By: Zombie
Pajamas Media
Gerrymander: It’s a dirty word. Everyone knows it’s a political insult, but not everyone understands exactly what it means. And even many of those who know what gerrymandering is don’t fully grasp how it completely dominates American politics.
Welcome to Gerrymandering 101.
Pundits across the political spectrum are now noting that the 2010 Republican tsunami was bigger and more significant than it might appear on the surface, because the Republicans not only won a record number of federal races, they also utterly crushed the Democrats in local races, winning at least 675 seats in state legislatures. This spells doom for the Democrats because next year the states will re-draw the congressional district lines to accommodate the results of the 2010 census:
When the 2010 Census results are announced next month, the 435 House seats will be reapportioned to the states, and state officials will draw new district lines in each state. … Republicans look to have a bigger advantage in this redistricting cycle they’ve ever had before.
Governor Gerry‘s “Salamander” (in the parlance of the day) would have been well understood to be a monster.
While today we think of the salamander as a kind of harmless newt-like critter, back in the day when this term was brought forth, the word “salamander” was commonly used as an alternate word for “dragon.” (Greek [from Persian] “fire lizard”).
If you look at the term in that light, it becomes the “vote eating dragon” monster.
There’s another kind of “vote monster,” the zombie voter, resurrected briefly every few years from graveyards nationwide, for the few days needed for them to vote against life and the living, but that is usually discussed in the context of other human-appearing monsters, like the unionized “vote vampires” and those creatures from beyond the outer limits, the “voting aliens.”
Anyone who has wondered why election day was scheduled so close to Halloween may now have some insight. Had to be done that way to employ the walking dead and other monsters while they were still available.
🙂
~~ AG