A Tale of Two Redistrictings

Timothy Birdnow

One of the tricks employed by the Democrats is to accuse the opposition of that which they are guilty. We see this year in and year out, with the Democrats claiming Republicans are disenfranchising voters while they themselves manufacture tens of thousands of false votes http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25349. We see this in their fornication with Wall Street companies (like GE, Goldman Sachs) while claiming it is the Republicans who represent "big business" and "the wealthy". (Strangely, Congressional Democrats are wealthier than GOP members. http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/democrats-party-rich )

Recently, Democrats in Wisconsin have exploded over redistricting plans by the GOP-controlled state Congress. They claim the GOP has gerrymandered the state map so they can never have a Democrat elected again! They have gone to court (a friendly court, as is their custom) to bar this terrible power grab by their evil governor Scott Walker and the state GOP.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/125988098.html?page=1

In fact, GOP legislators have been receiving death threats. http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20110311/WDH0101/303110067/18-Republican-senators-from-Wisconsin-report-getting-death-threats-after-passing-bill-end-collective-bargaining-most-public-workers

But is this really what they claim?

According to the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/125988098.html?page=1

"Under the legislation, Democrats have little chance of attaining and retaining a majority in either the Senate or the Assembly, or in the congressional delegation, giving them little ability to overcome minority status at any point over the next decade," the lawsuit argues.

[...]

The lawsuit, filed against the state Government Accountability Board, which runs state elections, seeks an injunction preventing elections from being conducted under the new boundaries. The suit also asks a panel of three judges to draw its own lines if the Legislature cannot draw valid ones.

The filing takes issue with how minorities are treated in the maps. Milwaukee could have seven Assembly districts with African-American majorities, but is provided only six, the lawsuit says.

[...]

The lawsuit also says the maps violate requirements that districts be compact and follow county, municipal and ward lines to the extent possible. It notes, for example, that Beloit has traditionally been in one Assembly district and one Senate district but would now be split into two of each."

End excerpts.

Oh?

According to Moe Lane at Real Clear Politics:

http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/07/10/the-wisconsin-redistricting-maps-are-out/

"As was reported last month, this new map will primarily buttress freshman Republican Sean Duffy in WI-07, mostly by sending over Democratic-voting areas over to Democrat Ron Kind in WI-03. Mind you Kind doesn’t need them, although you’d never know that from his bawling on cue like a stuck calf about this. Including some shouting about ‘bipartisanship’…

Ahem. Death. Threats.

…which would be funny if it wasn’t actually offensive in this context. This map will probably be adopted: the GOP was careful to preserve that federally-mandated racial gerrymander in WI-04; none of the existing Democrats are actually getting targeted; and the GOP controls the redistricting process. What’s that I hear? “For right now?” Yes, let’s talk about the state legislature redistricting process. Here’s where the gutter war really heats up.

Link via Ann Althouse: the short version is that the state Republican party is not only gearing up to pass a redistricting map that will have significant impact on the recall elections*; it’s also planning two pieces of legislation that will uncouple the redistricting process from having to wait on local municipalities to redraw their ward lines (read: eliminates a likely Democratic delaying tactic) and reform/fast-track the map appeal process in the state courts (read: eliminates a likely Democratic delaying tactic). The Democrats are, predictably, starting just now to scream about this – but, if one of the commenters to that particular link is correct, then the state GOP very carefully followed federal racial gerrymandering guidelines on the state legislative level, too, thus neatly eliminating the most likely avenue for a successful court challenge**. And absent a successful court challenge, the map is inevitable. More to the point, it’s inevitable in the short term; this may be all resolved before the bulk of the primary phase of the recall election process is quite finished. Which is almost certainly one reason why the GOP made sure in the first place that almost all of the races involved had primary challengers on one side or the other.

Bottom line: we have an extremely motivated state Republican party out there in Wisconsin; one with a definite sense of determination and an uncritical willingness to get on with business and not particularly care what people say about it. Then again, if threatening people’s families doesn’t work as an intimidation tactic the first time…"

End excerpt.

Go to the Real Clear Politics website and look at the redistricting map. The changes are not apparent to the eye unless one is looking for them.

Now, look at what they Democrats have done in neighboring Illinois:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/illinois-redistricting-de_n_869342.html

Eldridge Gerry was a piker next to the Illinois Democrats; this new map looks like snake pit, with long serpentine districts or dragon-shaped horros carved out of GOP districts. The Democrats are the ones trying to disenfranchise those who do not agree with them.

All of the new districts contain panhandles, bootheels, and crazy appendages. Look at Chicago in particular; it looks like a mass of intestines.

Any rational comparison of the two maps shows who the partisans really are; the Wisconsin map is drawn in largely smooth circles while Illinois looks like an earthworm colony on LSD.

Just more proof of what criminal liars those on Left have become. And how power is all they care about. And more proof that the mainstream media is the engine that drives liberalism; with competent and honest media coverage the nation would be shocked at these differences.

This is more than a gentlemen's disagreement with these people; this is a political war of extermination. The sooner our side realizes it the better.

Thanks to Mike W.