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Politics Is About Power

There is a great diary over at Michigan Liberal about the gerrymander. Some excerpts:

The first thing we notice is that representation is pretty close over-all - in the total line, Dems are under-represented by 2%. That would be about nine extra House seats for us if it were perfect. The largest representation bias is found, of course, in the small states. At the extreme, a one-seat state has 100% representation for one party, even if the voters in that state are close to 50-50. If a state has only a few seats, it is still likely that the dominant party will take all the seats. So the effect of a gerrymander only really shows up in larger states.

I arbitrarily decided to concentrate on states with ten or more seats. Are there any states with a strong Democratic representation bias (over 10%) among these? Only one - Massachusetts, at 11%. But MA has NO R reprentatives now! So this is not really a gerrymander, just total dominance.

How about Republican representation biases over 10% in large states? Oho, now we hit the jackpot - FL at -18%, MI at -15%, OH at -14%, and VA at -16%. Of these, three show the strongest evidence of a gerrymander - that is, a Democratic voter actual majority, along with a Republican delegation majority. These are FL, with a D voter majority of 54%, MI, with 55%, and OH, with 52%.

The diary presents great data, but what interests me is in the comments. There is a discussion going on about whether the Republican gerrymander justifies a Democratic gerrymander, should Dems be in power long enough to redraw the districts. Many of my fellow Dems think it is wrong to redraw in a way that “favors” Democrats … the districts should be drawn in a way that is fair, and encourages competition.

I disagree.

While I agree with the sentiment that “two wrongs don’t make a right”, I disagree with the underlying message of that statement, which is that politics is about right and wrong. I know it’s supposed to be … politics is supposed to be about justice and liberty and puppies and white picket fences … but it’s not. Politics is about illegal wars and gay bashing and union busting and consolidating capital and creating poverty.

Politics is about squashing good bills in committees and forcing roll call votes on bad ones. Politics is screwing your neighbor and looking over your shoulder and holding your nose while choosing the lesser of all evils.

Politics is about reward and pain.

Politics is about power.

I want my party doing every legal thing they can do to capture it, keep it, and use it to fight the Republican Party.

Republicans have declared cultural and economic war on Americans. They demonize our own cities. They demonize American gays, liberals, muslims, trial lawyers, laborers, and anyone else who makes a convenient target. They redistribute wealth from the middle and lower classes to the wealthy. People are working harder and longer, and bringing home less, while the Republicans dismiss their concerns. “The economy is good” they say … your problem is you.

Politics is about power. We need to keep that power from the Republicans.

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[tags]republicans, republican party, gop, politics, democrats, democratic party[/tags]