Letter to the Editor: Indivisible, From Austin to Door County

My husband and I own a cottage on Little Sturgeon Bay, and we vacation there in the summer. Our main home is in Austin, Texas. My husband was born, raised and educated in Wisconsin. I graduated from high school there and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin. Assuming that the anti-Trump momentum maintains or picks up over the next few months, I am interested in joining, or at least following, the activities of Indivisible Door County.

I am a member of two indivisible groups in Austin – Citizens Concerned 4 Democracy (Indivisible) and TX25 Indivisible. Like Wisconsin, the courts have recently struck down the gerrymandered Congressional districts in Texas as unconstitutional. However, the courts have not established any particular remedy for the situation. The state seems hopelessly gerrymandered, and the Republicans in charge surely don’t want to have districts drawn fairly. For example, Austin (a progressive city that would vote Democratic, I believe, if given fair districts) has been divided into five congressional districts, meaning we have only one Democratic Congressman. My district, Texas 25, stretches all the way up to Fort Worth – a four-hour drive from Austin. The Republican Congressman from TX 25, of course, does not care to meet with his Austin constituents; instead, he attends closed Republican fundraisers in the Austin area. While the Vice Chair of the Legislature’s Redistricting Committee, Eric Johnson, has requested hearings, none have been set. Bills have been introduced to create an independent Redistricting Commission. However, I doubt that they have any chance of passage.

I am wondering whether the Indivisibles in Wisconsin have faced similar challenges and whether they have ideas or plans they could share with us. Perhaps if we can get a public conversation going in Austin about this travesty, things could change for the 2018 elections.

Barbara C. Marquardt

Austin, Texas