https://www.vox.com/scotus/23861973/wisconsin-gerrymander-republican-impeachment-justice-protasiewicz-supreme-court
Wisconsin’s legislature is gerrymandered to ensure that Democrats will never win it. Republicans have a plan to keep it that way.
"Those who make winning honest elections impossible will make gerrymandering inevitable."
-Republicans, probably
Republicans, party platform of thwarting the rule of the people and democracy. And they'll keep on doing it until you vote them all out of office.
It is this. They know they don't have ideas and policies that people want, so they can't win fair elections. So they don't want democracy anymore. They want to rule us and force their views on us.
Stop voting for Republicans, they don't believe in our democracy.
It’s kinda worse than that though. They feel it’s their moral imperative to force their ideologies on us. That they are fighting some holy war against evil. They have to win by any means necessary. The most ardent believers think that the country is already evil and can only be washed clean with the blood of…. I guess anyone who doesn’t share their views. Right wing extremism is all over the world, not just the states. And it’s damned scary times right now.
So kinda like Sharia law but based on bullshit Republican ideas instead of a religion. Also Republicans would lose their everliving minds if it was suggested they live under Sharia law.
Well most of them base their ideas on their particularly twisted version of Christianity, so pretty much exactly like Sharia law. Some of them don't even hide it and straight up admit they want Christian flavored Sharia law. Republican voters seem to be a pretty even mix of militant authoritarian Christians and those that don't actually care about religion but find the ones that do to be useful puppets so they play along. Nearly all the politicians just talk about Christianity because it plays well with their supporters, although there's a few that are legitimate believers and those are the truly frightening ones.
Y'allqueda is a drive to be reconned with. Original klandma is out there calling for civil war two electric boogaloo. At this point I just wish they'd been more successful in organizing a large scale insurrection on Jan 6 so we could have a nice pile of bodies.
I hope not eventually thier base will die out. Majority of young voters will be left leaning. Sorry GOP boomers are dying and so will your party.
We've been saying that for decades now. There is a reason that "stupid activist" was an archetype in so many high school/college movies. republicans were afraid of The Kids.
And yes, it is true. GenX/Millennials tend to not care about being "fiscally conservative" or "being a god fearing christian" like boomers did. So... the republican party pivoted to open bigotry and hate which vibed well with South Park Libertarians who "are just making jokes and fuck you for judging me for it". Same as Boomers largely transitioning from "free spirited hippies" to "fiscally conservative" the moment they realized they had bills and one party was pretending they would cut taxes.
I hope that Millennials/GenZ continue this trend of giving a shit about other human beings. But... I can already see a lot of the "Fuck the world, we have no future and I just want to live my life" getting pivoted to support republicans. Arguably we already have that with the active refusal to do anything about climate change and the dismantling of education. Just need a carrot or two to "justify" dooming future generations.
The issue for the GOP is millennials are not getting more conservative as they age. IIRC it's like a 55/45 split in dems favor and it's gets more starkly blue the younger you go. If this trend continues of young people not getting more conservative, the GOP is beyond fucked.
And if we lived in a democracy, that would matter.
But so long as they can pivot enough people to be "apolitical" or "moderate" and disenfranchise others, gerrymandering is enough to stay in power until the country falls apart.
At this point? Anyone who identifies as "conservative" is a batshit insane evangelical with a hard-on for murder. But PLENTY of folk love to call themselves "moderate" or "apolitical" which is the old "I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative so I am going to vote for Bush". And that is assuming they vote at all.
Because republicans don't need a majority. As they are so eager to explain: This is not a democracy. All they need is to maintain power in a few key districts and disenfranchise and fraud the rest. That is literally their strategy and they are pretty open about it. The younger generations lean blue and are hopefully going to stay blue, but 55% (or even 60%) is not enough.
