AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
Even as Democrats and the mainstream media continue to insist that former President Donald Trump is a “threat to democracy” for calling into question the legitimacy of the 2020 election, they appear to be gearing up to run a similar play in 2022. Following President Joe Biden’s comment during a press conference last month that the midterm elections might not “be legit” unless the Senate abolishes the filibuster and embrace a federal takeover of elections, Democrats have now also latched onto gerrymandering as the next “crisis” that supposedly de-legitimizes election results. But while the Left has accused Republicans of “rigging the game” by drawing favorable district lines following the 2020 census, Democrats have drawn some of the most lopsided districts in the country. This hypocrisy not only undercuts Democrats’ attacks on Republican maps, but also further reveals a persistent truth about the modern American Left – that their cries for “justice” and “fairness” are more often based on a ruthless quest for power than any real commitment to “preserving democracy.”
In New York, where Democrats enjoy a large majority in the state legislature, the new map is particularly egregious, producing what will likely be a 22D-4R gerrymander – meaning that Republicans will control just 15% of the state’s representation in the House of Representatives, when the GOP has earned 34%-37% of the statewide vote in recent presidential races. The proposed New York 10th Congressional District, currently occupied by Democrat Jerry Nadler, appears to purposely exclude predominately Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods which tend to vote more Republican. The proposed 14th Congressional District, currently occupied by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pushes the limits of requirements that Districts be compact and contiguous; it spans 2 counties and at three separate points is only connected by bridges over water, something which could be a violation of the New York State Constitution.
Similar patterns have played out in other Democrat-controlled states. In Illinois, a 13D-3R gerrymander has some Districts stretching from heavily Democratic Chicago to heavily Republican rural areas more than 100 miles south of the city. Donald Trump won 41% of the statewide vote in Illinois in 2020 – now Republicans are likely to control only three House seats.
To be sure, Republican-controlled state legislatures have also introduced and passed partisan maps. And gerrymandering itself – by either party – remains a controversial topic. But the contrast between the Left’s professed outrage when Republicans draw favorable maps for themselves, and their muted reaction when Democrats do so, betrays that Democrats’ crusade to “stop” gerrymandering is really about curbing Republicans’ ability to draw partisan maps while they themselves refuse to play by the same rules.
Take, for instance, Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, a former Hillary Clinton campaign official who played a major role in financing the Russian collusion hoax, who filed a legal motion in Maryland to defend the Democrats’ extreme partisan gerrymander of the state’s Congressional districts. Previously, Elias has challenged Republican gerrymanders in states like North Carolina, calling them “grotesque” and “indefensible.” Now he rushes to the defense of perhaps the most grotesque gerrymander in the country.
Similarly, 150 political scientists signed an open letter to Congress last November declaring that “midnight is approaching” for American democracy. Among their reasons for making such a dramatic claim was partisan gerrymandering, which they claimed was being used exclusively by Republicans to “entrench minority rule.”
But mounting evidence suggests that it is Democrats who may actually be guilty of this. Even though Republicans control a majority of state legislatures, one analysis from the liberal policy center Data for Progress found that the number of House seats which are more liberal than the country as a whole is expected to increase from 203 in 2020 to 213 in 2022.
One major reason for this is “nonpartisan” or “independent” redistricting commissions and other supposed “fixes” for gerrymandering that, in many cases, have only further solidified disproportionate Democratic advantages. In California, for example, voters chose in 2008 to have a commission rather than the state legislature redraw district lines in the hopes of instituting a less partisan redistricting process. But that commission is now poised to eliminate 3 of the state’s 11 GOP-controlled U.S. House seats – a number that was already lower than Republicans’ typical statewide vote share would suggest.
New Jersey also places redistricting responsibilities in the hands of a commission made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats and one “nonpartisan tiebreaker.” However, with the commission gridlocked in December, that tiebreaker, John E. Wallace, Jr., chose the Democratic plan, which appears, unsurprisingly, to be an aggressive Democratic gerrymander.
When pressed on the decision, Wallace said that he chose the Democrats’ map based on analysis from the Princeton University Gerrymandering Project which determined that map to be more fair. However, it recently came to light that several staffers from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project were secretly working with Democratic members of the commission and providing confidential information from their work with Wallace so that Democrats could adjust their map to give it a better chance of being selected by Wallace.
Meanwhile, the Left’s pressure campaign seems to be working to blunt Republicans’ advantage in states controlled by the GOP. In Ohio, for example, the State Supreme Court shot down a partisan map in a 4-3 vote after a ballot initiative passed in 2015 barring maps that “unduly favor or disfavor a political party or its incumbents.” The new map is likely to be far more favorable to Democrats. Similar court battles loom in North Carolina and Florida as well, where Democrats may gain seats by virtue of judges sympathetic to the alleged “anti-gerrymandering” sentiment stoked by Democrats and the mainstream media (which as their hypocrisy shows, is really just thinly veiled partisan opposition to Republicans).
