On Friday, March 17, 2000 9:40 PM Michael S. Lorrey retroman@turbont.net
wrote:
> Sounds like the propaganda war has begun. Which way do asian americans
> (esp japanese americans) lean? Dem or GOP? Who ever they tend against is
> probably putting out these stories to reduce the reporting from these
> demographic groups, since congressional district remappings are
> determined by census data. Considering that the census is trying to
> really discriminate (emphasis) between members of the different asian,
> polynesian, and hispanic groups, I wouldn't be surprised that some
> disinformation comes out about how bad the census is for those groups
> too.
I see two problems with Michael's view. One is that the article, in fact,
might be correct. That is census data was used against Japanese Americans
during WW2. This should give pause. Those who think it can't happen again
might be wrong. After all, the present U.S. government does _discriminate_
based on race, gender, ethnicity, physical handicap, and age through various
affirmative action programs.
Another is that redistricting itself is not necessarily an unmitigated good
for so called minority groups it is supposed to help. It remains to be seen
what is the best way to form Congressional voting districts. But so far,
what a lot of recent redistricting has done is to reinforce incumbents (who
vote on it:) and also to reduce the power of minorities in certain areas.
Certainly, having a majority Latino district in New Jersey has put and keep
Bob Menendez (House Democrat) in office. But at the same time, the Latino
vote has now been concentrated in one district. Candidates and
officeholders in other districts in NJ now need to do less to court the
Latino vote. I.e., all the surrounding districts are proportionately less
Latino -- meaning that the Latino vote has less impact overall. Formerly,
it was spread of many districts.
This does not even touch on the issue of whether voting districts should be
neutral to all these differences. I believe they should be -- viz., that
the government should NOT legally recognize races, ethnics groups, etc. --
though I do not here offer an alternative plan.
And, of course, I wish all people, whatever their skin color, etc. would
just vote Libertarian or not at all.:)
Happy Saturday!
Daniel Ust
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/
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