I'll also add on that a LOT of the left leaning nature of millennials/gen z is because of exposure to others as part of college. And there is near constant pushback from all sides about how college "is too expensive and not worth it and doesn't accomplish anything". Which can do wonders for breaking younger gen z/whatever we are calling their kids (tide pod babies?). I mean, even a lot of the "fuck cars, we need walkable cities where everything I could ever want is in a five block radius" crowd are kind of reinventing the idea of a "small town" that you are born to, live in, and die in.
It's a problem because of free movement. I live in GA which us now gloriously purple. Do you know the biggest problem GA has right now? The homesteading movement. A lot of urbanites are spreading from cities. My county (which I just move to lol) was so close to flipping blue they split it in two. And that doesn't matter because I've seen democrat leaning people from the city movement even further past me deeper into rural GA.
To me, this is why they're fighting municipal broadband. I actually fucking hate cities. I've lived in the heart or Atlanta, of DC and more. I hate it. I'd rather a real small town (not bullshit suburbs). I can live here because the town has city sponsored fiber internet. It has made the whole ass area a magnet for tech people. Locals hate it. The city loves that sweet, sweet tax money. And it's like a virus prompting neighboring cities to give it a whirl. But you get just a drop of city folk to move and suddenly a whole district is blue.
That's why this widening divide is a horrible problem. I know a lot of people like me, liberal city haters who are chained to cities for jobs. Some people move because they can, but a lot more people are moving because they have to. My sister lives in bumfuck, GA because that's where she can afford rent and that is a stealth problem for the GOP IMO. Kids are going to show up and gentrify their small towns as broadcast rolls out and remote work is more common
I mean, that kind of speaks to why "purple" is not the major win we like to think it is.
Because people who are strongly liberal/leftist tend to not view "I am going to move to Bumfuck, Arkansas and just get some blackout shades so that I don't see the cross burnings" as being at all an option. Which really sucks. Because raising a family (or just being an older introvert) in a city kind of sucks.
Like, I know a lot of people who did the California->Austin exodus over the past five or six years. And they all claim they are insanely liberal and are going to a bastion of sanity. But... they also make strong statements regarding where tax money should go, got incredibly pissy when a trans friend asked them to not talk about terf-wizards game, etc.
Which is why you won't see someone like AOC getting elected in those "purple" states. We are looking at DINOs and "moderate" republicans like romney. Which... is still a LOT better than magats like trump and desantis. But, at best, that gets us back to 90s/00s levels of "we are fucked".
"Purple" is a battleground state. Which is a hell of a lot better than a solid red state but still benefits republicans with even an iota of charisma (so... not the magats).
Sometimes I see people saying raising a family in a city sucks and oof, man, my experience growing up in the suburbs was a nightmare. Can't go anywhere. Nothing to do. Can't even see friends unless I can convince my parents to drive me.
People I knew growing up in the city had freedom. I was always so jealous.
Maybe it's different if your nearest city is some car hell hole instead of New York.
Apologies for the tangent
There's a middle ground. I'm in a true small city of 10K and I love it. The city is all of 10 miles square. It has all the basics movie theater, most chains, etc. The city isn't walkable, but it is bikeable and I've found that to be good enough. I grew up in a city like this and I wanted that for my kid. We still drive into the local metro maybe once a month, but I don't ever need to go into the metro for basics.
Maybe it’s different if your nearest city is some car hell hole instead of New York.
So, basically every city not on the eastern seaboard, lol.
But I'm not talking about moving fuck all no where. I'm talking about expanding the range impact of cities. We got this way because people all moved to cities. If people spread like a wave away from cities, then the power impact decreases. My town is went from a Christian stronghold where you couldn't drink and everything was closed on Sunday to a place where a Republicans have to battle for local spots and most highly religious laws have been repealed.
Im halfway between 2 major cities. One is the major metro and the other a mid-size city. It used to be very red going 30 minutes away from either, but now we have a sea of purple. And areas are only getting bluer.
Everywhere in GA outside of like 4 cities is bumbfuck, but being I proximity of cities and growing small towns into midsized cities is the way to win. When I was a kid my hometown was bumfuck, GA. Now it's a major city (for GA. I mean it's sub-1 million by a lot) and solidly blue when it used to be very red.
