Manipulating the census

Let’s use a football analogy.  Take the Eagles and the Cowboys.  Sometimes the Cowboys win, sometimes the Eagles.  Each game seems important at the time, but as long as both teams play by NFL rules, the games can continue year after year.

Now let’s say the Cowboys come out armed with pistols.  On the first play both teams line up and the Cowboys shoot the Eagles.  Game over, forever.  

Democracy works the same way.  As long as the Democrats and the Republicans play by the same rules, the Democrats can win, followed by Republican victories, back and forth, with no end in sight.

Now let’s say the Republicans change the rules.  They gerrymander.  They suppress votes.   They get help from Russians.  They manipulate the census.

Democracy ends.  Game over.  

There is evidence that the Republican-controlled Congress may be ready to manipulate the Constitutionally-mandated ten-year census.  They are cutting funds to the Census Bureau.  Inmates in prisons may be under-counted.  Immigrants are hiding.  Practice runs are being eliminated.  All of this to ensure Republican over-counts.  We may be seeing the demise of our American democracy.

[See Michael Wines, “Accuracy at Risk as Census Shifts to Online Counts:  Politics May Encroach,” New York Times, Dec. 10, 2017, p. 1, 20.]