October 2017.

     Virginia has off-year elections for statewide offices and state legislative seats.  Kentucky does this too.  This depresses turnout, probably a feature, not a bug.  The only upside to this custom is that it makes the Commonwealth a gauge for the electorate’s mood; more about that later.

     The off-off-year elections also ensure an extra season of bloviating punditry.  As the 2017 election neared, The Richmond Times-Dispatch printed an unsigned editorial asserting that the US Supreme Court could not and should not do anything about gerrymandering of federal and state legislative seats.  The newspaper adopted this stance just as litigation arising from toxically, almost comically, gerrymandered Wisconsin reached the high court.  Interesting timing, that.

     The Supreme Court’s decision hinged on the whims of Anthony Kennedy, who had long dithered by braying about his need for a precise measure of the bias driving gerrymandering.  This reads to me as motivated obtuseness.  He balked yet again and soon afterward retired, his work done.  The Supreme Court’s present composition likely will make this the final opportunity for the high court to address the issue.  It’s just another step in the normalization of minority rule.  Sigh.  For whatever it’s worth, The Richmond Times-Dispatch gave me another gold star. Be still my heart.

Here’s the editorial:

“Gerrymander Is Awful.  The Supreme Court Isn’t the Answer,” The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 5 October 2017 (https://richmond.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-gerrymandering-is-awful-the-supreme-court-isnt-the-answer/article_fc6ab70e-8ec9-5d09-b92c-928ae9f71023.html).

Here’s the letter:

“Today’s Gerrymandering Is Undemocratic,” The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 22 October 2017, E2 (https://richmond.com/opinion/letters-to-editor/cod-oct-22-2017-todays-gerrymandering-is-undemocratic/article_45384630-bf60-500e-924b-6f9faa241a30.html).