So as Republicans find themselves hamstrung in their efforts to draw favorable districts for themselves, Democratic-controlled states are simply moving control of the redistricting process from an elected, partisan state legislature to an unelected, unaccountable, but still ultimately partisan commission, For Democrats, the benefits are twofold – both cementing permanent control of the redistricting process while maintaining the façade that the process is free from partisan influence.
Democrats’ insistence that Republicans are a “threat to democracy” is a mere projection. As Joe Biden’s poll numbers have tanked and Democrats’ domestic agenda has come unraveled, it is Democrats who have sowed doubts about the legitimacy of American elections, both through baseless accusations about the effects of Republican election integrity laws and manufactured, hypocritical outrage over the redistricting process.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio.
ALL for Power & Control only
The Democratic Communists live by: “Do as I say, not what I do!”
If it weren’t for double standards, the Left would have no standards at all.
The rules be dammed……this is all political gamesmenship….and is part and parcel of both political parties…..they all do this and ignore the rules. It’s bad enough that no party is exempt from playing this card to make things fit to suit their agenda……and they wonder (dems and repubs) just why people don’t trust them as far as they can throw them. The beat goes on, the dance continues…..it’s still the same ole song, the Potomac Two Step.
I love my country, but I no longer trust our government. The elitists, the Socialists, and the Mzlms are destroying our country. Biden and his puppeteers are truly frightening.
There is no such thing as a “nonpartisan.” That is, unless he is brain dead! “Nonpartisan” redistricting will ALWAYS favor DIMMs because they lie!
Exactly what is happening in Maryland right now. Of course republicans are trying to fight it, but it is an uphill battle. There seems to be no place for any other voices other than the Democratics’ voice. And that is precisely why my husband and I will be leaving this state when I retire later in the year.
Maryland is the poster child for Gerrymandering. The late Democrat Elijah Cummins, whose District was in a poor, crime ridden part of Baltimore City, had relocated to prosperous Howard County and his District Gerrymandered to include parts of several conservative Republican Counties across the state. Maryland is a true “one party” state and the Democrats have put Republicans on the endangered species list.
Democrats will never stop screaming against the Republicans, even if they get total control of the country! The Democrats have to have a boogeyman to blame all their blunders on just like Napoleon the pig in Animal Farm!
PLEASE stop referring to the Democrat Party as the “Democratic” Party. First, it is inaccurate. Second, it furthers the misconception of the unaware that we are a democracy rather than a constitutional republic.
Here is an idea worth experimenting with; feed the map/population data into a computer, and let the computer draw the map.
All through our history, the democrats have nibbled at our Constitution!!!! specially our 1st and 2nd amendments. They do not take BIG BITES that pop out at the time that people see!! Because people would rebel right away!!!!
“Fact Checkers I have a Small Chore for you”
( Why was there so many people at the CAPITAL Jan, 6th??? )
As seen by a concerned citizen watching , (At 2,196 Miles driving and 1,838 flying from Washington DC watching the lead up to Jan 6th 2021 on ABC, CBS and NBC!!!!!) and Local News Paper , News E-mails
The story is Vice Pres Biden flew his son to Ukraine, and his son was slam dunked into an CEO of the Energy Company there. Ukraine started to question it with an investigation, but was forced to stop the investigation???
( 1 )Trump was elected US President, he started to check on it, (and democrats of the house started impeachment procedures on Pres Trump? (So was democrats legal for the impeachment President Trump )???? “ 1st reason for so many people Jan 6th was at the US CAPITAL”
( * ) TREATY WITH UKRAINE & US ON MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS
http://www.congress.gov/treaty-document/106th-congress/16/document-text
( 2 ) ( Democrats rallied them on ) Then we had the “BLACK LIVES MATTER MARCH” business’s being destroyed and people losing their lively hoods!!!!! ( OH AND IF ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER ) There was an off duty BLACK LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER died trying to save a friends business with very little talked about him????? “ 2nd reason for so many people Jan 6th was at the CAPITAL”
(3) (The democrats across the United States Voicing TO DEFUND LAW ENFORCEMENT) ????? 3rd reason for so many people Jan 6th was at the CAPITAL”
( 4 ) Progressive Liberals / democrats claim our last Presidential election was a normal election like 2013, 2017 !!! I call it a lie! Let me explain, a normal election we would go to our normal voting area’s, Ours would have been in a 1 through 6th grade school building, we walk up to our assigned table, they ask our name, they look it up in their records book, they ask for our ID / Drivers License, to check our signature.
