Gov Pritzker: My Gerrymandering is Fine Because It Only Disenfranchises White People

In a baffling turn of events, the media actually questioned whether Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is really qualified to be the standard bearer against gerrymandering on account of his state being more rigged than a south side backroom poker game.

KRISTEN WELKER: I do want to look at the map of Illinois. Let’s take a look at this: despite President Trump winning 44% of the statewide vote in 2024, Republicans hold only three of Illinois’s 17 districts. These districts seem to be to maximize Democratic advantage. What do you say to those who argue that it’s hypocritical for you to criticize Texas for partisanship when your state also drew maps to boost your party’s standing?

JB PRITZKER: Well, remember that what Texas is trying to do is, again, violate the Voting Rights Act. We didn’t. We held public hearings, legislative hearings. People attended them. They spoke out. There was a map that was put out. There were actually changes made to the map and a map was passed

What does any of that mean? Well they held hearings and people attended them and then the state was gerrymandered well above what Texas wants to do.

In Illinois, where Trump won 43% of the vote, there are 14 Democrats and only 3 Republicans for 82% control by the ruling party. Even if Texas were to go ahead with its plan, it would be at 78% Republican control.

Pritzker and Dems keep talking about the Voting Rights Act because their only comeback isn’t defending their gerrymandering, it’s claiming that their gerrymandering isn’t racist (because it disenfranchises white people alone.)

YES! At the DC protest against obimbocare in 2009, my sign was “NO PAY, NO SAY”.

Of course, would need a provision that allowed retirees and people who paid payroll taxes a majority of their life.

My other gripe is house taxes. Some states use up to 70% of home taxes for schools. Fine. But, retirees have paid for about 3 generations of school taxes, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren or more. Time to reduce their home owner taxes by this amount.

Hubby and I could not have kids. We are almost 50 years of paying house taxes and we understand we need ambulance, fire department, and other services. But, we should be done educating other people’s children.

[This may not be 100% right.]

One could allocate to the largest city in each major population center jurisdiction and immediately adjacent counties as many districts as may be fully contained therein.

The district boundaries of this area would determined by this priority:
1. retaining districts wholly within the major population center jurisdiction
2. adjusting these districts from the historic center of the major population center jurisdiction for proportional representation
3. outermost jurisdictions not needed to be included would be excluded
4. an outlying part of the largest jurisdiction that has to be split between districts would be excluded.

A major population center might be an area:
1. thought by the state allocative body to have at least 100 100-seat or more airline flights per Monday,
2. having at least eight FCC licensed TV stations, or
3. be a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA).

All that is to keep the colored members of Congress in their seats (and to avoid race riots).

The outlying districts in the state could be allocated on the basis of:
1. proportional representation
2. each district to have roughly equal latitude and longitude width

The outlying districts might be allocated by the TV station method. If say the state has three other districts left to allocate, allocate out from the outlying metro TV station areas (in Pennsylvania these might be Scranton, Harrisburg and Erie). Potential district population calculations would be made from each possible set of outlying metro TV station areas of the state working outward from the major city served. The set that results in minimal total (latitude + longitude) outlying district width would get chosen.

[If there are more outlying districts that would need to be calculated than outlying metro TV station areas, then perhaps the state might expand the area of at least one major population center district calculation by at least one more county (or city) to create at least one more major population center district.]

Why is TV so important? Because media buying and vote buying to get reelected are the primary concerns of members of Congress. However, TV time buying is no longer as important as it was in years past. No system that makes it impossible for reelection campaigns to target voters will get accepted.

Alternately, the outlying districts might be allocated by the corner method. Potential district population calculations would be made from each corner of the state. The corner that results in minimal total (latitude + longitude) outlying district width would get chosen.

Districts could then be minimized on the basis of minimizing the total latitudinal & longitudinal spread of districts not totally within 50 miles of a city center.

Finally, jurisdictions to get shifted between two districts at a time (without changing the districts’ latitude and longitude ratio by more than 10% each (or out to a jurisdictional boundary if allowed by state law)) to minimize the number of jurisdictions contained in more than one district.

“My other gripe is house taxes. Some states use up to 70% of home taxes for schools. Fine. But, retirees have paid for about 3 generations of school taxes, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren or more. Time to reduce their home owner taxes by this amount.

“Hubby and I could not have kids. We are almost 50 years of paying house taxes and we understand we need ambulance, fire department, and other services. But, we should be done educating other people’s children.”

I’ll be insisting on getting Social Security because I paid school taxes to provide K-12 education to FICA taxpayers.

The young folks gripe about FICA taxation.

The old folks gripe about school taxation.

FICA tax rates could be based on school tax levies.

Social Security payments could be based on school tax levies.

“Only taxpayers should have the right to vote”

One chamber should be elected only by net contributors. Only this chamber should be able to craft revenue law.

Being a net contributor means
your 1040 + employee FICA payments + state income tax + property tax
>
your government employee compensation + federal program contractor employee compensation + SNAP + average Medicaid cost by age + Obamaphone + average Medicare cost by age + Social Security.

One chamber should be elected by all adults. Only this chamber should be able to craft regulatory and criminal law.

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