Who’s watching the hen house?

The Census results are in and the Louisiana Legislature has until December 31, 2021, to draw district maps. Louisiana Republicans have consistently used the redistricting process to gerrymander district maps that give them majorities in the Louisiana House and Senate and on Capitol Hill.

The Republican Party in Louisiana and across the nation uses redistricting to dilute the Black vote. What’s most galling is that gerrymandering districts allow Louisiana Republicans, who are predominately white and male, to hold a greater percentage of elected offices than they should, when race is considered. For example, in Louisiana’s House of Representatives and Senate, Republicans, most of whom are white, hold 64 percent and 69 percent of the seats, respectively. Whites comprise 58.4 percent of Louisiana’s population.

The Republican Party is predominately white and male and the party has a track record for opposing civil rights and voting rights legislation that benefits all Americans, but especially Blacks and other people of color. Black people know that the post-reconstruction Republican Party is straight up racist and that Republicans will do everything in their power to suppress the Black vote and prevent Blacks from having equal rights and justice under the law.

Any Louisiana resident who believes our U.S. senators and representatives are doing a good job are either delusional or share the same mindset.

However, Louisianans who believe in justice and fairness, know that Louisiana’s elected officials on Capitol Hill couldn’t care less about the majority of their constituents. They have shown us, by their votes or lack thereof, that their only concerns are holding on to power, enriching themselves, catering to the rich, and obstructing President Joe Biden’s agenda, just as they did during President Obama’s time in office.

Louisiana’s Congressional Caucus is composed of five white male Republicans in the U.S. House and two white male Republicans in the U.S. Senate who wouldn’t do right in the kingdom of Heaven. Cedric Richmond, the only Democrat and Black male, has resigned his seat to become Biden’s Director of the Office of Public Engagement. His replacement will be a Democrat and a Black person. State Senators Troy Carter and Karen Carter Peterson are in a run-off to replace Richmond.

Still, Louisiana Republicans are voting against the best interests of the majority of their constituents. They voted for Trump’s $2-trillion tax cut that mostly benefited the wealthy and for all of Trump’s nominees to the courts and his Cabinet. They voted to appoint Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court and they supported Trump’s nasty immigration policies and anti-LGBTQ legislation banning transgender people from serving in the military.

But when it came to voting to uplift Louisiana’s working poor and middle class, they wasted no time in voting against the Democrats’ legislation. They voted against the American Rescue Act, which put money in Americans’ pockets, saved small businesses and cities and states, supplemented unemployment and SNAP benefits, funded hospitals and clinics, and a vaccine program to stop Americans from being hospitalized or dying from the coronavirus.

They also voted against awarding gold medals to the Capitol Police, the D.C. Metropolitan Police, and National Guard for their bravery in putting an end to the January 6 insurrection by Trump supporters because the resolution awarding the medals had the word “Insurrection” in it.

At press time, Louisiana’s Republican senators were poised to vote against sensible gun control legislation, last week’s massacres in Colorado and the Atlanta area notwithstanding. Why? Because they don’t want Trump to primary them and they don’t want to anger his gun-toting base.

Our House representatives have already voted against the For the People Act, which expands voting rights, changes campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, limits partisan gerrymandering, creates new ethics rules for federal officeholders, boosters election security and makes D.C. a state, among other legislative changes. Of course, none of our senators will vote for that either.

This article originally published in the March 29, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.