Because of Covid-19, Unmanned, Unsecured, DROP BOX’S were scattered round towns and city’s, and that’s normal a election???????
“NONE CITIZENS VOTING” OK! hold on a minute before you jump, we have a few states that allow none citizens to vote in city and state elections, ABC, CBS, NBC had clip it seams New York is looking at doing the same thing.
The $64,000.00 question is, if any of these NON CITIZENS just happened to vote in an election for a US President, (WHAT RED FLAG WOULD POP UP????) They are state registered voters!!!!!!
“WE THE PEOPLE WANT A GUARANTEE” That all US CITIZENS votes counts!!! and that all none US CITIZENS votes are block from a US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!!!
From a concerned citizen and vet that took the same OATH of OFFICE as all City Elected, State Elected, and Federal Elected take to PROTECT OUR CONSTITUTION (AGAINST ALL ENEMIES) (FOREIGN ) ( DOMESTIC )
Jim
First of all, I want to thank AMAC for addressing the redistricting map problem in NYS, as I have been trying to get clear transparency on that problem. Funny how the 2 most underperforming except for their vocal comments (actually showing up and doing their jobs) Congressional representatives are being considered capable of representing larger more diverse areas. Don’t worry, despite the smug attitude of the “liberal-progressives Democrats in NYS, they are slowly being dissolved of their fake illusions of promises, especially after telling us that we are having “hysteria illusions” about things.
As part of the conservative thinking section, we need to take a page from their books and use the same technology to get messages out without getting those sites to block our messages. Use their need for political correctness wording to explain away their definitions in every way by making their words work for us.
The SCOTUS erred in my opinion when they ruled that both houses of a bicameral State Legislature should be apportioned by population. By so doing they eliminated one of the checks our Republic has established on the majority and effectively cancelled my vote as I live in a county not heavily populated. When I was in eighth grade in my native state of Connecticut we studied our state constitution. In the General Assembly (lower house) every town was guaranteed representation — one representative until a town’s population reached 5,000, then two representatives, the maximum for any town. State Senate districts were population-based with provisions to limit gerrymandering. While two or more adjoining towns could be combined to make one contiguous and compact district, and a town of high population could be divided into two or more districts it was not permissible to join a part of one town with another town or a part of another town to form a district, i.e. only entire towns could be joined to form a Senatorial district. This would seem to be a better way to guarantee a Republican form of government to the individual states as guaranteed by the Constitution, and provide a check on an intolerant majority..
Both Parties do this as the article states, so for either party to act outraged over this is simply fake and childish behavior.
My question is what is the true percentage of Democrats leaving the party? One pole suggests 7%. How many moms and dads are discussed with the BS. I have a feeling a lot more will vote Republican in the main election.
These Marxist Pigs must be destroyed, enough said. Exit feet first.
Death to the Marxist Pig Democrats.
ALL for Power & Control only
The Democratic Communists live by: “Do as I say, not what I do!”
If it weren’t for double standards, the Left would have no standards at all.
The rules be dammed……this is all political gamesmenship….and is part and parcel of both political parties…..they all do this and ignore the rules. It’s bad enough that no party is exempt from playing this card to make things fit to suit their agenda……and they wonder (dems and repubs) just why people don’t trust them as far as they can throw them. The beat goes on, the dance continues…..it’s still the same ole song, the Potomac Two Step.
I love my country, but I no longer trust our government. The elitists, the Socialists, and the Mzlms are destroying our country. Biden and his puppeteers are truly frightening.
There is no such thing as a “nonpartisan.” That is, unless he is brain dead! “Nonpartisan” redistricting will ALWAYS favor DIMMs because they lie!
Exactly what is happening in Maryland right now. Of course republicans are trying to fight it, but it is an uphill battle. There seems to be no place for any other voices other than the Democratics’ voice. And that is precisely why my husband and I will be leaving this state when I retire later in the year.
Maryland is the poster child for Gerrymandering. The late Democrat Elijah Cummins, whose District was in a poor, crime ridden part of Baltimore City, had relocated to prosperous Howard County and his District Gerrymandered to include parts of several conservative Republican Counties across the state. Maryland is a true “one party” state and the Democrats have put Republicans on the endangered species list.
Democrats will never stop screaming against the Republicans, even if they get total control of the country! The Democrats have to have a boogeyman to blame all their blunders on just like Napoleon the pig in Animal Farm!
PLEASE stop referring to the Democrat Party as the “Democratic” Party. First, it is inaccurate. Second, it furthers the misconception of the unaware that we are a democracy rather than a constitutional republic.
Here is an idea worth experimenting with; feed the map/population data into a computer, and let the computer draw the map.
