The Rev Dr. Rick SchlosserCalifornia Council of Churches IMPACT was part of the convocation established by California Common Cause to create and support the founding of the Citizens’ Commission on Redistricting. We believe totally in the need for fair non-partisan redistricting to create and maintain legitimacy in our election process. Voters should have the right to pick their representatives. Representatives and their parties should not pick their voters.
We have stood 100% on this accomplishment. Until now.
As we watch the march of both fascists and theocrats, we see the erosion of all we cherish. Our entire system of law, polity, decency, freedom is cracking and beginning to fall. We are, as people of faith, being told we’re unworthy, that our work for justice is somehow wrong because a few can’t tolerate equality. We are being told our care for creation, our support for the ‘alien’ are wrong, that democracy is expendable, that power and money and might must prevail.
We resist on every level the erosion of democracy with its liberties and freedoms. We take the Constitution seriously as a secular document that enables our faith values to flourish. We will not cede any of that. We do not accept fascism, authoritarianism, tyranny. We will not abide any of it without resistance.
We see enablers of authoritarianism in Texas proposing to redistrict mid-decade to hand ONE man, Donald Trump, an utterly complicit Congress. Unless courts shut down this unprecedented theft of districts, districts designed to eliminate minority voters’ voices and choices, we in other states are commanded to find extraordinary responses.
We in California have the opportunity to offset the numbers of seats Texas proposes with equal numbers in opposition. It may seem partisan, but the issues of freedom, of accountable government, of the survival of our Constitution are what all is on the line. This is not an ordinary circumstance. It calls for innovative strategies.
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote in his pamphlet, “The American Crisis” that the colonies faced massive civic, moral, and practical challenges. “These are the times that try men’s souls” he stated.
We face the same kind of crisis today. The times today try our souls and call us to resist.
This November there will be a special election to suspend the work of the Citizens’ Commission on Redistricting and allow redistricting to gain more Congressional seats that will provide opposition to authoritarianism in Washington DC. It is a move made in direct confrontation of the Texas plan that will be followed in other states that seem to have no problem enhancing the march to authoritarianism. We as citizens of both California and the United States are called to do what is unprecedented and fight back with something we would otherwise find odious. We see no other alternative.
We are heartened by the public declaration by the Citizens Commission that they unanimously agree with this ballot measure, this strategy. The Commission is made up of Democrats, Republicans, and no-affiliation members. That they see the threat to democracy as the Governor, Gavin Newsom does, is stunning. They support passage of the ballot measure.
I helped create the Commission. IMPACT backed it. We believe in what it has accomplished.
But we are urging a YES vote on the dissolution of existing districting in favor of fighting for the greater good. These are not ordinary times. They require extraordinary measures.
If you ever asked yourself what you would have done if you lived in Weimar Germany in the 1930s, well, the challenge is upon us all. The greater principle of obstructing fascism must prevail. Germans didn’t get the chance to fight legally and politically against Hitler. We have the opportunity to fight the authoritarianism closing in around us. We cannot ignore the call.
Spread the word! We will issue a formal ballot statement when the measure is ready for the election. Until then please do the teaching in your congregations and communities. These are necessary changes to save our nation and all that we believe. This is a key part of our Resistance. Please keep it alive!
Thank you.
Eliabeth Sholes
Public Policy Advocate