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Christy Hammer's Reviews > Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America's Democracy
Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America's Democracy
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by
Everybody knows demographics are numbers about people (demos) but the field is far from beneign - those numbers are used to control people - to label, to sort, to literally and figuratively divide and conquer.
I'm not sure why we all didn't read this book when it came out, because I knew of it and was stupidly distracted with more "ballot box" issues of how the Voter's Rights Act of '65 was gutted and un-/under-enforced, both. However, some recent Washington Post attention pulled me back to Burke's book on how the judicial branch keeps race-based discrimination intact through gerrymandering: The Appearance of Equality: Racial Gerrymandering, Redistricting, and the Supreme Court so I added a short review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Democrats truly are "rat-f**cked", as while both political parties did redistricting it was so much more and with much more drastic results by the Republican party. Years after Burke exposed the problem, Daley describes the Big Data software program that allowed the gerrymandering to increase exponentially and with devastating results for Democrats. I'd known the lovely term of "rat-f**cking" to mean the political gaming of the rules of democracy but had forgotten it came from Watergate's Bernstein and Woodward.
Here is a map about what the US would look like politically without gerrymandering: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/w...
I'm not sure why we all didn't read this book when it came out, because I knew of it and was stupidly distracted with more "ballot box" issues of how the Voter's Rights Act of '65 was gutted and un-/under-enforced, both. However, some recent Washington Post attention pulled me back to Burke's book on how the judicial branch keeps race-based discrimination intact through gerrymandering: The Appearance of Equality: Racial Gerrymandering, Redistricting, and the Supreme Court so I added a short review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Democrats truly are "rat-f**cked", as while both political parties did redistricting it was so much more and with much more drastic results by the Republican party. Years after Burke exposed the problem, Daley describes the Big Data software program that allowed the gerrymandering to increase exponentially and with devastating results for Democrats. I'd known the lovely term of "rat-f**cking" to mean the political gaming of the rules of democracy but had forgotten it came from Watergate's Bernstein and Woodward.
Here is a map about what the US would look like politically without gerrymandering: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/w...
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February 26, 2017
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President Rat, indeed. Thanks, dear Jan! Said the same thing about Daley's forecast for ending democracy as we've tried to know it.
This is another of the books I've been circling for some time now. To be honest, though, I can't bring myself to pick it up, not at this moment, anyway. I fear it would depress the hell out of me and make me even angrier than I already am. And toward what end? As you say, we are truly ratf**ked already, and barring a miraculous and entirely unlikely eruption of reason, integrity, and honest care for the longevity of the American experiment, I don't see anything changing. Am I throwing up my hands and giving up? No: I'll direct my energies into political action and social engagement. As far as my reading is concerned, I find there are times I have to escape the fearful darkness of our times and spend time instead in the brighter world of serial killers. Fictional ones, of course.
Bruce wrote: "This is another of the books I've been circling for some time now. To be honest, though, I can't bring myself to pick it up, not at this moment, anyway. I fear it would depress the hell out of me a..."I totally get it, Bruce. Haha re the "brighter world of serial killers"! Actually, if there is one thing that's surprised be on GRs this last year is how many smart people dig "crime" and "horror" reads...:-) Whatever gets us through the night, as is said, tho.
A lot of my college and grad school professors were avid readers of mysteries in their down time. Makes sense to me.
Just my own narrow-mindedness. :-).
I wrote a long response to this review - accidentally deleted it - decided that it wasn't meant to be - then found this:http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu....
did any of you listen to his interview on the podcast politically reactive? if not, i recommend it!
Your Washington Post idea about drawing boundaries for compactness would be very bad. Here in Madison, there are neighborhoods that are 99% Democratic. Compact districts would create city districts that are intensely Democratic -- and noncity districts that are predominately Republican. The bulk of Democratic votes would be corralled into a few districts. Republicans would love this. It would be worse even than what they've done with partisan gerrymandering.
Elizabeth wrote: "did any of you listen to his interview on the podcast politically reactive? if not, i recommend it!"Thanks, Elizabeth! I'll look for it. Just so annoyed how we let it get this bad (gerrymandering and purging voter rolls seem to have kept more people of color from voting than the ridiculous voter ID laws in some southern states, I read speculated...)
