As the redistricting season is in full effect, Democrats and others on the left are screaming about supposed racism in Republicans’ efforts to draw new district lines. They say the GOP wants to reduce the vote of voters from black and brown, which tends to support Democrats. Their incessant race-baiting is, however, a grave problem.
It Washington Post noted that last time it was time for redistricting, “North Carolina Republicans redrew their legislative districts to help their party in a way that a federal court ruled illegally deprived Black voters of their right to political representation.”
Later, the state court ruled against GOP-created maps. They were argued to have been drawn in partisan fashion. Continued the author:
As the GOP-controlled legislature begins this year’s latest round of redistricting it has committed not to use race data or partisan data in drawing the lines. However, Republicans’ proposed maps would be heavily in favor of their party. Several publicly released congressional maps dilute Democratic votes by splitting the state’s biggest city, Charlotte — also its largest African American population center — into three or four U.S. House districts and giving the GOP at least a 10-4 advantage in a state that Donald Trump narrowly won last year.
The report points out that North Carolina is “one of at least three states where Republicans say they are drawing maps without looking at racial and party data,” but also notes that the maps still favor Republicans.
Democrats don’t care about this because they never miss an opportunity to promote a racist narrative. Thomas Saenz of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed suit against Texas Republicans for how they drew their maps.
“I suspect they’re trying to set up a defense for litigation. Because they know the race data – they know where the Black community lives. They know where the Latino community lives.”
Gerrymandering, which allows a party to draw its districts so that it has a greater influence on the voters and less power over the opposition party, is long a controversial topic. This is an activity that both parties engage in but the Democrats want to pretend it’s only the Republicans.
The Supreme Court issued in 2019 a ruling prohibiting federal courts to overturn maps drawn on an partisan basis. State courts are allowed to intervene if necessary.
The Post noted that “[i]f mapmakers explicitly try to weaken voters’ power based on race, they may violate the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law” and that “the Voting Rights Act requires them to consider race if the state has ‘racially polarized’ voting, in which white people consistently vote against candidates backed by a minority racial or ethnic group.”
The author continues, explaining that in the aforementioned scenario, those drawing the maps must “create a district in which that minority comprises a plurality or majority of voters so they can elect their preferred candidates.”
Of course, this has resulted in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation for the Republicans. North Carolina state Sen. Paul Newton, who heads the state’s redistricting committee, said:
“It’s truly a conundrum and has been for the last decade for the GOP, because when we look at race, we were told we shouldn’t have, and those maps were struck down.”
He continued: “Now that we’re not looking at race, the Democrat Party is telling us, ‘Oh, you should be looking at race.’”
It is intentional. It allows the Democrats to call Republicans racist, regardless of what they do, which further demonstrates that racism isn’t really the issue here.
Also, the article noted that:
The Republican-controlled legislature has complete control of redistricting; its maps cannot be vetoed by its Democratic governor. The 2016 federal court found North Carolina Republicans illegally placed Black voters into 2 congressional districts in order to reduce African American votes. The court ordered that the map be redrawn. The 2019 Supreme Court case was based on this updated map.
Texas also lost redistricting cases in court. However, this time they indicated that they will not factor race in the creation of new districts. Texas state Sen. Joan Huffman, who drew the state’s maps, said in a Senate hearing: “I’ve stated it, and I’ll state it again – we drew these maps race blind.”
Latino civil rights groups have pointed to the reality that, despite the growth in Texas’ Latino, black, and Asian populations, the new maps don’t create majority black or Latino districts. Last week, they brought new suits. “The only time that communities of color can get justice is going to the courthouse,” said Democratic state Rep. Rafael Anchia, chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.
Here’s the bottom line. Republicans DoGerrymandering is used to increase electoral advantage. But this isn’t rooted in racism. You would never find a leftist answering your question if you asked them if Republicans would draw their districts that way if the majority vote was from blacks and Latinos.
Why?
It is not because of race, but it’s purely political. The fact is, most blacks and Latinos vote Democrat, and this is Republicans’ gerrymandering would impact them the most. It’s about political power, not racism.
The fact is that both parties use gerrymandering to benefit their chances for electoral victories — there is no way around that. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois is at risk of losing his seat due to the way that state Democrats draw their districts. This tactic is used by both the parties as I explained in a prior piece.
Unfortunately, nobody actually cares about gerrymandering – they just don’t like it when their political opposition does it. The problem is guaranteed to continue. The only way to deal with it is to take off the partisan glasses that have been welded to everyone’s heads.
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