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And now it's time for a thread on #Michigan and #gerrymandering. Yes, it's important—and on the ballot. The details are laid out here by @ewalkerwells, and we'll thread his story for you in case you need a quick version. #WhyStatesMatterhttps://medium.com/@futurenowusa/states-matter-do-gerrymanderings-screwy-districts-cheat-michiganders-4c546006c8c4 …
A man named Robert LaBrant reshaped the rules of MI politics without ever being elected. He was in a room in 2011 w/ state legislators, political consultants & maps of MI cut into large squares or long and narrow shapes designed to take power from MI's black & Democratic voters.
They referred to those voters as "Dem trash" & in Nov, MI has a chance to fix what happened in 2011. Thanks to ace grassroots mobilization there's a constitutional amendment on the ballot—Proposition 2—that would take redistricting out of politician hands https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/opinion/redistricting-gerrymandering-citizens-michigan.html …
Why does that matter? Thanks to the gerrymandering, the MI House majority has been able to ignore voters and follow the “advice” of their funders — sorry, friends — at a Koch Brother-backed think tank representing a small number of corporations rather than, you know, people.
State legislators imposed emergency city managers. In Detroit, Flint & Pontiac, 1/2 of MI's black citizens had their city-level votes taken away. And the legislature eliminated straight-ticket voting — a move that a fed judge declared was designed to disenfranchise black voters.
"Meanwhile, these cities’ state representatives sat powerless in the minorities LaBrant and Republicans had created, not at the ballot box, but around the gerrymandering table." -@ewalkerwellshttps://medium.com/@futurenowusa/states-matter-do-gerrymanderings-screwy-districts-cheat-michiganders-4c546006c8c4 …
Results: Anti-union laws & lack of investment in workforce dev & higher education have led to a measly 71% employment rate. Plus state government & emergency managers have failed to address failing infrastructure—leading to crumbling bridges & roads, & the Flint water crisis.
The grassroots efforts that got Prop 2 on the ballot (
!), reacting to a legislature that refuses to do the right thing and is not accountable to its constituents, will determine Michigan’s future. #WhyStatesMatterhttps://medium.com/@futurenowusa/states-matter-do-gerrymanderings-screwy-districts-cheat-michiganders-4c546006c8c4 …
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