Jon Christian Ryter's Conservative World

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From The Mailbag

20 years

Jon Christian Ryter's Conservative World

March 7, 2001

Redistricting by statistical sampling dies a bittersweet death.

Even with the most thorough census in over a decade...and a margin of error of 1% or less, the liberals are crying at at least 3,400,000 poor were missed.

Bill Clinton was convinced that he had left another Clintonesque legacy in Washington...the unconstitutional use of "statistical sampling" to reconfigure congressional districts to empower Democrats and weaken the Republicans. However, even before the census was taken in 2000, the question of whether statistical sampling could be used as a measure of the population of the United States (both for the doling out of public funds, and more important, for the purpose of redistricting) found its way into the United States Supreme Court.

The high court, which this time had little problem reading, or understanding, the Constitution, made it clear to the Clinton Administration, that they could not use stasticial sampling to realign congressional districts since the Constitution is very clear that actual people have to be counted.

That did not stop Bill Clinton, however, since as President (and now as a private citizen), Clinton saw himself above the law. The task of using "estimated" population counts instead of actual population counts fell on then Commerce Secretary William "count the dead" Daley. When Daley resigned his post to become the campaign manager for Al "steal the votes" Gore, the baton was passed down to the head of the Census Bureau, Kenneth Prewitt, who eagerly attempted to implement it...very carefully, though, so as not to alert the preoccupied Republicans. Prewitt was attempting, when his tenure at the Census Bureau expired on January 20, and he was replaced by William Barron, to concoct a scheme to "adjust" or "pad" the numbers using a smoke and mirrors method of estimating population called the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation [ACE] in historically Democratic districts. (They did this because they felt those districts would be appreciative enough of the extra seats at the public feeding trough that there would be no loud cries of census tampering.

Here is how it worked. Using "magic math," the Democrats decided that they must have missed about 20% of the minority population in the United States. They knew that had to be true because they've been telling themselves that there are somewhere between 2 or 3 million homeless people in the country (even though less than a 600 thousand have ever been accounted for). In reality, they did a sampling in several urban areas and then analyzed their data for ethnic definitions. Based on the population in these key urban areas, they concluded that, nationwide, they had to have missed 20% of all the minorities within all of those suburban and rural areas.

To compensate for what they termed was poor counting (which was actually the most thorough census ever conducted in the United States) Prewitt authorized the Census Bureau to "adjust" the numbers to reflect the demographics in the sampling. Each minority man, woman and child was counted as 1.2 people. Then, they decided they had overcounted every white middle class home. So, for each census form they had received from a white family, or at least a family which did not identify themselves as either Black or Hispanic, they reduced the value of each member of those households from "1" to .92, or roughly 9/10th of a person for each person they had counted, reducing the white population by almost 10%.

Think about what I just said for a minute. Even though they had, in their possession, census forms which clearly, precisely, and exactly, enumerated exactly how many white citizens lived in each of the homes on Census forms returned to the Census Bureau, the Census Bureau decided there weren't that many white people. Yet, with respect to minority citizens who do may not even exist, the Clinton Commerce Department the Census Bureau, decided there were at least 20% more minorities than reported their existence. Clinton's appointees decided, for political reasons, to ignore people they didn't want to count because they couldn't be counted on to vote the way the liberals wantedthem to vote, and artifically created, on paper, people who don't exist specifically to skew congressional districts in such a way that Democrats will always get elected.

What Prewitt, Daley, and Clinton tried to do (just as Al Gore's Florida "recount" had nothing to do with "counting" votes but "recasting" votes) was "recast" the 2000 census specifically to justify a federal plan to realign Congressional districts in such a way that incumbent Republicans would lose their seats--and Democrats would gain them. I guess that is the next best thing to winning an election...and just as effective.

When they got caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar, Prewitt's people insisted they missed 3,400,000 people and were just trying to include them. My question is, if the Census Bureau knew they missed 3,400,000 people, then they have to have some idea where these people are. They should have sent their census-takers "there" to count them. They couldn't because, quite frankly, those people just don't exis--or, if they do, they don't want to be "represnted."

Now, almost two years after the Supreme Court told them they couldn't use statistical sampling to realign congressional districts, the liberals are screaming once again that the uncaring Republicans are disenfranchising minorities once again by denying them representation in Conress. It is the old race card with a new twist. Using the same old spin that they used for 8 years, the liberals have tried to make this a civil rights issue instead of a constitutional one.

On Tuesday, March 6, 2001 Commerce Secretary Don Evans barred the use of "adjusted" census figures for remapping congressional districts (even though the Washington Post doesn't think that decision will be made until sometime in April).

Any American who lives in, or around, any major urban center with heavy minority populations will likely recall that when the census was being conducted, the Clinton Administration's Census Bureau spent millions of dollars advertising the "get out and be counted" messageon minority-owned or controlled radio and TV stations, telling their audiences that if they did not get counted, they would loose their ""fair share" of the entitlement dollars taht would be spent over the next decade.

It is not likely that too many minorities were missed. In fact, it is very likely, with Bill "count the dead" Daley at the helm of the Clinton Commerce Department, a good many long deceased minorities--particularly in Cook County, Illinois--were counted.

Once again, you have my two cents worth on this subject.