Dont let boomers eat the future, gerrymandering wont save Dems and other commentary

Over the next two decades “the boomer generation will pass from dominance into history,” notes Jeff Giesea at The Free Press, and if we fail to reckon with this shift “we’re looking at decades of gerontocratic drift, fiscal implosion and a younger generation that inherits a country stripped of the investments it needed.” Boomers, “wealthier and healthier than any generation before them,” are “understandably reluctant to step aside”; meanwhile, “Social Security and Medicare, which primarily benefit them, consume 40% of the federal budget.” While “resentment toward boomers” is “stupid,” our system needs “fixes,” starting with “honest entitlement reform,” “greater support for young families” and more “political representation for young Americans” to address the “asymmetry of organized political power between the old and the young.”“For almost a year now, America’s two parties have been engaged in a mass congressional redistricting battle royale,” explains Josh Hammer at RealClear Politics.So “which party will come out on top in advance of the midterm elections this November?” Odds are “the big victor will be the GOP.” One recent move gave Republicans four seats in Florida; if Virginia Dems’ “new map is tossed,” they’ll “be out an additional four seats.” Longer-term, the Supreme Court’s “landmark redistricting” ruling put an end to “race-conscious mapmaking,” a big blow to Dems — and voter migration “from blue states to red states” is “a trend not even the most aggressive gerrymandering can possibly alleviate.”“What the Supreme Court has ‘gutted’ ” in Louisiana v.

Callais “is not the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” as Democrats charge, “but a nakedly racial form of gerrymandering,” thunders Daniel McCarthy at The Spectator.The ruling “represents a great retrenchment” in US politics, rightly casting racial gerrymandering as not a legitimate response to di...