{"id":330129,"date":"2017-10-12T04:38:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T03:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/republicans-have-a-starting-line-advantage-of-10-percent\/"},"modified":"2017-10-12T04:38:41","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T03:38:41","slug":"republicans-have-a-starting-line-advantage-of-10-percent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/republicans-have-a-starting-line-advantage-of-10-percent\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Republicans Have a Starting-Line Advantage of 10 Percent\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Janine Jackson interviewed Steven Rosenfeld about gerrymandering and the Supreme Court for the <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/steven-rosenfeld-on-gerrymandering-dean-baker-on-trump-tax-plan\/\">October 6, 2017, episode<\/a> of <strong>CounterSpin<\/strong>. This is a lightly edited transcript.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"wrapperMI_0\" class=\"wrap-mjp  \" style=\"padding:5px 0px 40px 0px;margin:0px;width:100%\">\n<div class=\"Eabove-mjp\" id=\"Eabove-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"subwrap-MI\">\n<div class=\"jp-innerwrap\">\n<div class=\"innerx\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerleft\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerright\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innertab\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"interface-mjp verdana-mjp\" style=\"height:71px\" id=\"interfaceMI_0\">\n<div class=\"MI-image Himg right-mjp\" id=\"MI_image_0\" style=\"width:auto;height:71px;overflow:hidden\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T_mp3j_0\" class=\"player-track-title left-mjp norm-mjp plain-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bars_holder\">\n<div class=\"loadMI_mp3j\" id=\"load_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"poscolMI_mp3j\" id=\"poscol_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"posbarMI_mp3j\" id=\"posbar_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"P-Time-MI_0\" class=\"jp-play-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T-Time-MI_0\" class=\"jp-total-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"statusMI_0\" class=\"statusMI\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"transport-MI\">\n<div class=\"play-mjp\" id=\"playpause_mp3j_0\">Play<\/div>\n<div class=\"stop-mjp\" id=\"stop_mp3j_0\">Stop<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"buttons-wrap-mjp\" id=\"buttons-wrap-mjp_0\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-popout-MI\" id=\"lpp_mp3j_0\">pop out<\/div>\n<div id=\"download_mp3j_0\" class=\"dloadmp3-MI\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mjp-volwrap\">\n<div class=\"MIsliderVolume\" id=\"vol_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt1\" id=\"innerExt1_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt2\" id=\"innerExt2_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebetween-mjp\" id=\"Ebetween-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"listwrap_mp3j\" id=\"L_mp3j_0\">\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<div class=\"playlist-colour\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<ul class=\"ul-mjp darken1-mjp verdana-mjp med-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp left-mjp\" id=\"UL_mp3j_0\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-sleeve\">\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_gif_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-gif\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_txt_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-txt\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-close\" id=\"mp3j_finfo_close_0\">X<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_dlf_0\" class=\"mp3j-dlframe\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-nosolution\" id=\"mp3j_nosolution_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebelow-mjp\" id=\"Ebelow-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0 = [<br \/>\n\t{ name: &#8220;1. CounterSpin Dean Baker Interview &#8220;, formats: [&#8220;mp3&#8221;], mp3: &#8220;aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mYWlyLm9yZy9hdWRpby9jb3VudGVyc3Bpbi9Db3VudGVyU3BpbjE3MTAwNlJvc2VuZmVsZC5tcDM=&#8221;, counterpart:&#8221;&#8221;, artist: &#8220;&#8221;, image: &#8220;true&#8221;, imgurl: &#8220;&#8221; }<br \/>\n];<\/p>\n<p>MP3jPLAYERS[0] = { list:MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0, tr:0, type:&#8217;MI&#8217;, lstate:true, loop:false, play_txt:&#8217;Play&#8217;, pause_txt:&#8217;Pause&#8217;, pp_title:&#8217;FAIR&#8217;, autoplay:false, download:true, vol:80, height:71, cssclass:&#8217; &#8216;, popout_css:{ enabled:true, \t\t\tcolours: [&#8220;#fff&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(201,207,232,0.35)&#8221;, &#8220;rgb(241,241,241)&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(245,5,5,0.7)&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(92,201,255,0.8)&#8221;, &#8220;transparent&#8221;, &#8220;transparent&#8221;, &#8220;#525252&#8221;, &#8220;#525252&#8221;, &#8220;#768D99&#8221;, &#8220;#47ACDE&#8221;, &#8220;&#8221;, 600, 