The following are, more or less, my comments made last night to the California Redistricting Commission.
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Good Evening Commissioners. My name is Phil Jennerjahn, and in the interest of fairness I should disclose that I actually ran for U.S. Congress in the 33rd Congressional District. I lost in the primary in June 2010.
I have to say that I am a little bit ashamed and embarrassed of my fellow Americans who are coming before you tonight. I'm hearing a lot of complaining. A lot of whining. People saying "I want...I want...I want.."
I'm going to be a little bit different from all of them.
I am going to ask you to ignore every single person who has spoken before me tonight.
There is no possible way, even if your brain was a supercomputer, that you could remember the more than 6,000 pieces of information that have been delivered to you tonight by those seeking favors.
You are being entrusted with making sure that Freedom and Democracy continue as healthy, viable options here in America.... and that is one hell of a responsibility. I don't envy you at this time.
I have serious concerns about Freedom and Democracy continuing in this country.
We have a horrible situation here in California.We have low voter turnout because of unfair elections.
We have districts here that are 85 or 90 percent one political party, and they end up sending the worst possible ideologues to Congress.
I went to an event last night with my Congressman...I won't mention his name, in order to be fair, but he agreed to take written questions last night. Oh, he took questions alright...after his staff had sorted through the unpleasant ones and thrown them away.
Why did he act that way? Because his district is 85 percent one party and he can never lose an election there.
And when you send people like this to the U.S. Congress, they start to make bad decisions.
Just recently the U.S. Government decided that free American citizens no longer have the right to choose what type of healthcare they want. There can be no greater example of tyranny than this.
I want you to all listen very closely right now. I'm going to tell you something that I think you will remember for the rest of you life.
I call it "The Federal Prisoner". It's a logic question and an ethics question.
Now, when you are re-drawing these district lines, I want you to think about this....
I want you to look at the person currently sitting in that seat. I want you to imagine that this person has been convicted of a crime and is currently sitting in a Federal prison.
Now, for some strange reason, this person decides to run for re-election from their prison cell.
If this person would win their election in that district...well...then those are the districts you don't need to worry about protecting, because they don't care about freedom or democracy.
These voters do harm and violence to our Constitution.
They are only concerned with what they want.
I don't give a damn about what they want.
You are being entrusted with protecting the U.S. Constitution. That is far more important.
I don't expect you to be perfect. You are human beings.
I just ask you to draw these districts fairly so that anyone can win an election.
Thank You.
