I read this with a shiver because I came of age in Texas and really, with 4 generations of family there, grew up within the Texas political machine, or really, acceptance of the Texas political machine. My father's family could never understand why I always questioned Texas Politics when "it's always been done this way."
I watched from afar the gerrymandering a few years ago, watched legislature members flee the state in order to force a no vote for lack of a quorum, watched the slicing and dicing of districts and I sat here thinking. 'I know it hasn't always been done this way', and 'I am so embarrassed to be from that state.'
I dislike the why and the how of DeLay's deconstruction of Texas districts, but really is that machination a much of a change? The all encompassing power of the many judges and political bosses of Texas, from reconstruction to World War II is a history in idealism, graft, greed, hate, and pure power. Read that history and one can be forgiven for thinking the district lines in Texas have always been drawn in the lightest of tracing pencil with a fat eraser always at the ready in the ham-fist of which ever politico currently held the most power.
These are the same power men who held the state in thrall so that most small and many moderate sized rural communities in the state didn't have electricity or running water until the early 1960s. The Texas Utility Commission is the closest thing to state run mafia Texas has to this day.
So when I read our California Proposal for redistricting I flinched so hard, I nearly knocked a hole in the plaster. I rooted around to find the document so that I could read the actual text of the proposed law. It has enough jargon in it to make your eyes bleed, but I read anyway. It is one of the few times I am thankful for the training I had as a paralegal all those years ago. It does help me weed through high language and the convoulted grammar of law. My only conclusion: this is a bad way to go about it. Not that I was surprised by that conclusion, mind you.
I do not have quite the steeping in California state history as I do of Texas. I've lived here for 15 years now. I remember my stints here, both north and south, as a child when my dad was stationed at Alameda and Long Beach. I have often been amused by the idea that California needs to be divided north and south by a line that runs from Paso Robles due east.
But the question is: the way our districts are currently drawn. Do they make sense, are they fair, and does it allow for accurate representation of the constituents? I'd say no, it doesn't. However, I've yet to see a fair, workable, viable plan of redrawing districts that serves the populace, not a special interest group or a political party, political machine, or individual politician.
We are the spoils of their very self-serving war and that irritates me to no end.
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Date: 2005-11-10 05:32 pm (UTC)I watched from afar the gerrymandering a few years ago, watched legislature members flee the state in order to force a no vote for lack of a quorum, watched the slicing and dicing of districts and I sat here thinking. 'I know it hasn't always been done this way', and 'I am so embarrassed to be from that state.'
I dislike the why and the how of DeLay's deconstruction of Texas districts, but really is that machination a much of a change? The all encompassing power of the many judges and political bosses of Texas, from reconstruction to World War II is a history in idealism, graft, greed, hate, and pure power. Read that history and one can be forgiven for thinking the district lines in Texas have always been drawn in the lightest of tracing pencil with a fat eraser always at the ready in the ham-fist of which ever politico currently held the most power.
These are the same power men who held the state in thrall so that most small and many moderate sized rural communities in the state didn't have electricity or running water until the early 1960s. The Texas Utility Commission is the closest thing to state run mafia Texas has to this day.
So when I read our California Proposal for redistricting I flinched so hard, I nearly knocked a hole in the plaster. I rooted around to find the document so that I could read the actual text of the proposed law. It has enough jargon in it to make your eyes bleed, but I read anyway. It is one of the few times I am thankful for the training I had as a paralegal all those years ago. It does help me weed through high language and the convoulted grammar of law. My only conclusion: this is a bad way to go about it. Not that I was surprised by that conclusion, mind you.
I do not have quite the steeping in California state history as I do of Texas. I've lived here for 15 years now. I remember my stints here, both north and south, as a child when my dad was stationed at Alameda and Long Beach. I have often been amused by the idea that California needs to be divided north and south by a line that runs from Paso Robles due east.
But the question is: the way our districts are currently drawn. Do they make sense, are they fair, and does it allow for accurate representation of the constituents? I'd say no, it doesn't. However, I've yet to see a fair, workable, viable plan of redrawing districts that serves the populace, not a special interest group or a political party, political machine, or individual politician.
We are the spoils of their very self-serving war and that irritates me to no end.