Stay Classy, Virginia
The Virginia State Legislature has taken a clue from national GOP leaders. They are busily attempting to redistrict their state so that no Democrats can win election. The current state senate stands 20 – 20 right now, so you would wonder how they could get this passed.
Well, the devil hisownself couldn’t have topped this one.
The sudden redistricting passed 20-19, because a lone Democratic senator had gone to Washington for the day, for the Inauguration. Senator Henry Marsh is 79, a Civil Rights hero in Virginia, and he wanted to see this inauguration, on Martin Luther King, Jr., day, and while he was gone, Republicans redrew the state for their own advantage. Republicans justified this by saying they had created a new majority black district — by carving off part of Senator Marsh’s district.
I’m telling you, Bubba Beelzebub was last seen rubbing his hands together and making odd giggling noises at this stunt.
Somebody hand Virginia Republicans a handbasket and a map because they will be making that trip to hell. On second thought, they probably already have the map.
And there’s an update:
We’re not done yet.
At the end of this wild day, the “Senate adjourned in memory or (sic) General Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson,” according to the minutes of the session. Jan. 21 is the Confederate general’s birthday.
So, you gotta wonder — did these guys think President Obama was talking about THAT Jackson when he mentioned “Stonewall” in his speech?
Thanks to EMoon for the heads up.
The GOP has not given up on their strategy to disenfranchise those who disagree with them by any means possible. Redistricting is but one of their tools; they’re also (in key states that went blue this time) going after how Electoral College votes are counted, and trying to tie this to the redistricted districts–so that, for instance, by creating more GOP-dominated districts, they can ensure more Electoral College votes. They’re still hot to “eliminate voter fraud” by pushing for more and more restrictions to voter registration, and intend to test the courts’ rejection of those rejected at this last election cycle. And of course there’s making voting harder just by restricting early voting (hours and locations) wherever they think/know there’s an majority opposition, and making it easier for their own neighborhoods to vote.
They are already putting proposals into state legislative sessions and will try to ram these things through fast, before we notice, with little or no debate in the state leges, so that they can have firm control in the 2014 Congressional election cycle and then a chokehold for the next Presidential election.
The GOP no longer cares about “democracy”…they want all the power, all the time, everywhere, and the Koch brothers still have plenty of money. They are determined to roll back the clock so they can be dictators. Yesterday we were happy and dancing in the street..and yesterday look what the Virginia legislature slipped past us. I’m sure they’re feeling mighty fine and clever this morning. Let it be the last time that any GOP-dominated state lege feels that kind of smug.
1Hmmm. Wonder if VA legislature rules allow proxy voting and if so, had the Senator known about the schedule, if he had given his proxy to someone to submit for him.
I think the GOP is taking their voter registration suppression right out of the playbook used by the Department of Motor Vehicles. After my husband passed away I honored one of his instructions concerning moving the title of the car to my name. A friend who had been through this many years ago told me to simply take a copy of the death certificate with me and the old title. That didn’t work. They wanted to see the will! That was a real shocker! I told them tht was none of their business and I didn’t randomly carry it with me anyway. They claimed they wanted to make sure that his car was not mentioned in the will! Had to go home and haul the will back. Then they had me go home and copy the numbers from the odometer. It went on and on like this. Five times I went back and forth to the DMV. When I asked the first time for a listing of requirements, they just looked at me like I was out of my tiny mind. Only when I brought my 38 year old son with me to the DMV did they finally throw in the towel and give me the new title.
Yup. Thats Virginia for yah!
2I wrote about this today, too. Everybody is talking about this. The actions of the Virginia are so reprehensible, so offensive, that it’s getting national attention. I can’t imagine the Governor will sign it, as he’s rumored to have national ambitions. And I don’t know how they could get away with redistricting when they just did that in 2011. What’s the legal justification?
A commenter at my place observed that this is part of a national GOP directive to get the swing states to change how they apportion electoral votes in presidential elections — to do it based on congressional districts, not winnter-takes-all. First redraw state districts to favor Republicans, then change the state constitution to award electoral votes piecemeal. I think they just did that in Pennsylvania.
I don’t see this helping the GOP longterm. Short term they may win a national election or two but the demographics will never be in Republicans’ favor. They refuse to change their ideas to match reality, instead trying to cheat their way into power. They’ve lost the war. Dirty tricks may postpone the inevitable but they can’t change it.
3That’s just tacky. If there is even one classy bone in the GOP collective body they’ve kept it well hidden.
4Well, once again we here in Virginia are trying to give the Texas Lege a little bit of competition. Last time it was the transvaginal probe and now it disenfranchisement through redistricting. And here Juanitajean thought the only clown show was in Austin. Makes me so proud to be a Virginian. Not!
5We are getting to the point where the GOP has become so nutty and unrepresentative that the only way they have a chance in most elections is to cheat.
6Saw this at Talking Points Memo: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/bob-mcdonnell-condemns-dirty-trick.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
I hope the backlash against this legislative sleight of hand stays intense.
7Virginia Gov. McDonnell’s condemnation of the state senate as a “bad way to do business” is playing as the top story today in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. McDonnell is a fellow Republican of Sen. John Watkins, who sponsored the bill.
The Time-Dispatch article also noted that this maneuver has no more chance of becoming law than a flock of pigs taking flight. This ploy is merely the latest in Virginia’s history as a Jim Crow state.
“Any change to Virginia’s district boundaries requires approval by a federal judge or the U.S. Justice Department because of the state’s history of racial discrimination.
“Under the Virginia Constitution, the legislature redraws boundary lines each 10 years after the national census. McDonnell signed a bill creating new legislative boundaries in April 2011.
“Courts have permitted technical adjustments to districts in the interim, but not the sizable rewrite Democrats believe is embedded in the Watkins bill.”
8Yesterday most schools were closed because of MLK Day. Not Carroll County schools. City of Galax yes, Carroll no.
Seems schools will only honor the day based on the percentage of black folks in the district. Once you get past Roanoke, darn near all the rest of southwestern Virginia is roughly 4% black. Some communities have more than than, and a few counties have ZERO black folks living there.
Galax apparently had enough minority students; Carroll County did not.
Nope, no prejudice here….
9@maggie – if you had walked into the DMV, explained that your husband had passed, but you wondered if you could leave the registration in his name, most likely they would have insisted you change it to your name! And been indignant about it.
10@UmptyDump, I thought VA must be a Voting Rights Act state, just like TX, and for the same reason: the fox still can’t be trusted to guard the henhouse!
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