Editorial: Democrats adopt an Orwellian argument to keep the power to gerrymander
Maybe Orwell had the date wrong. Maybe what he really meant to write was “2020.” There are lots of reasons why 2020 might be considered Orwellian, but here’s one close to home. Some Virginia Democrats are urging a “no” vote against the proposed constitutional amendment dealing with redistricting that’s on this year ballot by invoking the argument “No Gerrymandering. Vote No on Amendment #1.” This is an Orwellian perversion of the facts. Amendment One may or may not be the best way to deal with the problem — that’s certainly a matter of opinion. But this is undeniable: Voting no on Amendment One doesn’t defeat gerrymandering, it preserves gerrymandering. The Democrats who are pushing this particular line should be ashamed of peddling such a misleading argument. A more honest argument for those against the amendment would be “Amendment One sets up a bad process —trust us to do better.”