Friends, for decades, one of the primary aims of Congressional redistricting -- whether anyone admitted it or not -- was the maximization of the number of black Democrats in Congress. But how do you achieve this? Not by packing as many blacks as possible into all-black districts. Heck, no! Not by distributing blacks evenly over all districts. Not a chance! You do it by putting a lot of blacks -- a critical mass of, say, 40-60% -- in as many districts as possible. Then, said districts will naturally choose a black man or woman as the Democratic candidate for Congress, and that black man or woman will almost certainly win. Presto: the Congressional Black Caucus (which wouldn't even dream of admitting a Republican) grows and grows and grows. Well, the Supreme Court is thinking about blowing up this unwritten rule in American politics by insisting that race play no role whatsoever in redistricting. Probably, this would mean fewer blacks in Congress, and possibly more Republicans in Congress. Ergo, Democrats will cry "RACISM!!!", when, in reality, this result would actually reflect the removal of racist intent from the process. It's a tangled web, for sure, but I encourage SCOTUS to do the right thing and extirpate "reverse racism" from our elections. The fact that Republicans stand to gain, well...that's icing on the cake.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-appears-ready-limit-key-part-voting/story?id=126556613
In other news, Trump's tariffs sure haven't worked out the way the experts said they would. Not only has the economy not fallen off a cliff, but the markets have soared, while inflation remains well under control. One surprising (to some) benefit of the tariffs has been that the additional cost of importing goods, and the uncertainties regarding those costs going forward, has encouraged manufacturers to "reshore" production, i.e. bring it home to the USA. Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, is doing that in a big way!
Finally, this article may exaggerate somewhat the significance of the underlying poll, but it remains the case that young leftists are growing increasingly militant. It would not take much in the way of intemperate rhetoric -- and there's plenty of that flying around -- to light the fuse of youth unrest, not to mention baby-faced assassins. If you ask me, social media and media companies have a moral, and possibly a legal, obligation to bring this radicalized, hateful discourse under some kind of control, which means basically deplatforming those who cross "the line", wherever that mythical line may be located. The alternative is steadily increasing political violence.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I am not aware of another multiracial nation which has made more sincere effort to right the undoubted racial injustices of its past. It started with 300,000 Union deaths in the Civil War and the ravaging and occupation of the South. It failed racial minorities during the period between the Civil War and the 1950s . After that , devoted and courageous activism on the part of racial minorities and sympathetic supporters moved the conscience of this, ON BALANCE, just nation to make de jure racial inequality anathema.
ReplyDeleteSome maintain that the troubled nature of so many predominantly racial minority localities is attributable to by definition continued purposeful social and legal discrimination against racial minorities. Some hold that our country has gone as far as it can in mandating political , educational , housing and professional advantages for those who in the past had little chance for advancement. It appears that the latter view may be ascending now. Our present Scotus appears in its majority to be inclined to hold that our laws enjoin us to ensure equality of opportunity but not necessarily results.
Efforts to increase Black membership in Congress are fully in the freely competitive tradition of U.S. politics, I think. But, that that membership is a bloc which can be casually presumed to support the increasingly discredited dem party may not hold much longer. The further far left the dems move, the more they prove to be of a piece with far leftists who achieved the totalitarian power the "American" far left seeks; everyone suffers equally and unendingly when they take charge and jealously protect their luxuries.