Republicans & Conservatives: Archives

Of course, an study of the quotes for the current Republican leadership would show the exact opposite flip-flop. Such a listing is fun for the partisans but doesn’t really mean anything.

They’ve blocked fewer nominees than the GOP did under Clinton.

This type of hypocrisy re appointments is perennial.

They blocked a vast majority of Democrat candidates while Clinton was in office, and given the opportunity now they’ve gotten all their candidates but a handful. Checks and balances. They can already run roughshod on the Democrats in terms of most issues. On this, I surmise, the Democrats thought enough was enough.

I mean, for those of you that know about the Texas redistricting, this is exactly what happened. I mean, here, the Republicans are working to get a 2/3rds majority in a state where they only have a 3/5ths advantage in terms of population They have boxed together the minorities, and split up the white democrat vote. The last redistricting actually came out in favor of the Republicans. But that, unfortunately, wasn’t enough for Tom DeLay. One reason was that his district was getting steadily more liberal.

Another is that despite a favorable shift in the electoral leanings of the districts in question, ones which had Republicans winning most offices they ran for, the House of Representative seats were still going to Democrats, perhaps because of longtime voter loyalty across party lines.

Needless to say, DeLay’s district has seen many of the offending minorities removed from his district, and he’s promising a 30 to 11 majority in the House of Representatives.

My current district, District 2 runs from the suburbs of North Harris County, around Houston, all the way past Beaumont, about 90 miles away. Its the Geographical equivalent of a district that runs from New York City to Philadelphia. We jokingly call it the District That Ate Houston, because it winds it’s way from the Louisana Border And Gulf coast, and encloses a large part of Harris County in a forked set of extensions.

And it’s typical of this current plan. The neighboring district, distict 10 runs from here to Austin, a distance greater than that between Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

If you want to see the plan in question for your self, follow this link: Texas Redistricting Plan.

What’s the point to all this? To dilute the Texas Urban and Suburban voters with rural ones. Now Texas has a rural reputation, but the fact is as of 1990, Texas is 80 percent urban. So, in essence, the Republican party is trying to dilute the interests of 4/5ths of the population with those of the remaining fifth.

What is the overall image I want you to take away? Overrepresentation. The National GOP is not satisfied with being represented fairly, but instead wants to extend its power past that legitimately supported by its population of supporters and by the laws of this land. Whatever one’s beliefs about the legitimacy, or the necessity of one’s power, There is nothing democratic about a party in power being allowed to use that power to disenfranchise voters.

There will always be some groups in a community at a disadvantage for having their views represented. It is a serious error, though, to intentionally disadvantage large chunks of the population, especially according to race. There is nothing socially beneficial about the stewing resentment and divisive conflicts within the communities that it is bound to create.

I think it is time the Republican Party learned to compromise, for it’s own good, and the good of the American people. I think it’s time that they learned to curbe their appetite for political power, before it leads them into further error that will diminish them.

It’s reasonable to filibuster. Last time I checked the approval rating for judges by the Democrats was something like 96%. Can you live with that? That California nominee, the black woman from the southeastern US, had some views that were about two standard deviations from the median. Or a nominee like Clarence Thomas, if we can go back a decade, is far, far to the right again, easily the most conservative justice on the bench. Of course Dems tried to block his appointment.

As I said, it goes both ways…

THEN

“Any appointment of a federal judge during a recess should be opposed.”

- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) opposing the appointment of an African American judge, December 2000

NOW

“Judge Pickering’s record deems this recess appointment fully appropriate.”

- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), 1/17/04