Thomas Ray wrote: "Your Washington Post idea about drawing boundaries for compactness would be very bad. Here in Madison, there are neighborhoods that are 99% Democratic. Compact districts would create city districts..."Thanks so much for this criticism, Thomas Ray. I'd really like to know more about this. Right, Dems already were helped by *urban center* redistricting, but the Repub redistricting helped their vote a bunch more, agreed?
Great review! I will check out this book over Spring Break!
States that have nonpartisan panels do the redistricting do it best. They create districts that each have a mix of urban and rural, a mix of political affiliations, so there's no ghettoing of any group into a few concentrated districts.
Thomas Ray wrote: "States that have nonpartisan panels do the redistricting do it best. They create districts that each have a mix of urban and rural, a mix of political affiliations, so there's no ghettoing of any g..."Daley would agree with you that nonpartisan panels do redistricting the best, and argues that this is the only/best "fix", to support state referendums that move redistricting from state legislatures to nonpartisan panels. He thinks people across the political spectrum resonates to a need for reasonable fair voting. That may be true, but he is a bit more positive than I that such referendums will work as literal damage control. (Mostly, I'm still steaming that we were so stupid to let this happen as I know I read about the GOP ratcheting up funding of state races in both '10 and '14, and others had speculated the devastating impact we got.)
Excellent review. I have effectively been disenfranchised from most political contests where I live in Florida.
Jay wrote: "Excellent review. I have effectively been disenfranchised from most political contests where I live in Florida."By both redistricting and basic alienation, I assume...:-) Still sorry we didn't find time to connect in the Sunshine State - land of the next POTUS, Marco Rubio! I'd forgotten how horrid it is for the average worker in Florida.
You mean Little Marco? LOL! "Low energy" - oh, wait, that was JEB! Where have you gone, Katherine Harris - a nation turns its lonely eyes to you, woo, woo woo.
Jay wrote: "You mean Little Marco? LOL! "Low energy" - oh, wait, that was JEB! Where have you gone, Katherine Harris - a nation turns its lonely eyes to you, woo, woo woo."Haha - now I'll have that great Simon and Garfunkel tune in my head all day... What *did* happen to the horrific Katherine Harris? She had hanging chad instead of stars in her eyes... My teen daughter thought she's a Rubio supporter. We took her to several rallies he had in NH last year. She'd hoped to magically see him in FL somehow? Kill us now.
Bruce wrote: "This is another of the books I've been circling for some time now. To be honest, though, I can't bring myself to pick it up, not at this moment, anyway. I fear it would depress the hell out of me a..."
Bruce - this is a difficult read (or, in my case, it was a difficult listen), but, despite the sobering and disturbing subject matter, it's worth sticking with it.
Jay a/k/a JayDownSouthInDixie a/k/a "So this is what disenfranchisement feels like!"
Bruce - this is a difficult read (or, in my case, it was a difficult listen), but, despite the sobering and disturbing subject matter, it's worth sticking with it.
Jay a/k/a JayDownSouthInDixie a/k/a "So this is what disenfranchisement feels like!"
Christy wrote: "Jay wrote: "You mean Little Marco? LOL! "Low energy" - oh, wait, that was JEB! Where have you gone, Katherine Harris - a nation turns its lonely eyes to you, woo, woo woo."
Haha - now I'll have th..."
I don't think "Little Marco" makes many public appearances these days. As for Ms. Harris... she's pretty much dropped off everyone's radar.
Haha - now I'll have th..."
I don't think "Little Marco" makes many public appearances these days. As for Ms. Harris... she's pretty much dropped off everyone's radar.
It seems to be working. Thanks for bringing this to the world. Great review.
Calista wrote: "It seems to be working. Thanks for bringing this to the world. Great review."Thanks, Calista.
Jan wrote: "Maybe some change for the better soon?"YES, and thanks for saying so, Jan! That the Supremes refused to hear the PA GOP appeal was extremely good news. :-)
I'm learning new terms all the time! Since the book came out last year, Daley seems to have peered into the future!