Posted on 11/30/2020 11:53:26 AM PST by Kaslin
Democrats want to use illegal aliens and prisoners to determine legislative districts, as well as boxing out those who oppose them from any voice in how districts are drawn.
Democracy in New York is suffering from Democrats’ single-party rule. Recently, Democrats in the Assembly and Senate, in companion bills, placed politics above democracy by voting to amend the state constitution to ensure that the Democrat Party keeps its stranglehold on Albany politics into perpetuity.
Every ten years, a census is taken. The data collected affects the number of state legislators and the geographical boundaries of each legislative district.
After the districts were drawn following the 2010 census, voters passed a ballot referendum amending the state constitution to take redistricting power away from the legislature and to vest it in an independent redistricting commission. The Democrats, who now control of both houses of the state legislature, decided this year to claw back that power.
First, the legislature decreed that, for determining the number of residents of the state, and therefore the number of state legislators, non-citizens—including illegal aliens—will be counted. Illegal aliens, of course, tend to reside in urban and suburban areas of the state, which tend to be Democrat strongholds.
According to the Pew Research Center, the largest illegal alien population in the entire country resides in the metro-New York City area. As of 2016, that number topped 1 million.
As Professor Dennis Murphy stated in the Case Western Reserve Law Review, “[i]ncluding illegal aliens … affects individual citizens’ rights, creating inequality of voting power between citizens in districts with large numbers of illegal aliens and citizens who live in districts with small numbers of illegal aliens.”
Including illegal aliens in the ratio of inhabitants per legislator is designed for one purpose only: to increase the number of Democrat legislators so that party can retain their majority in the statehouse.
Second, the legislature voted that, for determining the number of inhabitants per legislator, inmates who are incarcerated in state prisons will now be counted as living at their place of last residence before entering the prison system.
Approximately half of all inmates in New York State prisons (49.95 percent) come from New York City, more than 20 percent come from the New York City suburbs, and another 25 percent come from large upstate cities such as Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany—all of which are bastions of the Democrat Party. Stated otherwise, more than 95 percent of inmates in New York’s prison system hail from Democrat-controlled regions, while less than 4 percent come from Republican-controlled areas.
By counting inmates, including those serving life sentences, as residents of the majority-Democrat urban and suburban areas where they lived before becoming incarcerated rather than of the majority-Republican upstate counties where the prisons are located, the Democrats in Albany have guaranteed more legislative seats to those Democrat-dominated regions. This, too, translates into more Democrats in the statehouse.
Third, Democrats voted to make important structural changes to the independent redistricting commission (IRC) that eliminate important checks and balances designed to ensure the minority party is represented.
The IRC must appoint two co-executive directors who are in charge of appointing the commission’s duties. While both houses of the legislature are currently controlled by the same party, the constitution requires that one of the IRC’s executive directors must be a Democrat and the other a Republican. Recently, Democrats voted to jettison this provision.
It also used to be that the executive directors could only be appointed if each received the support of a majority of the IRC commissioners, including at least one of the commissioners appointed by the minority party. Democrats tossed out this guardrail, as well.
And while the constitution currently requires that any redistricting plan submitted to the legislature by the IRC must be approved by two-thirds (66 percent) of each house before it can go into effect, the Democrats voted to reduce this percentage to 60 percent.
This is a big deal. Of the 63 state senators, 40 are Democrats. To get the support of two-thirds, Democrats would need to win over 42 senators; but they would only need 38 senators to give them 60 percent. This means that under Democrats’ desired system, Republican lawmakers could be ignored.
By creating new legislative seats in areas with large concentrations of Democrats, Democrats will give themselves an insurmountable supermajority in the Senate, thereby cementing their control of the legislature. Moreover, such a super-majority will make all Democrat-supported legislation veto-proof, neutering the power of any future Republican governor.
Democrats’ plan is not yet a fait accompli. It must pass another session of the legislature (in 2021) and then be approved by the voters in a ballot referendum. But make no mistake: should the Democrats’ plan go into effect, eliminating the checks and balances intended to protect the minority would result in the “tyranny of the majority” that James Madison warned against in Federalist 10.
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, democracy in New York would perpetually be two wolves and a lamb voting on what’s for lunch. Single-party rule is destroying New York. Let’s end it before it’s too late.
They’re looking at the Dems plan to do what they’ve already put in place?
Exactly. They already have controlled it forever and most of the people there just loooove it that’s why they keep voting for it I guess
As we all know there are no more free elections in America. The last one was 2016. If this one isn’t turned over we are at the last box
I’m a NYC escapee and would never go back. The Big Apple ‘draw’ is gone forever, beset by violence, high taxes, and a degraded quality of life. The Dems cannot govern themselves without other people’s money...and it’s leaving in droves.
What would it take for upstate NY to break away from the NYC metro area and form its own state. It seems like the only option. I would say the same for states like VA, CA, IL and WA.
“The last one was 2016”
That’s a significant claim. It is because, by definition, the outsider won or do you have other reasons?
If you live in a red state and someone comes to look at a house in your neighborhood and they have a New York accent, ask them slyly who they voted for. If it’s the Democrats,tell them you have great Whites Only parties at your house and that you like to mow your lawn real early on Sundays. That should take care of them infecting your state and neighborhood.
How do the percentages of voters in upstate New York compare to the urban voters? If there was a more organized door to door campaign by Republicans could we get more voters out to the polls? President Trump got volunteers to knock on a million doors in Minnesota. The democrats have always had a big ground game which really went after all of their voters and nudged them to get out and vote for democrats. Can we get the tremendous enthusiasm for Trump to motivate thousands of people to join in a Trump “ground game”? If they are going to keep doing mail in votes shouldn’t Trump volunteers go looking for at home voters? Can they give people a good pro-Trump pep talk and encourage them to vote for Trump? I think we have not begun to fight. Decades of rino Republicans have lead us down a path of usually ending up in second place. We don’t have to be wimpy,wimpy,wimpy. We can be hefty, hefty hefty. :-D
They’re not stopping at New York.
so long as there is the present governor........forgetta ‘bout it
(and mayor)
so long as there is the present governor........forgetta ‘bout it
(and mayor)
so long as there is the present governor........forgetta ‘bout it
(and mayor)
The solution is for these large urban areas to become states. They have nothing at all in common with the rural areas surrounding them.
“First, the legislature decreed that ...”
Where’s the problem? The legislators were chosen by the state’s population.
As long as I don’t have to bail them out (being a non-New Yorker), it’s fine with me.
Each state chooses its path. We give only limited power to the federal government.
They have controlled California, and now will control NY, and they will attempt to control America.
A larger version of this headline could be how the Democrats (Marxists and Communists) plan to rule the USA forever.
I,ve been to Upstate New York, my Husband is from there theu lived close to Lake Ontario, when we came back from Germany he did not want to drive through New York City.
Adding two Democrat US Senators? Not much of a solution, the result will be the urban areas will rule the rest of the country.
That is exactly what they want to do, and we must never allow them too.
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