Pierce: Desperation Is Settling in for Pennsylvania Republicans

[babylonsister]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a18664248/pennsylvania-republicans-gerrymandering-desperation/

Desperation Is Settling in for Pennsylvania Republicans
This week in the laboratories of democracy.
By Charles P. Pierce
Feb 22, 2018


(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin’ gets done and where you’re searching for the very souls whom already have been sold.

The predominant issue out in several states right now involves the incredible campaign of the Republicans in Pennsylvania to maintain the ludicrously gerrymandered map they produced in their state legislature. (In the last election, the Democratic candidates piled up more votes, but the Republicans won 13 of the 18 legislative seats. This is the very living definition of a partisan gerrymander.)

The state’s supreme court threw out the original map and gave the Republican legislature a chance to create a more equitable one. The Republicans produced another dead fish and the court threw that one out, too, and then drew up their own. That sent the Republicans up the wall. At the present moment, there is a serious movement to impeach the justices of the Supreme Court who have proven so inconvenient.

This is a position adopted by no less than United States Senator Pat Toomey. This is somewhat similar to the situation in Iowa in 2009, when a majority of that state’s supreme court ruled in favor of marriage equality only to have three of the justices fall victim to a well-financed recall campaign. (Have I mentioned recently what a terrible idea an elected judiciary is?) The same arguments are being made in Pennsylvania that were made in Iowa–imperial judiciary yadda-yadda.

And, as we learn from Mother Jones, the Republicans also have thrown a last-minute Hail Mary in the general direction of the Nine Wise Souls in Washington, D.C.

This is the Republicans’ second attempt to draw the U.S. Supreme Court into the case and avoid a map that is more friendly to Democrats. The two Republican leaders previously appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court matter last month, before the court’s replacement map was implemented, but Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees appeals from states in the Third Circuit, denied their request. This time, they are returning with the new map in place and essentially the same arguments. Election law experts are skeptical that the Supreme Court will decide to take up the case.

As with all things these days, the specter of an electoral cataclysm next November hangs over this desperate attempt by the Republicans to maintain the control that they have gathered to themselves since the 2010 census, and to ensure the survival of the gains they have made in their many-pronged assaults on the franchise. The original map was a product of that success. The new map gives the Democrats a legitimate shot at picking up four congressional seats. That’s what really has thrown this into DefCon 1.

[Cha]

1. Good LUCK PA!

[Freedomofspeech]

2. We have been a hot mess flor years...

We need this.

[PatentlyDemocratic]

3. Lets hope the new map holds

Gerrymandering has turned the House into a joke.

[bronxiteforever]

4. GOP loves free market competition except for their jobs

They have to cheat to win.

[SCVDem]

5. Paper Ballots Only!

I remember Ohio in 2004.

They WILL cheat!

[disillusioned73]

6. K&R..

Jess King for the new 11th District - formerly the 16th

]https://jesskingforcongress.com/

[blue neen]

7. Pat Toomey made a fool of himself.

This map is fair, and Republicans can't win with "fair".

[Major Nikon]

8. If the GOP loses control of the house, GOPhers will turn on Trump like a rabid dog

Trump is a loser. Always has been and at his age there's little reason to believe that's going to change. Once the Red-State Rubes realize this, his 35% approval rating is going to truly move deeply into uncharted territory.