From Vince Cianciolo
I came to bear witness as Tennessee Republicans bent their collective knee to Donald Trump and Marsha Blackburn and disenfranchised the city of Memphis. The city where Martin Luther King was murdered was cracked into three districts, each dominated two to one by rural white voters. No Indiana courage here. Just a bunch of bullies beating up on the smaller kid on the playground. They seemed eager to strip away the last shred of representation in Washington from Tennessee blacks and Tennessee democrats. Tennessee is 16% black, and at least 35% democrat and we may well end up with zero voice.
The entire process has been infuriating. The walk from the parking lot to the capitol runs along Martin Luther King Junior boulevard and John Lewis Way. Given why we were here I was slapped in the face by the empty lip service being given to these civil rights giants. Then, listening to the smug, bald faced lies spewed by majority leader Lamberth and speaker Sexton, I just about lost it.
Gerrymandering is corrosive to our democracy. Both parties have engaged in it, but many blue states have established laws to end it. The MAGA effort to stave off a midterm reckoning kicked off a midterm redistricting spree in red states. Blue states responded, unwilling to unilaterally disarm. This is bad for all minorities. Given historical injustice, it is especially painful for African Americans. But it is bad for all democrats in red states, and all republicans in blue states.
Gerrymandering results in taxation without representation. When people don't feel their vote counts, bad things happen. We desperately need national gerrymandering reform, to remove redistricting from the political sphere.