Our new selection is RATF**KED: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy, by David Daley.
The book outlines in detail the plan hatched by the Republican Party after the 2008 election of President Obama to take control of key state legislatures in 2010 in order to be able to control the redistricting process. As the author says in the introduction to the book:
This book is not an argument for Democratic control of Congress. Nor is it an apologia for a mushy, split-the-difference centrism, nor a history of the Voting Rights Act or the various Supreme Court cases which have brought us here. Those important stories have been well told by brilliant reporters and scholars. Rather, this is the story of how one election tilted our democracy in unforeseen ways, for the unforeseeable future. It is the story of how, in Karl Rove’s words, when you draw the lines, you make the rules. It is an argument that when our democratic institutions become separated from the popular will, they cease to be effective and democratic.”
From the KIRKUS REVIEW:
An alarming study of the GOP’s redrawing of the American political map across the country.
According to Salon editor-in-chief Daley, while Democrats were celebrating President Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, they took their eyes off the important state legislatures, especially in key swing states. Subsequently, the defeated Republicans were already hatching nefarious plans to turn the “disaster into legislative majorities so unbreakable, so impregnable, that none of the outcomes are in doubt until after the 2020 census.” According to law, every state redraws its district lines every 10 years, after the census. Both parties use gerrymandering—named after Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, who redrew a state Senate map in 1812 so skewed it looked like a salamander—to their advantage, but with wildly more sophisticated mapping abilities, gerrymandering has become a “more lethal weapon.” Republican strategists initiated the Republican State Leadership Committee in order to raise millions of dollars for the Redistricting Majority Project, REDMAP, which would indicate where the money should be spent in order to bolster Republican candidates in Democratic-controlled state legislatures from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Michigan to Wisconsin, flip control of the chamber, lock in redistricting, and thus control Congress for the next decade. This political “dirty deed done dirt cheap” is called “ratfucking,” as designated by Edmund Wilson in the 1920s and used by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate scandal. Indeed, this is just what happened after the midterm election of 2010, as the GOP captured 63 seats in the House of Representatives and 680 new seats in the state legislatures. Daley takes on each significant state race in turn and notes that despite the country’s pulling more center-left on many issues, the far right is going to be calling the shots until 2020. The author looks at the masterminds behind the strategy and the mapmaking technology as well as the roles of restrictive voting rights laws, “dark money,” and voter turnout.
A chilling intimation of the growing entrenchment of partisan politics.
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You can pick up a copy of RATF**KED through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and most local booksellers. The book is available in hard cover, paperback, and audiobook.
I think you will find the book compelling. I am looking forward to our exploration over the next several week.
Conference Call with David Daley
Author of RATF**KED
Sunday, June 4th at 7 pm EST
Call: 641-715-3605
Pass code: 767775#