Recent reports of the Census Bureau ending its count early have been circulating, and Steve Benen is worried:
I can appreciate why Census concerns may seem obscure and unimportant, but developments like these have the potential to be enormously consequential. Not only does Census data help drive federal funding decisions, these same results are used to determine how states divvy up congressional power on Capitol Hill.
The more the Trump administration curtails counting of immigrants and communities of color, the more the deck will be stacked against them.
It’s that last sentence in the first paragraph that caught my eye. Yes, Census undercounts are a problem, since the white community may appear to be a larger percentage of the population than in reality, but these same results are used to determine how states divvy up congressional power on Capitol Hill. So here’s the thing:
Many of these immigrants live in current Republican strongholds.
What if this undercount deprives Texas, or Alabama, or Florida of a Representative – or even two?
And then the conservative political movement is potentially further hindered, depending on how district lines are redrawn.
Trump & Minions really need to start thinking more than half a move ahead. Quarterly thinking simply does not work well in a government setting. Hell, it doesn’t even work well in a private sector setting, only many CEOs don’t seem to understand that.
