Video - Gerrymandering & Your Vote
Where to Draw the Line - Weaponized Vote Dilution to Nullify Your Vote
Seven years ago, I sat down and interviewed Dr. Daniel Breen, Historian and Lawyer - a notable mix. In that interview, we discussed a number of legal cases that were “settled” precedent and cases that were circulating and waiting to be decided by the US Supreme Court. Our discussion hinges on those cases - teaching the American people the “purpose” and “effect” of gerrymandering, how it is done, and the effort state legislators put into gerrymandering to get the “result” they want - even if it is counter to the majority of the people they represent.
Dr. Breen discusses how these legislators “Crack & Pack” districts, and what it means to the average voter casting their vote. He also elaborates on the Voting Rights Act, Political and Racial Gerrymandering, Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause and how cases were decided in years past and how they are being decided today.
Below is my interview with Dr. Breen in 2017 on these important voting issues. An updated interview and program will be forthcoming.
Show Topic: Gerrymandering: Where to Draw the Line… How Partisan Gerrymandering is Used to Discriminate & Disenfranchise–Weaponized to Dilute the Vote & Keep the Incumbent Party in Power (2017).
Guest: Dr. Daniel Breen, J.D., PhD, is a Sr. Lecturer of Legal Studies at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. He holds a J.D. in Law from the University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. in American History from Boston College.
More About Dr. Breen:
Dr. Daniel Breen, J.D., PhD, lectures on the issues at the intersection of American History and the law. This is an ‘eye-opening’ discussion on how gerrymandering–drawing voting district lines–is all often “calculated” and implemented as a ‘subtle’ means to weaponize discrimination. By marginalizing blocks of voters–usually black & brown voters–diluting the impact of their vote by “packing and cracking” the district–so those in power who set the rules–stay in power; by keeping the status quo, minority voters and non-incumbents can be disenfranchised from the power of their vote. This process of ‘vote dilution,’ has the power to chill dissent, and quell voices of what should be a ‘representative government’– a concept that is paramount to having non-racial and bipartisan voting.
Exploration of election practices: how our nation can reverse the effect of gerrymandering that has so openly fragmented our state and national elections. It is axiomatic that no one should disenfranchise voters or dilute the “one person – one vote” requirement of the democratic election process. The discussion centers on constitutional issues surrounding the use of of gerrymandering by state legislatures–with the purpose & effect of keeping the incumbent party in power.
The result undoubtedly influences the outcomes of each states’ federal congressional elections, as well influence party representation within the state itself. Dr. Breen’s lectures on a variety of presidential historical topics and legal underpinnings of or democracy - invidious discrimination against minorities and women.
See our 2024 Discussion with Dr. Breen, on the US Supreme Court Ruling in S. Carolina vs NAACP here. And Don’t Forget to Subscribe Below!
#gerrymandering #DisenfranchisingVoters #Redistricting #VoterSuppression #MinorityJurisdictions #EqualProtection
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(Original program recorded/copyright 2017).