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ALPERN AT LARGE - Let me get straight to the point: I don’t like redistricting if it’s not created by an independent and legally-transparent process meant to represent the voters in an above-board, reasonable and fair process (something that passes the “smell test”).
That means I do NOT like the crap going on in Texas that will potentially disenfranchise Democratic and Independent voters…yet a corollary of this sentiment is that I don’t like what Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and other Democratic “blue” states do to disenfranchise Republican and Independent voters.
Closer to home, I don’t like the bizarre seats (not just redistricting, but blatant, in-your-face-obvious-to-a-kindergartener corrupt seats) created for federal, state, county, and city districts with the intent of creating “winners and losers”.
White, brown, black, and Asian populations, as do rich and poor, and old and young, populations move on their own for whatever reasons they choose—and to force them into voting districts at any level is just tyranny.
And it leads to that whole “Taxation Without Representation” thing that led to the American Revolution (we may see that playing out right now again, by the way…).
Bullet Train B-llsh-t that sucks up tens of billions of dollars that could go to more heavily ridden rail and road projects just to create a few “insider contracts and jobs”? We didn’t vote for that.
Throwing healthcare dollars at illegal immigrants (undocumented aliens, or whatever name you want to give them, as you may wish to reference them) when we don’t have enough funds to pay for Californian residents paying taxes above board and with legal Social Security numbers? We didn’t vote for that.
Forcing inefficient, prohibitively expensive, and potentially environmentally-harmful solar and wind energy down our collective throats when only nuclear and fossil fuel (even hybrid cars make sense over fully-electric cars) make scientific and mathematical sense? We didn’t vote for that.
Being prohibited from getting money out of our paychecks towards our own retirements, like the public sector does, and being forced into a Social Security Ponzi Scheme that either pays you too little and/or will do nothing to create a viable retirement for the private sector masses? We didn’t vote for that.
And THAT is what a One-Party System does.
New York and Massachusetts and Illinois? Pure corruption.
And Texas “fighting back”? Or the criminally hypocritical Blue State governors Pritzker and Hochul and Newsom wagging their fingers to “fight back against Trump and Texas Governor Abbott?”
Nuts to them all. In one way, shape, or form, they’re all creepy tyrants
But what WE can do in OUR state of California is uphold the law.
And if former Governor Schwarzeneggar wants to fight Governor Newsom to keep the impartial redistricting commission he led the voters in creating for the Golden State?
Well, then maybe I’ll let Governor Bodybuilder take on Governor Pretty Boy (both of whom I can’t say have positives that outweigh their negatives) to defend the people.
I can’t keep Illinois or Texas from doing what they’re doing, but at least we can avoid any disenfranchising of Californian voters who endure what they must in the once-Golden State…regardless of any partisan Democrats who just don’t think this state is “blue enough”, or how much they hate Abbott, Red States, and/or Trump.
I like my Representative Democracy and my American Republic to be colored Red, White, and Blue…and that starts at home.
Governor Gavin Newsom, don’t you DARE sink to the level of the machines we’re seeing in other states when the voters have already weighed in on how we want OUR state to be represented…
…because it’s NOT about YOU, Gavin, and it’s NOT as if a One-Party Sacramento Legislature and its federal counterparts have done such a great job of leading our nation into this now-dystopian era.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