200 ],<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssInterface: { &#8220;color&#8221;: &#8220;#525252&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssTitle: { &#8220;left&#8221;: &#8220;16px&#8221;, &#8220;right&#8221;:&#8221;16px&#8221;, &#8220;top&#8221;:&#8221;8px&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssImage: { &#8220;overflow&#8221;: &#8220;hidden&#8221;, &#8220;width&#8221;:&#8221;auto&#8221;, &#8220;height&#8221;:&#8221;71px&#8221;  },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssFontSize: { &#8220;title&#8221;: &#8220;16px&#8221;, &#8220;caption&#8221;: &#8220;11.2px&#8221;, &#8220;list&#8221;: &#8220;12px&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tclasses: { interface:&#8217; verdana-mjp&#8217;, title:&#8217; left-mjp norm-mjp plain-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp&#8217;, image:&#8217; Himg right-mjp&#8217;, poscol:&#8221;, ul:&#8217; darken1-mjp verdana-mjp med-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp left-mjp&#8217; }} };<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fair.org\/audio\/counterspin\/CounterSpin171006Rosenfeld.mp3\"><strong>MP3 Link<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Janine Jackson:<\/b> We are definitely in challenging times, but it\u2019s useful to remember that it isn\u2019t that Americans per se are opposed to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2017\/06\/22\/key-takeaways-on-americans-views-of-guns-and-gun-ownership\/\">gun control<\/a>, human rights for <a href=\"http:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/1651\/gay-lesbian-rights.aspx\">LGBTQ people<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/07\/20\/health-care-political-left-poll\/\">affordable healthcare<\/a>. At the same time, it\u2019s painful to remember why it appears that we are. It\u2019s because, as a <a href=\"http:\/\/billmoyers.com\/story\/america-held-hostage-minority-rule\/\">recent piece<\/a> by Neal Gabler for <b>BillMoyers.com<\/b> reminds us, we don\u2019t have a working democracy where every voice is heard: A minority of people have outsized power.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5593024\" style=\"width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5593024\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Gerrymander.jpg\" alt=\"The Gerrymander\" width=\"351\" height=\"263\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The orginal Gerrymander, named for Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of the reasons for <i>that<\/i> is being considered right now in the Supreme Court. Recalled by many of us as an old-timey graphic in middle school textbooks, the term \u201cgerrymander\u201d refers to the drawing of political districts in such a way as to benefit a particular party. The case <i>Gill v. Whitford<\/i> is focused on Wisconsin, where in 2012 Republicans won just 48.6 percent of the statewide vote, but captured 60 out of 99 seats in the state assembly.<\/p>\n<p>Here to help us see what&#8217;s going on and what\u2019s at stake is Steven Rosenfeld. He covers national political issues for <b>AlterNet<\/b>, and he\u2019s author of a number of books, including the forthcoming <i>Inside Job: How American Elections Are Still Rigged Against Voters<\/i>. He joins us now by phone from San Francisco. Welcome to <b>CounterSpin<\/b>, Steven Rosenfeld.<\/p>\n<p><b>Steven Rosenfeld:<\/b> Thank you very much. I\u2019m glad to be here.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Wisconsin is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a decision striking down the 2011 redistricting plan for the lower house of their state assembly. Can you remind us what happened in Wisconsin that led to this being the test case for this issue?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5593023\" style=\"width: 359px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5593023\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WSJ-Karl-Rove.png\" alt=\"WSJ: The GOP Targets State Legislatures\" width=\"349\" height=\"257\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Wall Street Journal<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052748703862704575099670689398044\">3\/4\/10<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>SR:<\/b> What happened was the Republicans, after they got completely trounced by Obama in 2008, saw a way back from political wilderness, as the cliche goes, and they realized that if they won enough seats in state legislatures in 2010 that they could draw the maps that would last this decade. So Karl Rove <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052748703862704575099670689398044\">wrote about this<\/a> in the <b>Wall Street Journal<\/b>, the Democrats from Nancy Pelosi to Obama completely ignored it, and then the Republicans went out with some of the nastiest political ads you could ever imagine at the local level, and they just emptied these legislatures out of long-time citizen legislators. They called women prostitutes, they called guys every kind of crook imaginable.