Street Roots
Dec. 29, 2017-Jan. 4, 2018
Book Review
Page 11
Political pranks and modern-day tricksters
Former Salon editor David Daley
documents how Republicans are
using technology to ensure
gerrymandered victories
f® ;
BY JOE MARTIN
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
atfucked! A raw epithet that goes
back to the 1920s. Five decades
later, it became a favorite of Richard
Nixon’s dirty trickster Donald Segretti.
During Tricky Dick’s re-election campaign
in 1972, Segretti was busy plying political
pranks on behalf of a president who would
resign two years later in the wake of the
Watergate scandal. In service to Nixon,
Segretti would “ratfuck” opponents with
sleazy shenanigans. One such ploy involved
Washington state’s longtime Sen. Henry
“Scoop” Jackson.
For a period during that campaign
season, Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine was
a strong candidate for the Democratic
presidential nomination. Segretti managed
to steal “Citizens for Muskie” stationary.
On it was written a dissembling letter,
which was then distributed, supposedly
with Muskie’s endorsement. The false
missive accused Sen. Jackson of siring a
baby with a teenage girl. That and other
difficulties forced Muskie to drop out of the
race. But Segretti had demonstrated his
skill at ratfucking.
The term has gotten a new lease in a
R
Karl Heinz Martens, for many years the
postman for the tree, on the ladder at the
Groom Oak.
GROOM OAK, fro m page 10
disillusioned. It was in winter and the oak
was bare. “I had imagined it bigger!” she
exclaims. Still, the place around the oak is
a singular for them. “The oak has a special
place in our hearts,” Peter smiles. “Every
few years we go to see if it is still there.”
Letters instead of chat messages, chance
instead of algorithms - what advantages
does an old tree have over dating websites?
“The Groom Oak is much more romantic
than the internet,” said the former
postman Martens. He is glad to have his
computer but the beauty of nature and the
special aura around the oak are “just
something different than a machine on
your desk.”
The Pumps are familiar with dating
websites from t h e
T V a d v e r tis e m e n ts th a t
they see. When they first met, such sites
did not exist. “We used to be happy to have
a radio!” Peter laughed. The couple would
recommend young people who are looking
for a partner these days to still use the
oak, even if modern technology is available.
The advantages are clear: “The excitement,
the butterflies and romance,” Peter said,
are somethings that only the Groom Oak
can offer. “For those who have a romantic
side to them, they should simply try and
send a letter to the oak,” Marita smiles.
Peter and Marita Pump seem
wonderfully similar to one another, which
is not a big surprise after spending so
many years together. The gestures and
looks they exchange make it obvious that
these partners for life appreciate the fact
that they have been united by a lucky
chance. Even when telling their story for
the umpteenth time, they look at each
other and listen to each other with warmth
and love. How remarkable it is that their
story began so many years ago when a slip
of paper was left in an oak tree!
■you want to send a letter to the Groom
'ak, the address is: Bräutigamseiche,
'odauer Forst, 23701 Eutin, Germany,
■ourtesy of Hempels/ INSP.ngo
book by fo rm e r Salon Editor-in-Chief David
D aley e n title d “Ratf**ked: W hy Your Vote
'
IL L U S T R A T I O N B Y J O N W I L L I A M S
much worse than the salamander.”
E arly in 2010, in a 5 to 4 decision, th e
U.S. Supreme Court decided Citizens
United. It unleashed opulent players to
lavish obscene amounts of political
donations however they wished. Super pacs
swelled with unfettered contributions,
“much of it ‘dark money’ impossible to
trace back to the donor.” The midterm
elections that year were a disaster for
Democrats.
Every 10 years after the national census
many
state*
r e s and n e v e r n e r s h ave
C o n t e m p o r a r y v e r s io n o f r a t f u c k in g ,
the prerogative to redo voting d istricts.
commingling the old practice of
Prior to the 2010 midterms REDMAP —
gerrymandering with new technology. In
Redistricting Majority Project — was the
many parts of the country the result has
name for the Republican State Legislative
been preposterous reconfigurations of
Committee’s strategy to take as many
voting districts that have given advantage to
legislatures as possible. Executive director
Republican candidates at all levels of
Jankowski used sophisticated technology
government, even when the majority of
called Maptitude, which allowed mountains
voters favored Democrats - a brilliant,
of data to be finely incorporated in
cynical yet not illegal maneuver. According
analyzing ethnicities, class composition and
to Daley, this political environment
political leanings of any area. In urban
essentially nullifies votes submitted by
settings it could provide an accurate
millions of Americans. An article in the
snapshot block by block.
American Prospect calls it “a major threat
This was not old-fashioned guesswork,
to representative democracy.”
fiddling with paper maps and pens. With
Gerrymandering takes its name from the
precise algorithmic ease a district could be
early 19th-century governor of
“packed and cracked,” meaning that one
Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry. In 1812 he
party could be segregated into neatly
legalized a redistricting scheme that on the
map looked like the outline of a salamander. demarcated and more populous enclaves —
mostly Democratic — while the other party
A cartoonist for the Boston Gazette
could garner votes from wider-flung, less
portrayed the district as a monster dubbed
populous districts and predictably obtain
the “gerrymander.”
more seats - mostly Republican.
In 2014 La Salle University political
This slick maneuver was not a secret.
science professor Mary Ellen Balchunis ran
Republican operative Karl Rove wrote a
unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Congress
piece in the March 4, 2010, Wall Street
in Pennsylvania’s 7th District. She
Journal announcing REDMAP,
memorably describes the Rorschach-like
understanding whichever party controls the
Republican-drawn district: “I see Donald
way districts are drawn could more easily
Duck kicking Goofy.” She stated further,
control who gets elected. Daley states: The
“When I teach gerrymandering to my
assertion is so bold, yet so sensical, that
students, I think of the salamander. This is
Doesn’t Count.” Barack Obama’s victory in
2008 sent a shiver throughout the ranks of
the Republican faithful. A sea change
seemed about to engulf the nation’s
political milieu that would relegate the GOP
to an anachronism. Then a savvy
Republican operative Chris Jankowski
stepped to the fore and spied an
opportunity.
Jankowski proved the mastermind of a
one does not know whether to stand back
and a d m ire th e au d ac io u sn ess, in d ict th e
D e m o crats fo r g ro ss n eg lig en ce and lack of
imagination, or simply howl over the
undemocraticness of it all.”
About a dozen states have independent
redistricting commissions, which
presumably bring an element of
nonpartisanship into this process. Still
many aspects of electoral abuse remain in
place. Organizations like FairVote — where
“Ratfucked” author David Daley now works
as
d ir e c t o r " — a r e a t w o r k
to rem a k e th e way politicians a re e le c te d
and that will result in greater
representation for all citizens at all levels of
government. They envision forms of
proportional representation through
“ranked-choice voting” and “instant runoff
voting” that can level the political field and
yield constructive discussion on exigent
matters such as climate change, national
debt, housing and homelessness, civic
education and citizen participation.
Recently FairVote held an invigorating
summit in Washington, D.C., which brought
together activists from around the nation.
In another momentous development, the
U.S. Supreme Court is currently
deliberating the question of extreme
gerrymandering and the
disenfranchisement of voters. Justices are
considering a formula that could ensure a
more egalitarian way of drawing district
lines. Justice Anthony Kennedy may be the
decisive vote in this most important case.
Says Daley: “It’s not hyperbole to suggest
that Justice Kennedy’s vote is the last
bulwark against authoritarian minority
rule.” The court’s decision is expected
sometime next spring.
Reprinted from Street Roots’ sister paper,
Real Change News, Seattle.