* * *
These are the words that resulted in
thirteen British colonies declaring themselves an independent nation in
1776. Eighty-five years later, you, the Confederate States of America,
attempted to deny these words and rebelled against the nation’s government. A terrible war was fought and you lost. Let me repeat that: YOU LOST! As difficult as it might seem, get that through
your heads! You started it and YOU LOST!
That should never be forgotten. It is tragic enough that your secession has
been mostly forgiven. It should be
taught in your schools that ‘all men are created equal’ and that governments derive
their just powers ‘from the consent of the governed.’ And that means all
of the governed. It is time to stop attempting to deny and rewrite the
spirit of those words through political chicanery of which the prime example is
gerrymandering. Never forget that you tried to do that a century and a
half ago with guns and YOU LOST!
Do not attempt to do it now
in State legislatures.
JL
* * * *
Gerrymandering
Like it or not, we have a ‘two party’ system. The party in power can draw district borders in
the State legislatures it controls to give to one party majorities in those State
legislatures as well as in the House of Representatives in numbers
significantly beyond the percentage of a State’s voters that supported that
party. That is undemocratic. That is ‘Gerrymandering’ and is a way of tearing fair representation apart.
It is done by squeezing the ‘other’ party’s voters into one or more illogically laid-out districts so their influence in the districts where they would normally belong is diminished. That’s what gerrymandering does: fixing the district borders so that the resulting composition of a legislative body is unrepresentative of the population. It is wrong regardless of which Party does it when they have the opportunity. (The process is named after Founding Father Elbridge Gerry and the resemblance of the shape of the district involved ending up looking like a salamander.)
District borders must be drawn in a non-partisan
manner. And when they are, as is the
case in some States, that State’s legislature, governor, or courts should not
have the power to invalidate them.
JL
* *
*
State Legislatures as Foes of Democracy
Read more about how State legislatures are turning
out to be foes of democracy, gerrymandering being only one of their tools. See the New York Times article on this by
clicking here or visiting https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/us/tennessee-house-republicans.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20230413&instance_id=90088&nl=the-morning®i_id=78918068&segment_id=130299&te=1&user_id=02fa158150d34dc186b01b1b8ec7a224
Tennessee is not the only place this is happening
and it is very dangerous. In many
States, the legislatures are about to flush democracy down the tube. In some, like Florida, they already have.
JL
* * *
The Supreme Court, Abortion Drugs and Senator Feinstein
Contradictory lower court decisions regarding
availability of the drugs necessary for non-surgical abortions will bring the
matter before the same Supreme Court that invalidated Roe vs. Wade last year, leaving abortion legislation to the States. From the above articles about State
legislatures, we know about the dangerous directions where that can lead.
I do not anticipate any radical change in the
Supreme Court’s position on abortion, other than a short postponement of making a decision on these drugs. Therefore,
it is crucial that the President expand the Court so that it is more
representative of the people’s views on this issue by appointing several
additional Justices. Quickly.
They must be approved by the Senate, where the
Democrats have a slim majority. Right
now that majority is not always available due to the illness of the Senate’s
oldest member, California’s Diane Feinstein.
She will not run for re-election in 2024 but her presence is needed now
to expand the Court. Even now, many of the President’s judgeship
appointments are on hold in the Judiciary Committee because of her
absence. I believe that she should
immediately resign and be replaced by an appointee to be made by California’s Democratic
governor Newsom to fill her seat until 2024.
Expansion of the Supreme Court is the key to
preserving abortion rights for women.
(And passing gun control legislation as well!) But that can cause problems too, for Democrats. Those two issues, if wedded to SCOTUS
expansion, might jeopardize the Democratic Party’s chances in 2024, risking the
votes of those who might feel Court expansion is a step too far. Franklin Delano Roosevelt threatened SCOTUS
expansion during the 1930’s but never went through with it. This is an area where compromises should be
made, but one must trust anyone with whom a deal is made … and few Republicans
are sufficiently trustworthy in my opinion.
It is conceivable, once Feinstein is replaced,
that the threat of expansion of the Supreme Court might suffice to soften its
position, and possibly that of some State legislatures. But that is a gamble on which I do not think
the nation should hang its hopes.
If that doesn't happen, and rapidly, I believe that Supreme Court expansion is the only way to go while it still is possible.
It may not be after November, 2024, when many Democratic Senators in otherwise Republican States are up for re-election.
JL
* * *
A Difficult, but Necessary, Word to Eliminate
One word that should be eliminated from all political dialogue is ‘Christian.’
The First Amendment prevents Congress from making any law ‘respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise.’ That’s great!
But Christianity keeps getting involved in
today’s politics.
Too many Americans believe that because most of the Founding Fathers were Christian, that Christianity has a priority over other religions in this country. It does not. We are not a 'Christian country.' Celebrating Christmas and Easter does not make us one. And the mention of 'Nature's God,' a 'Creator,' or 'Divine Providence' in the Declaration of Independence does not! The existence of a 'National Cathedral' in Washington, D.C. doesn't either. It is totally privately funded.
It is an insult to Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and
those believing in other faiths, and of course to Atheists and Agnostics, to
include 'Christian' in political dialogue as an adjective.
Nominally, more Americans claim to have some degree of faith in some variety of Christianity than in any other religion, but that does not make this a Christian nation. In Europe, this is not the case where ‘Christian’ is often tacked on to the name of political parties to give them greater support. This is not so in the United States and never should be.
The catering of Republicans
to Evangelical Christians, the basing of one’s stand on abortion rights on a theological
position, and efforts to support religious schools with taxpayers’ money are
all un-American. Legislation in these
areas flirts with the ‘establishment’ of a religion as prohibited by the First
Amendment. They have no place on our political spectrum.
I
would go so far, if I had my way, to ban, or even remove, quotations from the
Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament in public buildings. And that includes the Capitol. They belong in houses of worship but not in
houses of government.
JL
* * *
Housekeeping
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