Gerrymandering: “an occasion when someone in authority changes the borders of an area in order to increase the number of people within that area who will vote for a particular party or person.”

You’ll be hearing this term often with the next presidential election just 18 months away from today. Republicans have attempted to create this process in nearly every red state. Federal courts have routinely quashed these attempts and labeled them Constitutional violations.

Ohio, which is dominated by a Republican legislature, redrew voting districts to favor Republicans. Today a decision which favors real Americans and the Law of the Land was handed down by a federal court.

“Accordingly, we declare Ohio’s 2012 map an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, enjoin its use in the 2020 election, and order the enactment of a constitutionally viable replacement,” the judges wrote in their decision.

In 243 years, America has changed, but its principles and ideals; the beliefs of our founding fathers; must remain protected. The Constitution must be cherished in its entirety. We are not allowed to pick and choose the parts to support based on personal beliefs or prejudices.

Our founding fathers believed that the most important guarantees to the people of their new nation were and are contained in the first amendment.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This first amendment in the Bill of Rights promises every American the freedom to practice the religion of their choice or none at all. It is a guarantee that our nation will never support a single religion. Freedom of speech includes the right of every citizen to vote. It also establishes the protection of a free press whose purpose is to be a “watchdog;” overseeing any possible government corruption. It also includes a guarantee that protesting is the right of all Americans when they feel wronged by their government.

They believed that the right to vote is paramount in a democratic nation. Over more than two centuries politicians have attempted to either remove that right or to increase the difficulty of casting every legal vote in America.

Finally, the irrefutable fact which proves that Republicans fear a large voter turnout, and the reason why Trump will be crushed in 2020, unless his puppeteer rigs another election.

In 1992 and 1996 Bill Clinton won both the popular vote and the Electoral College. In 2000 the Supreme Court gave the election to George W. Bush. His opponent, Al Gore, won the popular vote. In 2004 Bush won both the Electoral College and the popular vote. However, if the Electoral College had not existed in 2000, Bush would not have been up for reelection in 2004. In 2008 and 20012, Barrack Obama won the popular vote and the Electoral College. In 2016, Hillary Clinton easily captured the popular vote from Trump. He won the Electoral College by a total of less than 80,000 votes in three states.

If the Electoral College did not exist, and the people were allowed to choose their president, a Democrat would have been living in the White House for the last 26 years. Republicans remain unpopular for a single reason; they serve only one-percent of all Americans.

Tell everyone; “The Truth Lives Here.”

Op-ed by James Turnage

Source
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/03/720047669/federal-court-throws-out-ohios-congressional-map

Image courtesy of Infrogmation of Louisiana

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