SC’s new districts have been rigged for the next decade. Now what?
The plan and petitions on this site are now on hold, pending debate on how to proceed now that the freshly gerrymandered maps have been adopted. The plan’s details are still relevant but warrant review and study. Sign up for the FairMapsSC elist to join the conversation.
The SC Progressive Network Education Fund was not at all surprised by the new maps for our state legislature and congressional districts. The rigging of the outcome is a product of transformation of the white ruling party in the legislature from being known as the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
When the white-only Democratic Party crafted the state’s present Constitution in 1895, it ended Black political participation through violence and intimidation until 1970. By 2002, racial gerrymandering, accompanied by white voters and politicians switching parties, resulted in white, Republican control of the House, Senate and Governor’s Office. South Carolina has been ruled by this white trifecta for20 years.
South Carolina Party Control: 1992-2022
The control of redistricting by one party makes the process bad theatre, where the controlling party pays lip service to democracy and insults the intelligence of citizens who work diligently to democratize the outcome.
The SC Progressive Network’s 26-year-old nonpartisan policy and research institute appreciates the work of the many well-intentioned organizations working to get the best deal out of a losing hand. But knowing that the best deal, regardless of the effort, would not change the laws, policies and budgetary outcomes of state government, in 2018, the Network introduced the Fair Maps campaign as a radical, nonviolent, statutory plan to reconstruct the state’s failing democracy.
We anticipated that the majority party would not willingly cede power and that the US Supreme Court would not intervene. Accordingly, our plan is a work-around the legislature and the courts. It could have worked by 2020 with a big budget and high-profile leadership, but the pandemic deferred our plans.
The original plan relied on a statewide campaign to pass county government resolutions focusing on compelling county legislative delegations to place an amendment on a state general election ballot to put citizens rather than politicians in charge of redistricting.
Perhaps our renewed efforts could initially focus on passing municipal and county resolutions that actually create local citizen redistricting commissions. This is a way that local governments can serve as the laboratories for democracy that lead by example. Many of our local governments are led by potential allies who agree that safe seats held by incumbent legislators limits their political opportunities.
We must realize that wresting power from wealthy white men has never been easy or quick. This struggle will require longterm vision and steadfast conviction.
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