Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district a week after the US supreme court effectively gutted a major section of the Voting Rights Act.
The move cracks Tennessee’s ninth congressional district, which covers Memphis, into three pieces, each of which contains almost exactly a third of the city’s Black voters. The new maps mean that all nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are Republican-leaning.
I’d love that, but I’m not in the habit of believing things just because they feel good. Does that ever happen?
My wife’s cousin gave an opening speech for Bernie Sanders when he was in town. Part of what he said is that the oligarchs want us to not have hope; to be resigned to whatever they want to happen. Maybe this isn’t quite what he meant, but I think there’s something to that line of thinking.