Sucks for Us, but Not Unfair

The Republicans in the State Legislature have revealed their new proposals for House districts and just like I said a million years ago–if they look like they make sense, it’s going to be very, very difficult to get the general public worked up about them. And I have to say, in general, they look like they make sense. Could I quibble about some of the boundaries? Sure. But do the districts look like coherent blobs? Yes.

And here’s the truth. No one is losing “their” district. That’s not how this is supposed to work. You’re not the king or queen of your district, overseeing your serfs who you expect to vote for you. Those districts, like everything else in government, belongs to the People. Go convince the voters to vote for you.

I also hope preliminary reports of Democrats complaining that there were no women involved in the redistricting process are untrue both because there were Republican women involved in the process and, holy shit, Dems–where are your fucking women?! Heal thyself, Physician/Democratic Party.

The Democratic party is going to have to get a lot better on women’s issues before I want to hear word one from them about sexism.

So, do the new districts suck for Democrats? Yes. But what is the solution that respects our form of government? The voters put Republicans in charge. If you’re not seeing proof they’re splitting up voting communities–like splitting black neighborhoods to keep them from having black representatives–then it’s just our tough luck that they’re changing districts.

In other words, I’ll be outraged if they’re fucking over voters. If they’re just fucking over politicians, that seems to me to be a painful, but predictable result of the last election. I can’t get that worked up about it. We’re not owed Democratic districts and if the Party doesn’t have a plan for motivating new voters, that’s our problem, not Republicans’.

Edited to add: It’s hard to tell from this PDF, but the State Senate districts also look like they make sense at a glance. Again, will be very hard to convince voters that something wrong or unfair has happened, when they look at these.

This Peculiar Cold

Maybe I’m just getting older, but I swear, the cold in Tennessee has a peculiarity that makes it especially mean. I say this as a Midwestern girl. I don’t know if it’s the humidity, but it’s not very cold here this morning. Maybe mid 20s and warming. But just in the short time I was out walking the dog–yes moving around–I got so cold down to my bones that I feel like I’m never going to get warm.

Just within ten minutes of being out, all my fingers were stiff and numb.

I had a weird dream that I accidentally let the neighbors’ cat–the black and white one that waits for the bus with their son–into the house. I think that’s because he’s been over visiting so much.