Turning The Ballot Box Against Republicans

Wisconsin no longer has democratic legislative elections thanks to the Supreme Court

Residents of the Badger State have the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy to thank for this calamity.

Thinkprogress, IAN MILLHISERNOV 19, 2018, 10:42 AM

One of the most striking graphics emerging from the 2018 election comes from Isthmus, a Madison, Wisconsin alt-weekly newspaper.



Democrats romped through Wisconsin on Election Day, winning each of the five statewide offices on the ballot and winning the statewide popular vote in the state assembly by eight points. Nevertheless, Republicans won a 63 vote supermajority in the 99 seat Wisconsin assembly.

Wisconsin, in other words, did not have a democratic election for the state assembly. Something resembling an election took place and voters cast their ballots in earnest, but the entire state assembly race was rigged.

This is not a new state of affairs for Wisconsin. As a federal court decision striking down Wisconsin’s gerrymandered state assembly maps explained in 2016, “in 2012, the Republican Party received 48.6% of the two-party statewide vote share for Assembly candidates and won 60 of the 99 seats in the Wisconsin Assembly. In 2014, the Republican Party received 52% of the two-party statewide vote share and won 63 assembly seats.”

But, of course, that lower court decision ultimately did very little to restore democracy to the state. Last June, in one of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy’s final acts on the Supreme Court, the Court punted this case back down to the lower court and left Wisconsin’s rigged maps in place. Gill v. Whitford was expected to be a death blow to one of the most aggressive gerrymanders in the nation. It wound up being a crushing defeat for democracy.

Just nine days after the Court’s non-decision in Gill, Justice Kennedy retired — and that retirement likely destroyed any meaningful hope that the Supreme Court would stop partisans from rigging legislative maps. Though Kennedy expressed openness to striking down partisan gerrymanders, his replacement, Brett Kavanaugh, appeared
to threaten revenge against Democrats during his confirmation hearings.

https://thinkprogress.org/wisconsin-skewed-2018-results-anthony-kennedy-98060a6a19e9/

When is the left going to figure out that a state doesn't always vote the same way as the major population centers. Just because Madison and Milwaukee think they run things, the people in the smaller cities don't agree with them.

Banana republic.

That is what leftists have in store for the general public if they had their way.

No, a banana republic is exactly what the US looks like rigth now. A banana republic with no bananas to sell...

That's funny.

Except it means you're losing your democracy. That ain't too funny.

Our democracy is just fine, it's our Constitution I'm worried about. Leftists like to confuse democracy with mod rule and our Constitution prevents such mob rule. The question you need to ask, is why the leftists hate the US Constitution?

Gerrymandering has nothing to do with the US constitution. And democracy is not mob rule but tries to achieve a fair representation of all citizens in the electoral process.

Who said anything about Gerrymandering, and what does that have to do with you Banana Republic claim?


Democracy is exactly mob rule, that's why the US form of govt is not a Democracy, it is Constitutional Republic, and I don't mean Republic as in the Republican Party/GOP. The only direct democracy we have in the US is at the local level and even those votes are weighed against either a State Constitution or the US Constitution. The only thing we vote on at the Federal level is our reps in Congress, The House and The Senate.

I live in a representative democracy - a federal, parliamentary, representative democratic republic.
So I'm ruled by the mob?

Err... the article I posted was all about gerrymandering. Go read it, now!

I"ll say it again, not every town votes the same way as the major population centers. Milwaukee and Madison have no claim to how the entire state votes or elects. Have you ever been to WI, I know you are not an American, but have you ever been there?

I've never been in Wisconsin but I can tell a rigged election when I see one. Show me where the US constitution says that certain left-leaning types of city dwellers should be under-represented in states legislatures. I mean, when you read the figures, the repubs have a super majority in the state assembly no matter who the people vote for.

I doubt that. It seems you expect an entire state to agree with the population centers and vote the way they do.


The US Constitution actual says nothing about how states run their elections, in fact the 10th Amendment pretty much makes state elections the purview of the states and not the Federal govt. The Constitution limits the power of the Federal Govt, it doesn't grant it powers, it is a limitation of power on Federal authority.


You are once again concerned with the centers of population as being the center of power, and that's not how it works, every gets to vote, you don't get to add additional rep's to a state simply so your "majority" can have power. It sounds like you only want one type of voice to control the seats of power.

I want the majority of voters to define the majority in the French parliament. Likewise at all levels relevant to me from the EU down. That's because I believe in democracy. But what you guys do in Wisconsin and other states is your problem, for the same reason. I'm not under the impression I can force democracy on the Badger State.

We have the same thing in The House of Representatives, each state has a different # of Reps depending on the States population. We have equality in the Senate since each State has 2 Senators regardless of population.


I can't reconcile your use of the term democracy for what you think is happening in WI or other states. If you want democracy, the first place to start is with making sure each state only has the number of representatives required to cover it's citizens and this can only be done by the US Census. Once an accurate count is made of the US citizen population then can we assign the proper number of representatives to represent the citizens of that district.

Well, me neither. Democracy means "government from the people, by the people, for the people." It doesn't mean "for the rural folks only".