<\/p>\n<p>And then they drew the maps, and what they did was they drew maps segregating the reliable voters, their party\u2019s and the Democrats. They looked at who came out and voted for John McCain in 2008, which was a lousy year, and they made sure that in these districts, they would have at least 56 percent, sometimes not too much more than that, reliable Republican majorities. And they put the Democrats, they packed them into other districts where they would typically win with 65, 70, 75 percent of the vote. So that\u2019s how you end up getting these Republican supermajorities. It\u2019s how they control the US House, it\u2019s how they control all these states that you think should be purple, like Wisconsin or Georgia or North Carolina, but instead they\u2019re firmly, firmly red.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5593025\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5593025\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Wisconsin-State-Assembly-Districts-1024x986.png\" alt=\"Wisconsin State Assembly Districts (map: Daily Kos)\" width=\"350\" height=\"337\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Wisconsin State Assembly Districts (map: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2016\/11\/21\/1602671\/-Huge-Court-strikes-down-Wisconsin-GOP-s-Assembly-map-as-unconstitutional-partisan-gerrymander\"><strong>Daily Kos<\/strong><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>And it turns out that if you draw lines, political districts, using race, it\u2019s illegal under federal law\u2014with one exception, which is sort of affirmative action for minorities. But if you draw these lines using extreme partisanship, which is what the Republicans argue they did in Wisconsin, so far, in the Supreme Court, it\u2019s been legal; it has not been judged to be illegal. But Anthony Kennedy, in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/supct\/html\/02-1580.ZC.html\">earlier case<\/a>, sort of hinted at, well, maybe we gotta take a look at this, because it\u2019s so unfair, and if you can come up with a formula for us to prove how unfair it is and how anti-democratic is, we may consider it.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that is what the people in Wisconsin did; they came up with the formula. A lower federal court said, OK, we agree with you. The Republicans in Wisconsin said, uh, we are going to appeal, and that\u2019s what\u2019s brought us to the Supreme Court, where basically they\u2019re going to decide the rules that will either make our national politics fairer and more balanced, or continue being as extreme as they have been through the next decade, the decade of the 2020s, because redistricting is coming right around the corner.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> The way of measuring it, that\u2019s been the sort of missing piece, that\u2019s the social science that Justice Roberts dismisses as \u201csociological gobbledygook\u201d; he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/monkey-cage\/wp\/2017\/10\/04\/justice-roberts-said-political-science-is-sociological-gobbledygook-heres-why-he-said-it-and-why-hes-mistaken\/?utm_term=.b49a06b60bce\">claimed<\/a> during the arguing of this case that \u201cthe intelligent man on the street\u201d would never understand how you could have a formula to figure out which votes were, quote unquote, \u201cwasted.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5593026\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5593026\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Steven-Rosenfeld.jpg\" alt=\"Steven Rosenfeld\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Steven Rosenfeld: &#8220;They\u2019re going to decide the rules that will either make our national politics fairer and more balanced, or continue being as extreme as they have been through the next decade.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>SR:<\/b> Yeah. I should remind you that John Roberts also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/news-desk\/the-voting-rights-act-an-end-to-racism-by-judicial-order\">said<\/a>, before Donald Trump\u2019s election campaign, that we were in a post-racial society and therefore we no longer needed the Voting Rights Act\u2019s enforcement provisions. And then within 24 hours of that Supreme Court decision in 2013, virtually every red state in the Old South passed voter ID laws, they got rid of same-day registration, they ended early voting. This is completely nuts.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Yeah. And it seems so disingenuous in the extreme to say, as Roberts also did, that the problem of gerrymandering should be fixed, he said through &#8220;democracy,&#8221; by which he meant the normal political process. But this<i> is<\/i> the normal political process!<\/p>\n<p><b>SR:<\/b> Yes, this is democracy, and it\u2019s not very democratic.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Exactly.<\/p>\n<p><b>SR:<\/b> In fact, this is what people really don\u2019t understand. This is one of the biggest, most influential factors on why Democrats and progressives have not been winning. The Supreme Court had a decision, before Gorsuch was on it, that basically threw out North Carolina\u2019s racially motivated US House districts. And the numbers in it were that Republicans kept winning with 56 percent of the vote, and the Democrats and the few seats they held were like 69 and 70 percent. It\u2019s not democratic when you segregate voters. The language people use is, politicians shouldn\u2019t choose their voters.