Keeping An Aye on Treason

The subject of a monarchy can hope for a benevolent ruler. The citizens in a democracy can be certain that their government will include cut-throats, scoundrels ne’er-do-wells and hucksters. Opportunity is the muse of treachery. Politics may never boil down to sound policy and good government and we would probably stop voting altogether if it did. The pendulum has a long way to swing before that’s a risk, however, as electioneering seems now to be the leading function of government, ahead of providing for the common defense, securing more perfect unions and insuring domestic tranquility by several lengths. The capital corruption is gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering takes it’s name from a voting district in proposed by Massachusetts Governor Eldridge Gerry which was drawn in 1812 in the shape of a salamander. The purpose to minimize the effect of independent voters to insure that one party or another retains its seat despite the performance and quality of the incumbent or the madness of the platform. In short, outside of the state of Iowa, which took the power to draw district lines away from legislators, voting districts are drawn to eradicate accountability and reduce the influence of independent or thoughtful voters. Gerrymandering may not be new, but the precision with which it can be accomplished today is scientifically assisted using massive databases, polling, statistics and other instruments more elegantly designed and infernal than the pitchfork.
Of course, the gerrymander is the second tier in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Sanctioned Treachery. The first is loyalty to party without which the Gerrymander would be temporary or impossible. In the United States we do not punish the architects of gerrymandered districts for their crimes against us because, by circular logic, our local representatives belong to our party. As long as elected Democrats continue to deplore the fact that in the richest nation in human history indigent transexuals lack access to the scalpel and Republican public servants continue to stand bravely against the powerful and complex forces arrayed to normalize bestiality and flag-burning in our society, the voters simply cannot afford to surrender on these critical issues to defend the purpose of our voting.
The act of gerrymandering proceeds through the aggregation of neighborhoods where the depth and direction of loyalties have been assessed. The art and science of undermining the people’s will depends on securing the maximum number of voting districts in which the state’s dominant party can trust the outcome. The success of the party and the failure of government thus assured, the voter is betrayed with a kiss. Only by dependable does voting become marginal to the electoral process.
If there is a lesson from contemporary politics, and I shudder at the prospect of the teaching, it is this: A voter cannot elect away prejudice which is taught by the community and to which elected representatives have little effect. A voter cannot elect against sin and immorality which are alloyed into the human bone. A voter cannot elect jobs or an end to poverty or the protection of the environment which come about through countless individual enterprises or not at all. A citizen could, however elect an accountable government in which important matters are attended competently under pain of banishment, but only if that citizen will renounce any political party he or she may once have joined.

The Prattler Wordbook
GERRYMANDER, v.t. To elect one’s representeds.
GESTATE, v.i. To nurture, as an affliction.
GESTURE, n. A flail of the extremities, contortion of the face or shimmy of the spine in defense of a daydream or concealing a yawn.
GET, v.t.. To steal.
GETHSEMANE, n. The forebear of fifty state capitols.
GEW GAW, n. A bauble such as a bobble head doll or suffrage.
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Saturday, July 15, 2006