On California Prop 50: It stinks. It reeks of all that I hate about how people distort, twist, and manipulate facts all the while claiming to be promoting democracy. Anyone—anyone—who hopes for a more robust and functioning democracy, not to mention a more perfect union, will cringe at the thought of this miserable proposition.
Gerrymandering—along with the Electoral College, the dominance of big money, propaganda and disinformation in the media, the distorted structure of the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the piss-poor civic education of our children—is one of the major assaults on the basic tenets of democracy, republican or otherwise.
But of course, a functioning democracy is also one where citizens use the little power they have in a strategic fashion. One must hold one’s nose for a little while in order to get a little bit of what one wants.
In this case, we have the absolutely genuine threat of the anti-democratic power mongers having no compunction about rigging the system in order to impose their vision on the population—like it or not. We must do the same, or they win. It’s compelling.
It can become an endless regress though, failing to return to the promised outcome. Without the people…the citizens…supporting the more democratic option on their own, rejecting the pressure of their braying leaders, regardless of political party, there is little hope for much that’s worth while in any case.
So I’m sitting this one out. That’s my vote.
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