We won't see an AOC type for a long time, but a moderate republican (not a Manchin type) is a way better platform than any republican.
Ignoring the societal and cultural impact of gentrification:
Again. Moving out to bumfuck is just not something that "leftist" people do. It is slowly shifting the local politics but you are still looking at very "moderate" candidates.
What you are describing is basically just urban sprawl. "The Bay Area" extending dozens of miles inland at this point is a good example of this. Also, the entirety of the state of New Jersey relative to NYC (never turn down an opportunity to piss off New Jersey). It is the idea that people move to the city, want to buy a house (or just not live in the city), and move an hour or so away.
And THIS is how you actually stay liberal/progressive. But is also a much longer timeframe and is increasingly impacted by housing prices. Just adding 30 minutes to your commute to buy a townhouse really isn't an option for the vast majority of the country at this point. Which gets you into that mess of "Well, I can either live next to someone with a twenty foot confederate flag or pay rent the rest of my life..." state
And also? Urban Sprawl is a known concept. Gerrymandering stepped up its game to handle it.
I wonder how the “I just want to live my life” crowd squares that mindset with republican policies. Because so far the only people fucking with my life have been the republicans. No you cant smoke weed, yes you must have a baby, go fuck yourself for healthcare, but here’s some tax cuts! (Just kidding, those are only for the rich people). Also, I hope you like video because we are banning alllll the books.
Its almost exactly the same thing that led to so many 90s kids identifying as "libertarian" and the rise of South Park Libertarians.
People are stupid.
As for how they square this? Look at any thread about what a hellhole texas and florida are. You'll have lots of (increasingly angry) comments about how "Well, I am not a trans person or a woman so it is fine. And the (something banal) is amazing. Best place in the world".
If "Fuck you, we won't let anyone buy EVs and will actively require everyone to spray CFCs into the air" gets "And in exchange we'll give back 0.000001% of the money we stole from schools and medical workers as a scamcoin", it will likely be the end of it for the tiktok generation... and a LOT of millennials who claim to be socially progressive up until someone questions why they are giving a TERF so much money.
I wonder how the “I just want to live my life” crowd squares that mindset with republican policies.
They don't because they can't. As a Classical Liberal / Libertarian the people you are describing sicken me with their ongoing support for Government interference in people's personal lives. To put it in the simplest possible terms the Government has no business in your bedroom, board room, doctors office, or gun safe.
I'm very angry at the recent attacks on gender affirming care for the LGBTQ+ folks, the fuckery happening with travel for abortion access, and a laundry list of other issues where Republican led States are tramping all over people's rights. I'm also still pissed off at Texas and Florida over their COVID policies disallowing private companies from being able to require masks and / or covid vaccinations for employees and customers.
Ronald Reagan once described Libertarianism as "the very heart and soul of conservatism" and he was correct. The problem with most so called "Conservatives" today is that they've lost their "heart and soul" and become Regressives in the process.
If we continue Reagan's quote, linked up above, we can see just how far off the god damned rails today's Conservatives are: "The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”
Any Libertarian supporting the Regressive and Authoritarian efforts of today's Conservatives is a lying LINO.
If we continue Reagan’s quote, linked up above, we can see just how far off the god damned rails today’s Conservatives are: "The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”
That's the sales pitch.
The real basis of conservatism is the establishment of in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. Anything a conservative tells you the "basis" is is a lie to con gullible people to buy into their own self-destruction for the benefit of wealthy narcissists. Conservatism is political narcissism.
We need to find a way to shutdown the outrage stroking right wing indoctrination media complex first.
If you have no prospects and no education to know how to separate reality from hate mongering lies it's pretty easy for an alternate reality talking head to convince you that the only reason you don't have a job, house and wife is because someone named Carlos was allowed past the border to pick cucumbers.
Their base is already dying out. They wouldn’t need to try so hard to rig Wisconsin’s election if they already had a majority. What we’re seeing is a dying party trying to claw its way back to relevance.
a lot of younger cheddarheads have been raised in the maga ways, though. it might be the case overall, but not as defined here.
