Thursday, October 28, 2010

Amendments 5 and 6: it is time for Fair Districts in Florida ... by gimleteye

I listened on WLRN yesterday to the founder and chair of Fair Districts, Ellen Freiden, and one of the troglodytes, former Secretary of State Kurt Browning. You remember him: "You've done a heck of a job, Brownie."

No, that was Bush appointee to lead Homeland Security during Hurricane Katrina, but you get my point. Our Brownie is browbeating minorities into believing that Fair Districts is a trick on them. That's not what the NAACP says. Or civil rights leader, Julian Bond. Fair Districts will do more for equal representation than its detractors can admit, so they invent their own reality. Another Brownie. Ours is the one who represented fair elections for the state and won't support fair districts.

If 60 percent of voters approve Fair Districts, Amendments 5 and 6, the playing field will be level for the first time in a very, very long time in Florida. And if Alex Sink is elected governor, then whatever redistricting proposal emerges from the legislature is more likely to be representative of the state and not an entrenched status quo that gerrymandered their way into unassailable incumbencies.

Most voters, who only pay attention to the 20 second shock campaign ads that are appearing everywhere on television, don't have a clue that this 2010 election in Florida is really about solidifying a torpid, stultified GOP leadership. We are still in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, and still there has been not a breath of accountability by voters for the politics that caused this immense wealth transfer; out of the hands of the middle class and into thin air.

Plus Amendment 4-- Florida Hometown Democracy-- the addition of Amendments 5 and 6 to the Florida Constitution will be an enormous benefit to Florida. Don't listen to the fear mongers. Brownie, go home.

No comments: