At least 15 more US GIs died today in Iraq, two more
US GIs died yesterday. For what? Woefullwits' neo-con
wet dream. The _resident's foolish military
adventurism must be stopped -- at the ballot box --
one year from this coming Tuesday. You must become
personally involved -- if you care...Here is another
extraordinary message from Walter Cronkite...
Walter Cronkite: "The recent redistricting of Texas, promoted and directed by Houston's congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, reminds us that it is not just countries like Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan and Chechnya that rig their elections."
Clean up the rigged elections at home first
Sunday, November 02, 2003 - 12:00 AM
The Daily Herald |
The recent redistricting of Texas, promoted and
directed by Houston's congressman and House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, reminds us that it is not just
countries like Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan and Chechnya that
rig their elections.
We've been doing it in this country ever since the
Founding Fathers sought to assure that each
congressional district would represent as nearlyas
possible an equal number of citizens. They provided a
census, to be taken every 10 years, as the basis on
which the districts could be realigned.
Unfortunately, they left to the states how those
district lines would be redrawn. The state legislators
undertook the task and highly politicized it.
In Massachusetts, prior to the election of 1812, the
party in power was facing defeat when the governor,
Elbridge Gerry, redrew districts to consolidate his
party's strength and weaken that of the opposition. A
local newspaper editor thought one tortuously drawn
district resembled a salamander and coined the word
used ever after to describe the product of partisan
redistricting -- a "gerrymander."
Gerrymandering has been and is a bipartisan sin. If we
single out Rep. DeLay and his Texas Republicans now,
we can also indict California Democrats who, at one
time, created a district for one of their incumbents
that had 385 sides.
The process perpetuates the rule of the party in power
by making its members' districts virtually
uncontestable, in effect disenfranchising many voters
by making their votes meaningless.
In a recent update of his 1993 book, "Real Choices/New
Voices," political scientist Douglas J. Amy says of
gerrymandering that "instead of voters choosing their
politicians, politicians actually choose their
voters."
In the 2000 election, Democrats in the state of Texas
won 57 percent of the seats in the U.S. House of
Representatives, though they received only 47 percent
of the statewide vote. Now, the Republicans are
retaliating -- with a vengeance.
Except in cases where representation of racial
minorities has been diluted, the courts traditionally
have shied away from stepping in. But the Supreme
Court has said that the practice of redistricting has
its constitutional limits. And though it hasn't
defined just where those limits are, Texas might be
about to provoke a definition.
William E. Forbath, a professor of constitutional law
and constitutional history at the University of Texas,
believes the gerrymandered district map just approved
by the Texas governor might trigger court action on
several grounds. A likely one could be that Texas was
redistricted after the 2000 election, but the DeLay
forces chose to shatter precedent and redistrict
again, just three years later.
Another ground, says Forbath, is the blunt, one might
say brazen, way they have advertised their purpose --
to safeguard more Republican seats in Congress.
Concern over this essentially corrupt practice has
been rising, and some states have been trying
alternatives to redistricting-by-legislature. Iowa has
adopted an independent commission, with salutary
results -- more competitive elections and more
sensible, contiguous congressional districts.
Rigged elections here seem especially scandalous
today, as we preach to the Iraqis and others in the
developing world the virtues of representative
democracy and hold ourselves up as the paragon of that
virtue. It is high time we cleaned up our own house.
♦ Walter Cronkite was anchor of "CBS Evening
News" for 19 years.
He can be reached at mail@cronkitecolumn.com.