About six years ago I was part of a state-wide effort in Pennsylvania to get our legislators to pass a law creating a non-partisan group of experts to draw legislative districts in a fair and unbiased way. My job was to visit each of the municipalities in Carbon County and ask the councils or the supervisors to pass a resolution in support of a non-partisan commission and send their resolutions to our legislators in Harrisburg.
There are 12 boroughs and 11 townships in Carbon County. I visited 21 of the 23 municipalities. (I missed East Side Borough and Lausanne Township.) All of them except East Penn Township adopted the resolution. East Penn had a Supervisor who was an attorney, and he said gerrymandering didn’t concern the township.
This being Pennsylvania and at that time the Republicans controlling both houses, nothing was done. Lucky for the voters, the state Supreme Court said the 2020 redistricting interfered with our voting rights, and the Court redrew the Congressional districts. The lines are reasonably good.
Now there is a fight in California to answer the action in Texas to redraw the districts. Texas, as I am sure you know, approved a new map that almost shuts Democrats out of the House. Trump pushed for this–he is worried about the midterm elections.
California currently has a nonpartisan board that draws the districts. The districts are reasonably compact, contiguous, and fairly drawn. The battle is now on to dissolve that commission and redraw the districts to favor Democratic candidates as an answer to the Texas travesty.
Today Charles T. Munger wrote an op ed piece in the Times against California’s attempt. He said if California gerrymanders, Democrats will lose the “moral high ground.” As someone who believes very much in rule following and fairness, I say “screw the moral high ground.” What good does the moral high ground do when we have a President who is trying to redo the whole election process, including getting rid of mail-in ballots and mandating onerous I.D. requirements to vote? If Trump succeeds, we will have a one-party system for the foreseeable future.
The op-ed author said we should not abandon our principles when they are inconvenient. Inconvenient? Really. This is a gun fight, and the Democrats are showing up with strongly worded op ed pieces. I say redistrict California. Screw Texas. I was about to say and the horse it rode in on, but I have nothing against horses.
So, Munger suggests giving up Democracy to "be the good guys" and conceding every Presidential and Legislative election for the foreseeable future. He doesn't know that seizing the high ground is a fighting strategy, and, in the case is a losing one. I suspect he's another lying Republican, the son of a wealthy man. A Don Jr and Eric wanabe.
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