It's why all this has been accelerating to the point we are at now, where they aren't even trying to hide it, now. They have their voters so wound up and chomping for war against anyone they perceive to be a threat to rolling back to when white males had all the power and privilege.
It's why boomers won't leave the workforce, and Congress, even when they are being led around like a spin-off of *Weekend at Bernie's." Soon as they retire or step down, the youngsters come in undo all the lies and bullshit they were too dumb and/or gullible to question. The was just an employee recognition event where I work, which is in higher ed, and there was someone there who had over 55 years at the university. Fucking wild. I can't wait to retire and stop doing this money-for-time (and during the prime of my life) so some rich asshole can make more money in an hour than I make all year!
Yeah my company keeps hiring guys with 40 to 50 years experience and I am like WTF retire already.
There are tons of super right wing young people. I mean all the alt right "personalities" are probably under 40. Lots of my coworkers, for example, are at best die-hard Republicans, and most of them are under 35.
They're in no danger of dying out. And even if they actually are, we should rely on that to reduce the influence of the Republican party.
I'm not terribly hopeful. I'm an older millennial. As I've gotten older, I've watched my friends grow up, get jobs, have kids, move to the suburbs, etc. They got a little bit of what's theirs (obviously not enough, but still) and they want to protect it. They vote to protect their investment in their house and to keep their school district good. They're nowhere near fascist like the current crop of republican politicians, but they're scared and that leads them to voting more small c conservatively. You and I both know that republican policies are trash and that the values espoused in theory by the democratic party are better for them. But they finally made it. They're prizing stability or better, because change is scary.
Will the super racist republican party base die out? Maybe. Probably. But they're just going to be replaced by center right democrats. Sure, that's better, but not so much better that it'll fix all the problems we have. Maybe the gen-Zers can do something about it, but I'm afraid their political power will be dwarfed by the sheer size of the Millennial generation.
States are removing even the smallest traces of leftism from public schools and as those fail (by design) they're hoping families will opt into private schools that are traditionally parochial and thus indoctrinate children even harder.
So, if Protasiewicz’s court also is not allowed to strike down these gerrymanders, the people of Wisconsin will be left with no lawful recourse whatsoever against permanent Republican control of their state legislature.
Emphasis mine.
Those Republican Wisconsin state legislators are gonna find out what that means if they keep unabashedly fucking around like this.
At some point the republicans may have to change their name. I mean, if the republic no longer exists…. Authoriticans? Autocritans? Fascicans?
I jest, I jest.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Wisconsin GOP’s ostensible reason for impeaching Protasiewicz is that, as a candidate for her current office, the justice campaigned against the state’s gerrymandered maps — calling them “rigged.” Republicans claim this means she impermissibly prejudged the Clarke case and must recuse from it.
But there is a US Supreme Court case — Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002) —that is almost directly on point here, holding that candidates for judicial office have a First Amendment right to publicly state their positions on contentious legal issues while they are campaigning for election.
Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in Republican Party persuasively lays out why it makes no sense to strip judicial candidates of their free speech rights in the midst of an election campaign.
The Court’s decision in Republican Party should prohibit the Wisconsin GOP from impeaching Protasiewicz because she expressed a view on a contentious legal issue while she was a candidate for judicial office.
Last December, during oral arguments in Moore v. Harper, Alito asked whether “it furthers democracy to transfer the political controversy about districting from the legislature to elected supreme courts where the candidates are permitted by state law to campaign on the issue of districting?” So Alito seemed to suggest that it would be improper for a state supreme court to rule in a gerrymandering case if its members are even allowed to campaign on this issue.
So, if Protasiewicz’s court also is not allowed to strike down these gerrymanders, the people of Wisconsin will be left with no lawful recourse whatsoever against permanent Republican control of their state legislature.
The original article contains 1,239 words, the summary contains 266 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
If they try this shit we need to get the DOJ involved or send the military in, fuck it. This is clearly a form of sedition, essentially trying to destroy democracy in the state.