I heard on television a most amazing statistic; after the election, Republicans control 55 out of the 99 houses in the legislatures of the various states. Of the ten largest states, two will do redistricting under the guidance of a non-partisan commission (California and Florida) and the rest will do redistricting under the control of the legislature and the governor. Half of those eight big states are totally controlled by the Republicans and the other four have divided control, so none of the ten largest states will be redistricted by Democrats.
This is extraordinary news. For as long as I can remember, Democrats have gerrymandered the congressional districts to help them maintain control of congress. Even in 2000 when the Democrats were no longer in control, the redistricting was done about evenly by the GOP and the Democrats. The election has brought about the first ever redistricting done under GOP control. (Prior to the one man, one vote decision by the supreme Court in the 1960’s, redistricting was done whenever the individual state decided to do it.)
This is a real high for the Republicans.
I was also struck today by the continuing nastiness that just seems to spew endlessly from the television. The election is over, so you would think that the commentators could let up a bit and discuss the elections dispassionately. This did happen in certain places, but I made the unfortunate mistake of watching a portion of three shows on MSNBC. The venom level was amazing. Still, the low point was Keith Olbermann making fun of the emotion displayed by John Boehner Tuesday night. It was nasty even for Olbermann (and that is really saying something).
It was a true low.
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