The Lefty Boom

People elsewhere in the country continue to ignore that the redistricting putsch by the Republicans in Texas is alienating a large segement of the Texas electorate. Rural and small town voters in Texas routinely elect Republicans to nearly all offices, with the exception of Representatives to the United States House. The Democrats sitting for Texas in the U.S. House are conservative Democrats, they have long, close and cordial ties with their constituencies, and the effort to redistrict them out of their seats in Texas involves drawing districts which would effectively disenfranchise small-town and rural voters by including nearly all of them in urban centered districts in which their votes would be overwhelmed.

In Texas, as elsewhere in this country where there are efforts underway to gerrymander congressional districts, it is noteworthy that the state constitutions provide for this process once every ten years (a response to the census), and this census-responsive redistricting has already taken place. It is wonderfully amusing to hear Republicans sneer at Democrats when they complain about the Shrub and Company stealing the national election in Florida, saying that the Democrats are just whiners and sore losers. By that standard, every effort at redistricting of this character, as well as the California recall initiative, can be reasonably characterized as Republicans whining and being sore losers.

Sauce for the goose makes sauce for the gander.

You got it Setanta -- and Mamaj!

Yep, that's it ok. excellent observation.

Gray Davis' popularity rating was something like 15% when the recall petition went to Sacto. This was no whining or sore loser issue. This was an issue with Davis.

Well, i take your word that you view it that way, although you must acknowledge, if you're fair-minded, that many Dems in Californy characterize it as Republican sore losers . . .

I only see that amongst the most fervent leftists. If Davis had revealed the extent to which he had cooked the books, before the election, Simon would be governor right now.

The EU with the majority of the countries being socialistic seems like a oxymoron. Even France's deficit exceeds the EU requirements for participation in the EU. With unemployment in the nine percent range, how will the EU's major economies continue their socialist programs?

Yes, and by that logic Cjhsa, we could talk about the last election and the abuses there, and the supreme court appointing a president too......where there's cause to be angry and a wish to do something about it, is it whining, or just positive action? And we all know that it's not only, actually not even Davis' ratings, it's an excuse once again to rob the voters. I mean, the referendum didn't come from someone in Davis' own party or from a non partisan concerned about the voter's rights. We'll see how it turns out. It's the Republicans who like to play dirty tricks in between elections, and failing that, they like to cheat during elections. The Democrats seem to have an incurable tendency to hope Democracy will win out, to hope the election will tell the true story. And to hold those elections when it's time, not when they have an unfair advantage. Republicans like to trick the voters. Dems resort to informing them (and to resisting unfair abuse as in TX) I seem to be a hopeless optimist, I'm betting on Democracy.

c.i.

I doubt that this -namely the majority of EU countries being socialistic- is true.

And when I look at the different governments ... at least, we actually have the majority of EU countries now with right-wing (=right of center) governments :wink:

I think the Republicans (who've stained the name of that party) play too dirty, Lola, REALLY dirty. I'm not betting the rent money on democracy winning out. Cjhsa, however, will be just as much of a victim as either of us -- worse, because of the large helping of disillusionment.

If I'm not mistaken Lola, Florida counted those votes three times and in all three counts Bush won. Not only that, but post election analysis showed that Bush won by even more than they originally thought. Never saw a count where Gore won.

Now enough of that garbage.

The CA recall is a fair response by the voting public to a $38B deficit and the immediate gutting of our public school systems by Davis. The guy is a total jerk and deserves this 100%.

I would disagree there, my friend, becasue the recall process is placing your state deeper into the red. The republicans are cutting of not just their noses, but gouging out there eyes,and splitting their lips to spite their faces.

Gotta agree with hobit on this one; the recall is a dangerous tool that allows more dumkofs to be our governer, and it's costing our state about forty million at a time when every dollar is needed.

Disagree. Saw McClintock on H&C last night and he threw out several ideas on how to quickly slash almost $20B from the deficit. Good ideas too. $40M is pocket change in comparison.

That certainly is true, CI. It's a blatantly irrational (financially) and indefensible (politically) tool meant to remove people who are clearly incompetent. You can dislike Davis; you can want to think of him as incompetent; but in the legal sense he is quite competent.

Every dollar is indeed needed, and we need every bit of confidence we can muster in the political and voting system at a time when so much confidence has been lost to political manipulation.

Cjhsa and those with whom he agrees may be just cynical. But that implies a degree of sophistication which I don't detect in their arguments. So I kind of think of them as bad sports -- so eager to win that they wouldn't mind losing the country to satisfy their own egos.

I bow to your superior sophistication Tart.

Would you prefer "depth" to "sophistication," Cjhsa? Either one is fine with me!

Vote counts, Cjhsa? What about all the disenfranchised voters, people turned away from the polls.....etc. ? You can see it your way if you please, but the election was still decided by a one vote margin in a conservative Supreme Court, you know that above-politics-group-of-judges we all depend on. The Republicans are cheaters, plain and simple. But Tartarin, I'm putting my money on Democracy. Even the press may have to come around, it's so very blatant.

Consider that the administration's primary diplomatic negotiator got his start with the Jesse Helms administration attempting to block efforts to increase minority voter registration. It says a lot about how the admin views the democratic process.