Liberal Repercussion

This is a very important article; be sure to read it in full. These bastards have to be stopped. It is subversion of democracy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/21/opinion/21SAT1.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=


ELECTIONS WITH NO MEANING


A major reason legislative elections are becoming a charade is that the parties that control the redistricting process now routinely follow the dictum of "pack, crack and pair." They pack voters from the other party into a single district and crack centers of opposition strength, dispersing opponents to districts where they will be in the minority. They redraw lines so two incumbents from the other party will wind up in one district, fighting for a single seat. Using powerful computers, line-drawers can now determine, with nearly scientific precision, how many loyal party voters need to be stuffed into any given district to make it impregnable.

This sort of hyperpartisan line-drawing was evident in Texas last year, when Republicans pushed through a plan that, by aggressively packing and cracking Democratic voters, could unseat as many as 8 of the state's 17 Democratic members of Congress. Now a local prosecutor is investigating charges that a political action committee run by Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, may have illegally used corporate contributions to help Republicans take control of the State House of Representatives — control that the party needed to have a free hand in redrawing new Congressional districts. The investigation is revealing just how much planning Mr. DeLay and the national party put into their Texas strategy, which seems to have involved every political player in the state except the voters.

posted by Rei Toei @ 9:29 p.m.