Thread by @YangDailyCast

We need to talk about just how corrupt we've allowed #democracy in #America to become, to the point it isn't democracy in many respects. And we need to stop #partisan squabbling and get to fixing it before we end up a one-party state, like #China. Thread👇
on.theatln.tc/0OHoWpT

In 2019, writing the decision for Common Cause v. Rucho, Chief Justice Roberts closed off the federal courts as an avenue for addressing partisan #gerrymandering, instead telling citizens to propose state constitutional amendments.

In many states, with statehouses #gerrymandered beyond reach of the people, or otherwise beholden to special interests, these citizen-amendments are the only avenue left for addressing #democracy reform and other policy concerns.

In #NorthDakota, citizens looked to strengthen overseas-military voting and election audits, open primaries to all voters, and enact instant runoffs. North Dakota is dominated by the #Republican party and closed, low-turnout primaries favor the incumbent party.

Facing unprecedented political pressure from more than 100 #Republican leaders who filed an amicus brief, including the governor as well as the state’s entire congressional delegation, the court ruled the citizens' initiative invalid because it included a reference to a statute.

The ruling lacked legal basis or grounding in precedent as, in the past 18 years, 6 qualified measures also included reference to a statute. The 36k #NorthDakota voters who signed petitions to put this on the ballot were silenced when they used the only path they had to be heard.

What will be on #NorthDakota’s ballot this fall? A measure advanced by the #GOP legislature that would require ballot measures approved by voters to be approved by the legislature...

The state legislature is controlled by #Republicans, since 1994, outnumberng #Democrats 79–15 in the #House and 37–10 in the #Senate. In other words, pro-#democratic reforms are suppressed and anti-democratic reforms continue to amass.

Remember the poll-tax in #Florida? 64% of #voters amended the state #constitution to restore #voting #rights to ex-felons, but the state’s #gerrymandered #congress modified the provision to require fines and fees be paid before regaining the #right to #vote.

A divided 11th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed this to move forward, in direct contradiction to the intent of the #amendment and its backers. There too, partisan #courts supported #gerrymandered, partisan legislators to subvert pro-#democratic reform.

In #Arkansas, with two different amendments, #citizens worked to establish an #AntiGerrymandering, independent redistricting commission, #OpenPrimaries, and #RankedChoiceVoting.

But, in #Arkansas, a #state statute requires that signature-gatherers pass a state and national background check, as performed by the Arkansas state #police. Trouble is, the state police are not authorized to perform national checks.

Thus, the court easily threw out the proposal, as it can do for any #citizen proposal, since anti-#democratic state law makes reform by citizen initiative literally impossible.

#Citizens in these #states, and many others, have no #voice unless they start demanding #democracy be protected. #Voters in the #minority parties are completely unrepresented, because #gerrymandering ensures their candidates will never win.

And they are cut off from bypassing those non-representatives by anti-#democratic laws. These have become one-party #states, otherwise known as #authoritarian states, like #China or #NorthKorea.

#Republicans aren't the only perpetrators of such tactics, though they are the most common. And it doesn't benefit voters of the majority party in the long-term either.

If #voters of the majority party in these #states looked at the inevitable outcome of one-party states, they would see that they too will become #oppressed, in time, as the party continues to consolidate power until it need not care about the wishes of any voters at all.

This is how #democracy dies.

When #citizens are completely shut out from gov., is it any surprise that we see #radical groups, whether they be #fascist or #communist or otherwise, growing in the country, rejecting the very concept of #democracy in favor of #authoritarianism?

When the #courts, which are supposed to be the impartial safeguard against laws that infringe on the #rights of #citizens, especially the right to be represented in #government, become partisan accomplices in the oppression, what can we expect but #revolt?

Just as the #justice system is too often an enabler of #racist oppression, it is also too often an enabler of #democratic oppression. And nothing exemplifies the problem more than the current battle going on over #RBG's seat on the #SupremeCourt.

Everyone can see it is an obvious battle to stack the #court to favor one party over the other. We're openly corrupting our courts with partisan ideology. We can see in the examples above how that leads to the erosion of the most #fundamental rights of our #constitution.

When oppressed people have no #legal path to reform, #violent #revolution is the inevitable conclusion. It's how our country was founded, afterall.

This is why stacking the #courts with ideologues is a serious matter.

It's why #gerrymandering is a serious matter.

It's why #campaign #finance is a serious matter.

We need to stop fighting each other and get serious about fixing our #democracy before it's too late.

Whether you are #Republican, #Democrat, #Independent, or otherwise, whether your party is in charge or not, we ALL must fight

against #Gerrymandering
against #VoterSuppression

for #STAR or #RankedChoiceVoting
for #PublicCampaignFinance
for #OpenPrimaries

for #Democracy.

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