National Republican Gerrymandering

From the Declaration of Independence from the Treasonous Republican Party

The Party has masterminded, through their “Redstate” program Gerrymandering at a national level. This is an assault on the American idea of “one person, one vote”, and when it has been used in our past history for the benefit of individual incumbents, it is a wrong and a shame on that politician; when it is done, as it has been for the first time in US history, nationwide for the benefit of international corporations, as was this scheme of the Republican Party, it is treasonous. (9)


Republican Party Gerrymandering

Treason; the action of betraying someone or something. There is no greater betrayal in a democratic country then to steal another citizen’s vote. Anyone or any party that purposely and repeatedly conspires to either take our vote from us or lessen the value of a cast vote is treasonous to us all. The first part of the “Declaration” centered on the motives of the owners of the Republican Party. We now turn to eight separate but coordinated actions of the GOP, all of which, in one way or another is focused on depriving citizens, opposed to their selfishness, from either casting a vote or, as we are about to see in this section about the un-American practice of Gerrymandering, preventing their casted vote from being equally counted.

It’s hard to call Gerrymandering un-American; the very word comes from a US politician, Senator Gerry, who in 1812 redistricted Massachusetts in a way that, a cartoonist felt, resembled a salamander. (Wikipedia, “Gerrymandering”). None the less gerrymandering is an assault on the American value of “one person, one vote”, and when it is used nation wide for the benefit of offshore international corporations it is nothing less than treasonous.

In the past, politicians had the good sense to realize this action as un-American, and localized redistricting was the “backroom” shenanigans of deceitful incumbents. After the Obama win in 2008 and with the senate still barely in democratic control the Republican Party felt that it was time to leave the local backroom and, for the first time in American history, go nationwide. They organized big corporate donors into a national group to affect local election with the express purpose of redistricting America after the 2010 census. So open were they, that they proudly named themselves the Redistricting Majority Project or REDMAP for short. Every American should read the boasting report below of the Republican Party website on January 2013. Note the Pride that is communicated as the Republican Party operatives report to their international bosses on how successful they were in stealing the true representation from the American people.


2012 Congressional Elections: REDMAP’s Impact

President Obama won reelection in 2012 by nearly 3 points nationally, and banked 126 more electoral votes than Governor Mitt Romney. Democratic candidates for the U.S. House won 1.1 million more votes than their Republican opponents. But the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives is a Republican and presides over a 33-seat House Republican majority during the 113th Congress. How? One needs to look no farther than four states that voted Democratic on a statewide level in 2012, yet elected a strong Republican delegation to represent them in Congress: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Michigan

The effectiveness of REDMAP is perhaps most clear in the state of Michigan. In 2010, the RSLC put $1 million into state legislative races, contributing to a GOP pick-up of 20 seats in the House and Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. Republican Rick Snyder won the gubernatorial race, and with it Republicans gained control of redrawing Michigan’s 148 legislative and 14 congressional districts. The 2012 election was a huge success for Democrats at the statewide level in Michigan: voters elected a Democratic U.S. Senator by more than 20 points and reelected President Obama by almost 10 points. But Republicans at the state level maintained majorities in both chambers of the legislature and voters elected a 9-5 Republican majority to represent them in Congress.

Ohio

Ohio once again proved to be the national bellwether, voting to reelect President Obama to a second term in the White House by almost two points. On the statewide level, Ohioans also elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate by more than five points. But the Republican firewall at the state legislative and congressional level held. In 2010, REDMAP allocated nearly $1 million to Ohio House races, resulting in a Republican take over of the House and increasing the GOP majority in the Senate. With the election of Republican John Kasich to the governor’s mansion, the GOP controlled the redrawing of 132 state legislative and 16 congressional districts. Republican redistricting resulted in a net gain for the GOP state House caucus in 2012, and allowed a 12-4 Republican majority to return to the U.S. House of Representatives – despite voters casting only 52 percent of their vote for Republican congressional candidates.

Pennsylvania

A REDMAP target state, the RSLC spent nearly $1 million in Pennsylvania House races in 2010 – an expenditure that helped provide the GOP with majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Combined with former Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett’s victory in the gubernatorial race, Republicans took control of the state legislative and congressional redistricting process. The impact of this investment at the state level in 2010 is evident when examining the results of the 2012 election: Pennsylvanians re-elected a Democratic U.S. Senator by nearly nine points and reelected President Obama by more than five points, but at the same time they added to the Republican ranks in the State House and returned a 13-5 Republican majority to the U.S. House.

Wisconsin

In 2010, the RSLC spent $1.1 million to successfully flip both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature. With the election of Republican Governor Scott Walker, the GOP gained control of the redistricting process and gave Wisconsinites and all of America a firsthand look at what bold conservative leadership looks like. In mid-2012, Democrats were able to regain control of the Wisconsin Senate, albeit for a period of time when the chamber was out of session. In November 2012, however, running on lines redrawn after the successes of 2010, Republicans were able to retake the Senate and add to their margins in the House. On a statewide level, in 2012, Wisconsin voters elected a Democratic U.S.

Senator by nearly six points and reelected President Obama by nearly seven points, but still returned a 5-3 Republican majority to Congress, including the GOP vice presidential nominee, Representative Paul Ryan.

REDMAP’s effect on the 2012 election is plain when analyzing the results: Pennsylvanians cast 83,000 more votes for Democratic U.S. House candidates than their Republican opponents, but elected a 13-5 Republican majority to represent them in Washington; Michiganders cast over 240,000 more votes for Democratic congressional candidates than Republicans, but still elected a 9-5 Republican delegation to Congress. Nationwide, Republicans won 54 percent of the U.S. House seats, along with 58 of 99 state legislative chambers, while winning only 8 of 33 U.S. Senate races and carrying only 47.8 percent of the national presidential vote.

-Republican Party website, January 2013

It is worth mentioning that the takeover of the local Republican legislators, who then systematically proceeded to participate in this nationwide (the above 4 states are just examples of the whole) assault on our democracy, coincided with the “Tea Party” movement. To what extent the international conglomerates participated in the funding and success of the Tea Party is unknown but highly suspicious. What is known is that the good citizens who were a part of the movement were appalled by the size of the national debt. The Obama plan, at that time, to save capitalism and prevent the nation from falling into a deep recession, was going to, and did, increase the debt to WW II high levels. It was cause for concern. But now, that the country is both, on the high side of the business cycle which is the easiest time to be fiscally responsible and pay down this “debt on our children” and the Tea Party candidates are in complete control of the government, the Republican Party no longer finds the debt to be a problem. As an insult to the grassroots workers of the Tea Party movement they increased the “debt on our children” through tax cuts disproportionately for the richest among them. Indeed the only political result of the Tea Party movement was to accomplish the un-American goals of the REDMAP program.

In the previous part of the “Declaration” unknown international “pirates” whose single goal was the plundering of our country, were spoken of often without names. The names of the donors to the REDMAP program is a list of those Pirates. But more disappointing then the scourge of a few big pocket international bad guys is the thousands of American Republican Party functionaries who participated in this treason. They called it partisanship. Those who opposed the vote rigging boundaries were just labeled the uncompromising other side. Non the less, the purposeful boundary adjustments to diminish the votes of fellow citizens is an act of treason to all of us; and we are rightfully disappointed. We feel that those participants need to be as diligent today in fixing the problem as you were then; when you betrayed the most sacred of American values.

The good news is that even today the ousting of the international corporate monarchy (whoever they are) who now put all of their currency in only one political party are easily ousted. We must simply always vote and always vote against the mercenary red coat Republican Party; that the parties death becomes an historical example to any other group that elects to go down this treasonous path.