A Good Day For Democracy, Finally

The last 24 hours may have been a bad day for Democrats, (although that remains to be seen when February comes), but it was (finally!) a good day for our democracy. In Pennsylvania, the State Supreme Court stuck down the current congressional districts, which were partisanly gerrymandered by the Republicans for the 2012 election, as violating the state's constitution. The vote was 5-2, with the two Republican judges dissenting, and it ordered that the legislature redraw the districts in time for the 2018 primaries, setting a February deadline. If the deadline is not met, the court itself will redraw the districts themselves, creating a logical, neutral map.

Although the court has not yet released its opinion, it seems that even the Republicans dissenting were doing so more so on procedural grounds. One wanted to wait until the Supreme Court ruled on partisan gerrymandering later on this term. The other worried that the potential that the court would redraw Congressional districts might incur federal scrutiny.

The fact that the court based its ruling on a violation of the state's constitution most likely means there is no path forward to appeal this ruling in federal courts. According to the NY Times, "The most likely argument for federal review, election scholars said, is that the court order violated the federal Constitution’s elections clause, which delegates authority over elections to state legislatures." But a recent Supreme Court decision has already chipped away at the legislatures' sole authority over elections.

In 2012, despite winning the popular vote across the state, Pennsylvania Democrats ended up with just 5 of the 18 House seats in the state because of the extreme partisan gerrymander. Republicans have held those 13 seats ever since then.

Earlier today in Florida, a proposed amendment to the state's constitution to allow convicted felons to vote gained enough signatures to be on the ballot in 2018. According to the proposal, felons who have served their sentence and are not on parole or probation will be allowed to vote. Convicted murderers and those convicted of felony sexual crimes will still not be allowed to vote. In Florida, there are around 1.6 million felons who were not allowed to vote and nearly 25% of African American voters in the state were barred from voting because of their convictions. In addition, Florida on its own currently accounts for over 25% of the disenfranchised felons in the entire country.

It consistently amazes me how the pundits who constantly rail about the need for bipartisanship simply ignore the fact that the extreme partisan gerrymandering since 2000 is probably the most important driver of the increasing tribalism and polarization they decry. When one party can actually lose the majority of the vote but still maintain the majority, and sometimes a super-majority, of the power, it does not create an environment for compromise. If you want the center to hold, you actually need to have competitive elections that will drive bipartisan solutions. Having electoral districts that are totally uncompetitive creates the environment where compromise equates to betrayal. We see that clearly with both CHIP and DACA which are both massively popular with the general electorate and are supported by a majority in both houses of Congress can still not get passed because of an extreme minority that only fears attacks from the right.

If we want to restore the civility and effectiveness of our politics, then we need to restore the health of our democratic processes. The last few hours have been a good first step.