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Igel

(37,072 posts)
9. People miss the proximal cause.
Thu Aug 21, 2025, 09:56 PM
Aug 21

Coalition minority-majority districts were ruled as not relevant to the VRA.

Houston has several. BIPOC candidates win because they're mostly BIPOC, but the VRA doesn't cover "BIPOC", just African-American, Hispanic, etc.

With that ruling, the Houston districts were suddenly recast as not required gerrymandering--they're rather notoriously gerrymandered, to be honest, and the VRA required this horrendous thing we're all against except when we're in favor of it, this "gerrymandering" that depends on the polarity of the gerrymandering for value judgments. Now that they were required, it was just racial gerrymandering that counted as pro-(D) gerrymandering.

Which, to be honest, is how many left of center viewed it. Yes, it protected minority-yet-guaranteed-(D) seats. Which meant that the entire 2019 argument was recapped in the ".". The justification is now that the gerrymander preserves (D) seats--which we want. Unless we don't.

No disallowing coalition districts, no issue.

What's intriguing is when you look at recent (R)/(D) splits in voting versus (R)/(D) splits in state-level representation. The new TX districts makes TX something like 18% skewed (R) versus the last few general elections. Many states are far worse. Not justification, but not all the "far worse" states are red.

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

It's so clever that nobody sees it. usonian Aug 21 #1
Good thinking. I'm sure you're right. But... thought crime Aug 22 #20
All republican congressmen from California can thank Greg Abbot for screwing them! Omnipresent Aug 21 #2
Especially Isaa! BumRushDaShow Aug 21 #3
They don't worry about the Democrats because the Democrats follow the rule of law and do not cheat. LiberalArkie Aug 21 #4
At least that far back (2000) or even before with Reagan. He did the first tinkle down.... Bengus81 Aug 21 #6
I figure that they guessed that the Democrats would just roll over with the Reagan-Carter deal. But LiberalArkie Aug 21 #7
Nixon was the first Clouds Passing Aug 22 #18
Have you ever seen that documentary of those LBJ scratchy sounding dictaphone recordings? Bengus81 Aug 22 #22
Missed those docs Clouds Passing Aug 22 #23
Yes Abstractartist Aug 22 #11
I doth think that they worry about their high roller donors too much. You know the ones that told Biden to drop out. LiberalArkie Aug 22 #12
I'm Attempting To Make The Connection Between The High Roller Problem And This Gerrymandering Problem... MayReasonRule Aug 22 #15
Yeah, I'm not sure either... Abstractartist Aug 22 #24
And kissing off a nearly $200K per year paycheck. Aw shucks........ Bengus81 Aug 21 #5
If these republican Cal. Congressmen had any brains they would petition trump and Abbot to stop this stupid shit stunt. Omnipresent Aug 21 #8
People miss the proximal cause. Igel Aug 21 #9
I would like to say, we need a better system for voters to be better represented in congress, but... Omnipresent Aug 22 #10
Some founding fathers like Hamilton even wrote about the problems of representation. thought crime Aug 22 #21
While Our Mid-Game Is Improving, We REALLY Need An 'End Game', Otherwise... MayReasonRule Aug 22 #13
That is assuming the Indies/Unaffiliated, who have become a greater and greater % of the voting public BumRushDaShow Aug 22 #14
Thank You For Pointing This Out! This Is Indeed A Known Unknown... MayReasonRule Aug 22 #16
Those folks are always fickle and apparently are able to live in an environment BumRushDaShow Aug 22 #17
That's The Unfortunate Case Here In Louisiana As Well MayReasonRule Aug 22 #19
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