| By Bob Weaver
Lord have mercy, while Americans are being entertained to death by President Donald Trump, which consumes each news cycle, it is with disbelief that the US Supreme Court has ruled that gerrymandering is fair game for USA politicians.
The Court has decided that partisan gerrymandering is not an issue that merits ruling from the federal bench, meaning that ruling politicians are free to maximize party power and skew elections.
In our form of democracy, which is sliding quickly into being an Oligarchy, it would seem that when voters go to the polls they deserve to have their votes count equally.
Millions of voter aged citizens just don't vote, West Virginia often leading the nation with non-voting. Politicians love that.
But for decades, politicians both Democrat and Republican, have rigged districts to boost the votes of their friends and dilute the votes of their enemies.
Lord have mercy, now a narrow majority of Supreme Court justices has given its blessing to blatant partisan gerrymandering where politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians.
To change the Supreme Courts decision, there will have to an active movement by voters to passed laws against gerrymandering.
Citizens hopefully will fight to make their voices heard and to end partisan gerrymandering that robs them of representation.
The court greenlighted two blatant partisan gerrymanders â one by Republicans in North Carolina (Rucho v. Common Cause) and one by Democrats in Maryland (Lamone v. Benisek) â despite the fact that hundreds of thousands in the two states have been stripped of their voice in Washington by power-hungry politicians.
Not since the Supreme Courts Citizen United decision has there been a greater threat to our constitutional form of government.
The validation of Citizens United by the US Supreme Court, which gave personhood to corporations, allowed them to spend endless amounts of money on elections.
Trashed by the Republican led Congress was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCainâFeingold Act), enacted in 2002, which regulated campaign financing.
During the 2016 election, $6.5 billion was spent on the presidential and congressional elections combined, according to campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.org.
Not alone the well validated Russian interference with the 2016 election, denied by President Trump, begs to ask when we finally understand that the elections really are rigged or stolen?
Surely they would not be rigged by the rich and powerful.
How much more gerrymandering, corporate buying of elections, voter disenfranchisement, Russian tinkering and outright fraud can we stand?
We cannot, as many claim, vote our way into power when no aspect of the two party duopoly represents anything other than elite interests.
The system is designed to empower rich people and their massive corporations, no one else. Many have been convinced this is good for us.
Over the years, it has been modified to allow different faces to represent it, but the agenda has stayed much the same, no matter who is charge in Washington.
Trump convinced his supporters he was a populist, looking out for the little guy. Then passed the biggest tax break for the wealthiest Americans.
A nation of brow-beaten workers, automatons, consumers, or bosses will never succeed in functional democracy.
We have become a divided nation, divisive and mean-spirited toward "people not like us."
Lord have mercy, our great nation is teetering, and not for its survival.
Meanwhile, enjoy the diversionary entertainment.
| 
