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Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Fri, 30 Sep 2005
Well Put
Every once in a while, someone writes something succinct, clear, and
spot-on. It's very refreshing. Publius over at Legal
Fiction has such a post today. Here's a snippit:
What makes DeLay's scheme so particularly foul - and what makes it
appropriate for prosecution - was it was entirely about tampering with
and subverting rules governing the voting process. He cheated to raise
money to elect those who would then illegally gerrymander Texas. The
entire enterprise was about ignoring the ex ante rules governing the
voting process - rules that (in a two-party state) solve the
collective action problem that would otherwise undermine that process.
Granted, there's nothing inherently better about redistricting every
10 years as opposed to every 2 years. The point is that 10 years was
the ex ante rule - and mutually agreed-upon ex ante rules (like in
baseball) allow the game to be played. DeLay tossed those rules aside
arrogantly and even proudly. In doing so, he initiated a
gerrymandering race to the bottom in which every party in power now
had incentives to gerrymander districts whenever they had a bare
majority. And predictably, the race to the bottom has now spread to
other states. And our democracy is the worse for it. [On as aside,
this is exact same reason why holding votes open in the House and
other nonsense is not just wrong, but fundamentally undermines our
democratic system.]
Again, it's not so much that they illegally funneled $200,000 of
corporate cash to Texas candidates. It's the principle. There's a
slippery slope problem here. If DeLay succeeded in evading this law
without any consequences, what would stop him from breaking other
laws? What would stop others from doing the same? There's a broader
message that Earle is sending here and that message is leave the
democratic process alone. Reward your cronies, get your pork - do all
the things that elected officials like to do. But don't screw with the
voting process - that is off-limits.
Posted at 11:14 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
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And Now For Something Completely Different
Posted at 11:03 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
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