DL Open Thread: Saturday, September 25, 2021

Rethug Gerrymanders All The Rage These Days.  Not to mention, conservative courts ready to step in when the legislators won’t.  Also, more proof that these so-called ‘non-partisan’ commissions are nothing more than fig leafs.

Karen Bass To Run For Mayor Of Los Angeles.  A great development.  Progressive member of Congress, beloved by the Black community and progressives alike.  Oh, and she’d likely be the favorite:

Bass’ decision has long loomed over the race as a decisive variable. Her supporters in deeply Democratic Los Angeles have launched a campaign urging her to run. City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the city’s leading Black politicians and a longtime Bass ally, recently told the Los Angeles Times that Bass would “send terror through the ranks” of other candidates if she chose to run.

“If Congresswoman Karen Bass jumps into the Mayor’s race in Los Angeles it’ll be like a wave of progressive fresh air and hope,” state Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) tweeted recently. “Our City deserves it.”

‘The Devil Goes Down To Georgia’. Retiring R Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan actually went there in describing Trump’s visit to the Peach State today.  Trump has hastened Georgia’s gradual turn from red into purple, at least.

You Simply Must Watch ‘Summer Of Soul’.  Less a musical documentary than an invigorating view of a unique time and place that heralded a broad and burgeoning Black movement in America and throughout the world.  Footage that inexplicably had been locked away somewhere for 50 years b/c some idiot must have decided it wasn’t commercial.  This vibrant recounting of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (which I had never known even took place) is incredibly relevant and, yes, deeply moving:

In a sense, Questlove depicts the Harlem Cultural Festival as a microcosm of King’s Promised Land. In “Soulsville, USA,” as Lawrence calls the festival, Black people could wear dashikis and full afros without ridicule, gather in a safe space without apprehension and dread, and be protected by respected members of their community, the Black Panthers. The soul of the festival was born out of a Black collective able to unify through shared emotions and experiences. Questlove allows modern Black audiences to see that spaces in which soul abounds are not only possible for us, but deeply necessary.

Wilmington City Council Redistricting Issues Surface.  I like these two elements of Shane Darby’s proposal:

Second District Councilwoman Shané Darby is planning to propose an ordinance that would place the inmates for redistricting purposes at their last known address, as opposed to the current system of counting them in the district of their current address, the prison.

Darby said the current system amounts to prison gerrymandering.

“Counting prisoners in location distorts political representation, where they are not a part of the population and don’t have representation.”

Any plan must put an end to this practice, IMO.  However, it creates a logistical problem which I don’t consider a problem at all:

Choosing to place the inmates in their previous address would greatly shrink the District 3 population, home of Young Prison, down to 7,314 people, well below the expected average of 8,821.

Darby’s proposal gives the southern part of the East Side neighborhood to the Third District, unifying an area split between Zanthia Oliver’s Third District and Michelle Harlee’s Fourth.

“I really think East Side should not be divided. It is a community that is hurting, it’s a community that needs a lot of T.L.C.”

Of course, Harlee and Oliver disagree:

Harlee, whose proposal moved district lines by a few blocks here and there, said the East Side gets good political coverage from herself and Oliver.

“You have two Brown and Black representatives that represent the East Side. We do collaborate, we do listen, we do work with our colleagues and the administration to do our best to make sure the East Side gets what it needs.”

She countered Darby’s claim that one neighborhood, one representative is always best.

“When you have two people advocating for the same community that there can be a better outcome than one person who is totally overwhelmed.”

Well, first of all, if someone is ‘overwhelmed’ in this case, it simply means that the quality of their service is underwhelming. Not to mention that while it could be true that having ‘two Brown and Black representatives that represent the East Side’ is a good thing, this could also be a case of 2 times zero equaling zero.

Putting an end to ‘buddymandering’, as Darby puts it, is not a bad thing. Not. Ever. Especially in Wilmington.  Perhaps there’s some phony commission that Xanthia Oliver could collect a paycheck from.

What do you want to talk about?