The Deception of Perception
Chapter II Divide & Conquer
As we have discussed a Republic is based on the Rule of Law and not the Rule of the Mob. Our elected representatives have divided up our states and our country into little kingdoms. Yes the Republicans and Democrats in concert have divided our country into their kingdoms. Let us examine the political landscape. Our country is a Union of 50 States and Commonwealths and within these we are then divided into counties and parishes. Now I realize that there are cities and towns but the states and counties are the sovereign governing powers. This would be good if we allowed the states and counties to govern as they were established to do.
Let us examine our states and commonwealths and their legitimate functions. The United States Constitution guarantees that each state will have a Republican form of government. This was to insure that the mobs or masses would not rule; amazingly a Republican form of government guarantees rights even to the smallest of minorities. This Republican/Democracy that has been created by the two major political parties (Democrats & Republicans) only favors the political parties/bosses. It effectively discourages and diminishes the effectiveness of the people and any 3rd party politicians from attaining any real power. Each state is divided into counties and within the county you have a Board of Supervisors responsible for the local affairs.
I have included some charts and maps with the Congressional, Assembly, and Senate Districts of the State of California. Now all of these districts are based on population; each Congressional District represents 650,000; Senate Districts represents 850,000; and each Assembly District represents 420,000. As you see none of the boundaries have any common borders. Some counties are split in one district and in others they are whole; cities are done the same. Now some people might not think that this is a big deal, but let us examine the repercussions of gerrymandering the districts. Counties and Cities have local governments made up of City Councils, Mayors, and Board of Supervisors. So in effect by dividing up the cities and counties into different entities (Congressional, Senate, and Assembly Districts) these districts are not accountable to any particular city or country. So how can the people or the local officials bring any pressure on these artificially made district officials?
A prime example of this gerrymandering making these politicians loyal to their respective parties, rather than to the people and elected officials of each city and county is the 10th Congressional District. This is the district John Garamendi was just elected too. Mr. Garamendi does not even live within the district, and this is completely legal. The 10th Congressional District includes parts of Sacramento, Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, and San Joaquin Counties. And within the district they have also divided the cities within each county. This makes the Congressman not accountable to any particular existing government or people within any particular county. So the Congressman is accountable to his political party, which might not have the cities or counties best interest in mind. This same Congressional District is represented in part or whole by the 1st, 5th, 6th Senate Districts and 5th, 9th, 10th, 15th Assembly Districts in Sacramento County; the 2nd, 5th Senate Districts and 7th, 8thAssembly Districts in Solano County; the 7th, 9th Senate Districts, and 11th, 14th, 15th, Assembly Districts in Contra Costa County; the 7th, 9th, 10th Senate Districts, and 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 20th Assembly Districts in Alameda County; the 5th, 14th Senate Districts, and10th, 15th, 17th, 26th Assembly Districts in San Joaquin County. This is the machine the political parties have created by gerrymandering every district in California and 42 other states. The only reason it isn’t all the states is because 7 states have only 1 Congressional District, so you can’t gerrymander those states. This District like all the others does not use existing political boundaries nor does it use geographical boundaries, like lakes, rivers, and bays.
California is scheduled for redistricting in 2010 by a panel of Judges and not by the legislature. We need to influence these Judges to first consider County Borders, then Cities Limits, and when you divide a City they must use postal zip codes; and all districts must be contiguous. This favors no particular political party and it would divide our state using existing political entities. The Mayors, City Councils, Board of Supervisors, and the people would have more influence over their federal and state elected officials (i.e. Congress, Assembly). Now I realize this is tough because they have sliced and diced us into this mess, but if we want our country back, we need to overhaul the way political matters are done. We can no longer allow the elected bastards to construct districts for their benefit. So as we ponder who we want to elect for City Council, Mayor, Sheriff, Board of Supervisors, and our Assembly, Senate, and Congress; remember we must change and make them all accountable to us the people, or nothing will change. We can not allow them to continue business as usual; this is no longer an acceptable practice.
In closing I would like us all to ponder another problem with our political system in California. As I stated earlier, the United States Constitution guarantees each state a Republican form of government. This can only be achieved if our Senate and Assembly are divided like our Federal Government, with a House designed by the population and a Senate based on Counties. That is right; every county should have only 1 State Senator. This would take the power away from the population centers. Could you imagine if the United States Senate was based on the population; all of the sparsely populated States would be completely neglected by Congress? Remember there was a reason the Founding Fathers did what they did. They never wanted mob rule, they wanted us to be governed by the Rule of Law. We can make these changes and we must make these changes if we want to take back our country and have better control over our elected officials in the future. “I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it
anymore”!
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The opinions expressed above are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of all members of the Peninsula 9.12 Project
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