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s segregating voters, reliable voters, and it gives you a 6 percent head start. And then you have other things that academics have tracked. Strict voter ID peels off another 2 or 3 percent. And then pretty soon Republicans have a starting line advantage, before anybody knows who\u2019s running, of 10 percent. And for you to win elections by more than 10 percent, I mean, maybe we\u2019ll see that in 2018, but, gosh, it\u2019s so, so rare.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Well, this case, <i>Gill v. Whitford<\/i>, is talking about the Supreme Court\u2019s ability to shut down extreme cases, which we should note could theoretically be committed by either major party. But that\u2019s not really a system for going forward, it doesn\u2019t sound like.<\/p>\n<p><b>SR:<\/b> Well, the Republicans in 2010, after they won political monopoly control in lots of states\u2014they targeted a dozen states, and these are the states that are always among the finalists in presidential elections. We\u2019re talking about Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas. And it\u2019s as if we have two entirely different countries and two entirely different sets of voting rules. We have blue state coastal America, where none of this stuff is happening. People almost don\u2019t understand how could this be happening, they can\u2019t relate to it in their experience. And then you have this red state set of rules.<\/p>\n<p>And the Democrats are no angels; they had plenty of things that they did to stop Bernie Sanders in that presidential nominating contest. I\u2019m not sure he would have won, but they sure made it harder. The Democrats who run California are not exactly angels, either. But they have done nothing on the level of a coordinated nationwide strategy to basically seize the House and seize these states.<\/p>\n<p>And [Republicans] have done it, and it\u2019s held for every race, every election, every two-year cycle this decade. I mean, think of it. After 2010, the House, Republicans have held it. And all those states, all those states that filed those lawsuits against everything\u2014Obamacare, LGBT rights, affirmative action this, climate change that\u2014this is what\u2019s been the result.<\/p>\n<p>And actually, it goes worse than that, because today in the House, things have been segregated to such an extreme amongst who votes, that you have the most extreme Republicans saying that, well, taking healthcare away for 20-something million people is not good enough; and Paul Ryan can\u2019t control them. This has created a downward spiral that\u2019s pulling us to the bottom.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Finally we\u2019re recording this on October 5. Do you have any thoughts right now about how <i>Gill v. Whitford<\/i> is likely to play out?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5593029\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5593029\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Anthony-Kennedy.jpg\" alt=\"Justice Anthony Kennedy\" width=\"350\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Justice Anthony Kennedy<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>SR:<\/b> Yeah, I do. I suspect that they\u2019re not going to touch it, which means the status quo will hold. And the reason I say that is because Kennedy, who is the swing vote, said or signed on to a dissent in the North Carolina case that came out and threw out their congressional House seats last spring. It was written by Alito, and it said that, odious as all this extreme partisanship is, it\u2019s part of human nature and part of politics, and it just comes with the turf, and we just can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t touch it.<\/p>\n<p>And I think that even though he was the one who invited the folks in Wisconsin to come up with a standard, that was several years ago, the most recent real clue we have from him is saying, well, I don\u2019t know, it just seems like it\u2019s just so much a part of human nature, and human nature is reflected in politics, we just got to live with the dark side. And I\u2019m not optimistic.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> We\u2019ve been speaking with Steven Rosenfeld, journalist at <b>AlterNet.org<\/b> and author of the forthcoming <i>Inside Job: How American Elections Are Still Rigged Against Voters<\/i>. Steven Rosenfeld, thank you for joining us this week on <b>CounterSpin<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>SR:<\/b> Well, thank you so much.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/republicans-have-a-starting-line-advantage-of-10-percent\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Janine Jackson interviewed Steven Rosenfeld about gerrymandering and the Supreme Court for the October 6, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Play Stop pop out X MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0 = [ { name: &#8220;1. 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