…what elections look like when democracy has been usurped and replaced by a dictatorship, you needn’t glance far beyond the boundaries of the United States. Venezuela—1360 miles southeast of Miami—held elections last month.

How did those elections go? Check these bytes from NYT News Service: “The country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, claimed victory despite overwhelming evidence that the opposition candidate had won. Then he sent security forces out to crush dissent. Maduro has long held elections to add to the appearance of legitimacy to his authoritarian government, often manipulating the system in his favor. As this year’s vote approached, few believed that Maduro would cede power, even if he lost.”

 

Might that bare likeness to what We the People witnessed on January 6, 2021…when a mob stormed Congress and violently refused to accept the lawful results of an election? History is packed with such feats by villains and brutes. Several months ago, I mentioned Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban who “chipped away at the foundations of Hungarian democracy…replaced [it] with an authoritarian regime that wields a cynical interpretation of the law as a weapon. Observers didn’t understand what (he) was up to until it was too late.”

 

On November 5, America will vote for the preservation of democracy…or instead…for an authoritarian/fascist takeover.

Not so sure? Merely listen to these voices. Right-wing activist Jack Posobiec opened February’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), with this: “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely.” The leader of the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 talks of a second American Revolution, and massive overhaul of the federal government that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.” Then, the assorted threats of retribution, and 2024 being the last time we’ll need to vote.

“That’s plenty scary,” you say, “but what does it have to do with gerrymandering?”

Gerrymandering is the centuries-old tactic of rigging elections to amass and abuse power. Politicians carefully place their voters into districts so that all those with whom they disagree stand nary a chance of winning. Repeated through enough election cycles, and the lunatics own the asylum. Candidates who would miserably fail to win a straight-up election, waltz into power and can’t be dislodged. They’re free to pass unpopular legislation, appoint cronies to important committees and boards, and fund or refuse to fund appropriations, as they wish. And this one is a doozy: they get to write election and voter suppression laws, presently underway in Nebraska, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina—other states too—and how judges get to the bench. The metastasizing cancer of Gerrymandering, democracy’s worst nightmare!

More than 80% of those who make up North Carolina’s General Assembly arrived in office as winners of rigged elections. Once lodged there, they move up the power chain to US House and Senate. In fairly short time, they’re helping topple the very democracy they’re sworn to support. It’s Clemson football versus your local middle school…every two years. Just like this:

Kate Barr clearly sees the handwriting on the wall. A democracy-favoring candidate, she’s running for state Senate (37) in a convoluted district stretching from Davidson to the north end of Iredell County. The boundaries—drawn late last year—prohibit the incumbent senator from winning reelection. After a few sleight-of-hand magic tricks by the state Supreme Court, Kate Barr Can’t Win either…as she cleverly admits on her bumper sticker. Alas, Kate is going nowhere, but wants voters across our land to know the truth about gerrymandering…

The time is ripe to Flush GerryMander for all time…if We the People are to keep our precious democracy alive.

Kate Barr and thousands of candidates across America don’t ask for favors. They don’t expect legislators and judges in smoke-filled rooms to favor them with a heavy thumb on the scales. They ask only for level playing fields. That’s American democracy! Quite the opposite from crushing dissent, appearance of legitimacy, manipulation of systems, and threats of bloodless coups and redemption.

Perk up your ears! Stand and speak out! Democracy is under fierce and relentless attack. VOTE FOR IT ON NOVEMBER 5!