The Monster Gerry Mander

                                            THE MONSTER GERRY MANDER

The nine wise men and women wearing the robes that sanctify them above the rest of us petty mortals get to make up their minds about the permissibility of gerrymandering as a well-established way for incumbents to cheat the people out of a fair vote. 

Gerrymandering has never been anything other than a conspiracy to defraud the people of the right to elect officials by the will of the majority. However, this court, with its frequent “majority” of five conservatives who constantly misconstrue and misapply the Constitution, will no doubt look for ways to uphold gerrymandering.  Which ploy they choose is not certain but one anticipates the usual mix of stale death-like vapors of “states rights” seasoned lightly with some other incomprehensible legal mumbo-jumbo to make the decision seem “all right”. 

      What fascinates me is not merely their ability to reach ridiculous conclusions but that they really seem to have no fundamental grasp of the nature and purpose of the Constitution.  For example, take the right to vote.  Originally, the suffrage was restricted to white men with property but then began the process of expanding the suffrage to include excluded Americans.

First, the property qualifications were removed.  Next, the end of the Civil War brought the 15^th Amendment and voting rights for Black men.  In 1920 the suffrage was extended to women and in 1924 Native Americans became American citizens and eligible to vote.  Finally, in 1971 the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 years of age.

This is a short summary of the expansion of voting rights in America from a few white men with property to nearly all adult Americans over the age of eighteen!   That is what the historical record tells us, all of which grew out of the Constitution and the beliefs upon which the new nation was founded.  The 38,000 voters of 1788 became the 126,000,000 voters of the 2012 election.  You would think that Justices of the Supreme Court could understand as much!

      Now, going against this general movement of extending and protecting voting rights for all Americans, we have observed over the last decade a concerted effort on the part of one political party to curtail voting rights by the use of photo I.D. laws, by closing voting polls, by shortening the number of days available for voting, by eliminating key days for voting, by preventing churches from organizing caravans to take voters to the polls, and by washing felons and non-felons alike off of voting rolls: a duplicitous policy of anti-voting chicanery (masquerading as “reform”) which we see spreading like a cancer in all too many places, most notably in states where the GOP holds sway.

      What started out as “small potatoes” has become a cut-throat strategy played for all the marbles. The more voters accidentally or intentionally disfranchised—primarily among America’s poor and minorities, of course—the greater the chances of the GOP winning close elections in certain key (“swing”) states.  Such a "victory" enables them to grab more Electoral College votes than they otherwise would deserve--save for these slick and ethically questionable strategies.

      When it comes to political parties gaining an unfair advantage in elections, the number one “clever strategy” of choice is gerrymandering.  That’s a term used to describe what happens when the political party in power redraws Congressional districts within a state they control in such a way as to enhance its own chances of winning elections.  Gerrymandering can greatly help the incumbent party by moving boundary lines around to maximize the number of seats it can grab.  Artful deception arising from crazily-drawn lines on a map can affect the outcome of a single election or multiple elections spread out over time, whether midterm or presidential election year. 

      Successful gerrymandering in turn multiplies the incumbent party’s power within the state legislature, in Congress, and—ultimately--the Electoral College.  Done adroitly, gerrymandering becomes a powerful force in its own right; as a result, the number of so-called “safe seats” has grown exponentially over the last two decades.  These are districts with their boundary lines carefully drawn so as to ensure a sizable majority will always exists for the incumbent party.  The actual shapes of some of these districts look geographically ridiculous; they often make no sense regarding the cultural and economic regions of the state but avarice has no shame, apparently!

      Now I do not wish to address the whole long complex history of case law concerning elections; I recognize that our nine brave Justices deal with complex legal matters that that go far beyond our poor powers to comprehend.  All that I wish to point out is that for more than 200 years America has extended and protected the right to vote of an ever larger number of Americans in a way meant to ensure that votes of citizens were equal.  Citizens are to have equal access to the polls so their votes can have equal weight; the democratic will of the majority can only be expressed when everyone has the right and opportunity to vote.  

That’s the simple truth, grown organically out of the Constitution, but now we are beset by a whole host of elected politicians who seek to secure their own fortunes by limiting the right to vote of others!  They attempt to do so through the machinations of a variety of devious schemes to prevent a class of people from voting who are likely to vote “the other way”.  All the different ploys and tactics, when analyzed, invariably indicate the same purpose; potential Democratic voters are the people most likely to be adversely affected by the new rules and regulations actively being passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures.   

      Gerrymandering is perhaps the most duplicitous strategy ever devised to adversely influence the outcome of an election.  It goes against the heart of the Constitution and against the democratic will of the people!  And yet these Justices—particularly these five conservatives—will now put on their robes and prepare to perform the most incredible "juggling act" imaginable to prove that gerrymandering is legal, fair, and constitutional.  We know that is their intention even before the oral arguments are heard or a decision rendered. Scalia, ‘Lito, and Thomas will lead the charge in favor of limiting the purpose and effectiveness  of American voters’ rights while Roberts and Kennedy will make a last half-hearted stand at "judicial independence” before caving to the reactionary triumvirate; these two Justices will bring up the rear. 

      While tens of thousands of American citizens will have their votes thus diverted, distorted, and drained lifelessly away as the Monster Gerrymander steals election after election, these five robed Solomons will say: “The Constitution did not mean to protect the votes of citizens; the Constitution meant to protect the votes of the richest and most politically powerful elites; the Constitution intended to protect their Gerrymandering shenanigans so they can pull the strings of power to keep themselves in office as long as possible, perhaps forever.” (These are the same Justices who decided that a person’s actual innocence is not enough reason to prevent continued incarceration!)

      That’s what makes me especially sad.  We know before the Court hears the case that these five judges will do whatever they can to find the right words to convince others that their legal interpretation defending Gerrymandering makes sense.  Meanwhile, they will once again avoid coming to terms with the purpose of the genuine Constitution and deliberately ignore the direction of American society over the last 200 years.  They cannot see that the Constitution is a document that grew organically out of the people.  They cannot grasp that America intends to protect the right of every citizen to a fair and equal vote. 

The votes of these five Justices will ignore this democratic history and will choose instead to protect the right of power hungry politicians to re-elect themselves by stealing and warping elections, of which process the Monster Gerrymander is by far the largest self-sustaining villain. 

It is beyond sad; it is a tragedy and a travesty!!