss the Newsletter with Others
I have two short topics to cover in this update to this morning’s post. I’ll be brief.
Update to Today’s Post
I mentioned that both Democrats and Republicans gerrymander and that the court battles rage.
Today, The New York Times reported1 that “[a] Republican-led group of voters filed a lawsuit late Thursday challenging New York’s freshly drawn congressional maps as unconstitutional[.]”
And, here in North Carolina, where I live, yesterday the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that the new maps for US House and NC legislature seats created by the Republican-controlled legislature, are unconstitutional2.
The gerrymandering battles rage, with both parties guilty.
How to Discuss the Newsletter with Others
Several readers have written to me individually with thoughtful comments. A few have asked how they can discuss their thoughts with other readers. I strongly encourage people to post their comments so that other readers can see them and discuss.
I had assumed that it was obvious how to do this, but it clearly is not. So, let me explain.
Commenting on the website
The platform I’m using (Substack) provides a threaded comments section on my website, which is at https://winwindemocracy.org. Go to the website directly and see all posts. Click on a post, then scroll to the bottom and you’ll see the comments. Anyone can read the comments, but you must be a newsletter subscriber to make your own comments or to reply to others’ comments,
Commenting from the emailed newsletter
If you’re reading a newsletter in your email, there are three buttons (circled) at the bottom, after the footnotes:
One reader made the excellent suggestion that I move the comment button above the footnotes, which is what I’ve done for this post as an example.
G.O.P. Lawsuit Casts N.Y. Congressional Maps as Brazen Gerrymandering, New York Times, by Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Feb 4, 2022; https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/nyregion/redistricting-lawsuit-gerrymandering-ny.html
NC political maps unconstitutionally gerrymandered, Supreme Court rules, Raleigh News & Observer, by Will Doran, Feb 5, 2022; https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article257975758.html
What I like about communities that are not overwhelmingly partisan is that a primary does not determine the election. And the election can be about ideas.
An excellent piece! Feds establishing standards for districts will run into the current prevailing (at least publicly) right wing attitude that voting is a state right to be regulated only by states. The courts currently are on the side of the feds at the moment — but…. This is a 1776 standoff, once again. Only if there is a large silent middle ground can this polar division be resolved. Since the 1776 division also involves race, finding a large center among whites is going to be difficult since now whites vote against their own self interest just to preserve racial superiority.
Developing standards would be difficult — has been, and would be subject to the complaint that all regulations have — top down control rarely takes into account local nuance or aberration from the norm. Los of room for fighting and compromise, however.
An alternate is that all elections for statewide and federal offices should be statewide. Districts would lose their power, as would the state legislature to exercise control; but power would be returned to the people. State House and Senate majorities likely would be similar — depending entirely on voter turnout and the party presence in each state. Elections would likely be more expensive. And states are likely to become single party representative states. Demographic factors would have to be considered more often that every 10 years with a census.
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