All through our history, the democrats have nibbled at our Constitution!!!! specially our 1st and 2nd amendments. They do not take BIG BITES that pop out at the time that people see!! Because people would rebel right away!!!!
“Fact Checkers I have a Small Chore for you”
( Why was there so many people at the CAPITAL Jan, 6th??? )
As seen by a concerned citizen watching , (At 2,196 Miles driving and 1,838 flying from Washington DC watching the lead up to Jan 6th 2021 on ABC, CBS and NBC!!!!!) and Local News Paper , News E-mails
The story is Vice Pres Biden flew his son to Ukraine, and his son was slam dunked into an CEO of the Energy Company there. Ukraine started to question it with an investigation, but was forced to stop the investigation???
( 1 )Trump was elected US President, he started to check on it, (and democrats of the house started impeachment procedures on Pres Trump? (So was democrats legal for the impeachment President Trump )???? “ 1st reason for so many people Jan 6th was at the US CAPITAL”
( * ) TREATY WITH UKRAINE & US ON MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS
http://www.congress.gov/treaty-document/106th-congress/16/document-text
( 2 ) ( Democrats rallied them on ) Then we had the “BLACK LIVES MATTER MARCH” business’s being destroyed and people losing their lively hoods!!!!! ( OH AND IF ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER ) There was an off duty BLACK LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER died trying to save a friends business with very little talked about him????? “ 2nd reason for so many people Jan 6th was at the CAPITAL”
(3) (The democrats across the United States Voicing TO DEFUND LAW ENFORCEMENT) ????? 3rd reason for so many people Jan 6th was at the CAPITAL”
( 4 ) Progressive Liberals / democrats claim our last Presidential election was a normal election like 2013, 2017 !!! I call it a lie! Let me explain, a normal election we would go to our normal voting area’s, Ours would have been in a 1 through 6th grade school building, we walk up to our assigned table, they ask our name, they look it up in their records book, they ask for our ID / Drivers License, to check our signature.
Because of Covid-19, Unmanned, Unsecured, DROP BOX’S were scattered round towns and city’s, and that’s normal a election???????
“NONE CITIZENS VOTING” OK! hold on a minute before you jump, we have a few states that allow none citizens to vote in city and state elections, ABC, CBS, NBC had clip it seams New York is looking at doing the same thing.
The $64,000.00 question is, if any of these NON CITIZENS just happened to vote in an election for a US President, (WHAT RED FLAG WOULD POP UP????) They are state registered voters!!!!!!
“WE THE PEOPLE WANT A GUARANTEE” That all US CITIZENS votes counts!!! and that all none US CITIZENS votes are block from a US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!!!
From a concerned citizen and vet that took the same OATH of OFFICE as all City Elected, State Elected, and Federal Elected take to PROTECT OUR CONSTITUTION (AGAINST ALL ENEMIES) (FOREIGN ) ( DOMESTIC )
Jim
First of all, I want to thank AMAC for addressing the redistricting map problem in NYS, as I have been trying to get clear transparency on that problem. Funny how the 2 most underperforming except for their vocal comments (actually showing up and doing their jobs) Congressional representatives are being considered capable of representing larger more diverse areas. Don’t worry, despite the smug attitude of the “liberal-progressives Democrats in NYS, they are slowly being dissolved of their fake illusions of promises, especially after telling us that we are having “hysteria illusions” about things.
As part of the conservative thinking section, we need to take a page from their books and use the same technology to get messages out without getting those sites to block our messages. Use their need for political correctness wording to explain away their definitions in every way by making their words work for us.
The SCOTUS erred in my opinion when they ruled that both houses of a bicameral State Legislature should be apportioned by population. By so doing they eliminated one of the checks our Republic has established on the majority and effectively cancelled my vote as I live in a county not heavily populated. When I was in eighth grade in my native state of Connecticut we studied our state constitution. In the General Assembly (lower house) every town was guaranteed representation — one representative until a town’s population reached 5,000, then two representatives, the maximum for any town. State Senate districts were population-based with provisions to limit gerrymandering. While two or more adjoining towns could be combined to make one contiguous and compact district, and a town of high population could be divided into two or more districts it was not permissible to join a part of one town with another town or a part of another town to form a district, i.e. only entire towns could be joined to form a Senatorial district. This would seem to be a better way to guarantee a Republican form of government to the individual states as guaranteed by the Constitution, and provide a check on an intolerant majority..
Both Parties do this as the article states, so for either party to act outraged over this is simply fake and childish behavior.
My question is what is the true percentage of Democrats leaving the party? One pole suggests 7%. How many moms and dads are discussed with the BS. I have a feeling a lot more will vote Republican in the main election.
These Marxist Pigs must be destroyed, enough said. Exit feet first.
Death to the Marxist Pig Democrats.