![]() Tyrannical control of government is for lesser countries. But more sober analysts remind us that America is protected by our tradition of democracy. Histrionic Republicans have long accused American Democrats as being no different from wanna-be tyrants around the world. You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off.”īut hey, it’s just Turkey, right? That could never happen here in America, right? Right. He compared democracy to riding public transportation: “ Democracy is like a tram. Until you got the correct people in power. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan felt that democracy was good for changing leadership quickly and easily, and was a good system of government to use. Nonetheless, section 2(b) of the 1982 Act waded into this political thicket: Carr struck down a Tennessee apportionment law that created and preserved vast population differences between rural and urban counties, but which nowhere made a single explicit reference to race.Ī nanosecond of reflection makes it clear that the second potential goal of equal influence by race is fraught with far greater complexity than voter access. Thus, in 1965 the basic prohibition extended to any state “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure . . . which results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color . . .” As drafted, this reads as if it addressed the problem of the day-voter access-while leaving it far from clear whether it also attacked how states set up districting lines, an issue which for the first time had come under a successful constitutional attack in Baker v. Then, as often happens in politics, the initial legislative success translated into spirited movement to expand the scope of the statutory guarantees. That initial intervention counted as a political achievement of the highest order by the time the act came up for renewal in 1982. When the Voting Rights Act was first enacted in 1965, everyone with empathy shared the common desire to end the massive systematic discrimination that stopped a large fraction of black voters from entering the nation’s voting booths. The closeness of the decision reflects the difficulty of the analysis. By contrast, the plaintiffs’ plan created two majority-black districts, giving black voters majority control over 29 percent of Alabama’s delegation. That map gave black voters, who compose about 27 percent of Alabama’s population, only one seat in Congress out of the seven seats available for Alabama. Milligan, the Supreme Court, to the evident surprise and pleasure of progressive commentators, handed down a five-to-four provision that sustained a racial discrimination challenge brought by black voters in Alabama to a district map prepared by Alabama’s Republican Party. WTH? I immediately called him back – voice mail. What the what? (He’s not one for calling, certainly not in the middle of the day). I returned to the kitchen to find a missed call from son #1. ![]() We had the typical mommy/grandmother fussing conversation. ![]() I walked her to the car her daughter is out of state and she’s worried. As I was walking everyone to the door, one friend (her daughter and my daughter are best friends) shared with me that her daughter is pregnant with #2. Last Wednesday, I hosted my Rosary group for the first time in months JY has been working from home exclusively since February – this past Wednesday, he was finishing up his annual golf trip, which gave me a rare opportunity to entertain. Rosary group thread, bunco thread, prayer thread. Texting a sister or a brother both sisters and both brothers brothers, sisters, husband, brothers, and sisters-in-law daughter. I hardly use it for anything as mundane as a phone call - I’m usually listening to a podcast while texting. I don’t know if I’m a typical 64-year-old, but my phone is almost always with me. ![]()
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