The way things are going, we’re headed toward democracy’s end
We expected a gorgeous Fall 2021 in Ohio, harvesting the fruit of our 2015 and 2018 bipartisan labors to bring transparency and fairness to the redistricting process. Instead, Ohio’s Republican leaders have revealed their true colors, freezing us out of our right to representation in a chilling repeat of 2011.
Adding insult to injury, they pretend (to quote Speaker Bob Cupp) that “this map is rational, constitutional, and achieves the objectives Ohio voters overwhelmingly endorsed” and doesn’t “unduly favor or disfavor any political party.”
In other words, aren’t the Emperor’s new clothes beautiful?
I guess once you commit to violating the Constitution, there’s no further harm in piling on some alternative facts. And why put any effort into explaining why you chopped up the blue counties and ignored tremendous citizen input?
Just follow the proven playbook from those out-ofstate “party consultants” and hustle your jigsaw map to a quick party-line vote. Worried the governor might not sign it into law? Not if you threaten to endorse his primary challenger.
The worst of this travesty is yet to come. Think of the generation born since 2011, growing up with no personal experience of true representative democracy. Their futures sacrificed to winning a meaningless culture war by any means necessary.
How will the gerrymanderers justify their actions to their grandchildren? If current trends continue, something like this: “Granddaddy, what’s democracy?”
That’s when each adult gets one vote, and the person who gets the most votes gets to represent all the people in their area.
“Oh, so when people disagree, the side with more people wins?”
That’s right! But only the people who can vote get their opinion counted. That’s why it’s so important to control the rules on who gets to vote.
“So, why did my friend say you don’t like democracy?”
The problem with democracy is that your vote counts even if your ideas are wrong, like teaching kids to feel bad about American history and pushing people to question our traditions. If there’s too many people voting in favor of these wrong ideas, then democracy lets them change America away from how it’s always worked for us.
“How did you stop them?”
I was visited by some new friends who knew how to stop the bad people from taking over. They shared some new laws from other states like Texas and Georgia, and what to say in speeches to keep the good people excited. My new friends promised to help me keep my government job if I stopped Ohio’s bad people from getting their way.
“Did your friends’ plan work?”
Not right away. The judges said we had to follow Ohio’s laws. It took some time to replace them with people who understood how important it was to keep things our way.
“Granddaddy, do you think we’ll ever go back to democracy?”
No, every year there are more and more people who think the wrong way. Democracy is just too dangerous.
Geoff Wise is a chemical engineer who presented statehouse and congressional maps to the Ohio Redistricting Commission that he says are “objectively fair.”