Why is the GOP willing to risk prison time defying a federal judge to stop a census a month early?

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text: Patrick S. Tomlinson
@stealthygeek
Thread time. Why, you might ask, is the Trump Campaign (and yes the entire GOP is just the Trump Campaign now) willing to risk prison time defying a federal judge just to stop a census a month early? Great question. Here's the answer 1/

Raw Story
@RawStory
#BREAKING

Wilbur Ross defies federal judge — says Census will end early despite court order
https://rawstory.com/2020/09/wilbur-ross-defies-federal-judge-says-census-will-end-early-despite-court-order/

Unrolled thread here
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1310727109438996480.html

Thread time. Why, you might ask, is the Trump Campaign (and yes the entire GOP is just the Trump Campaign now) willing to risk prison time defying a federal judge just to stop a census a month early? Great question. Here's the answer 1/

The Census is THE most important thing that happens in America in any given decade. It determines how trillions of dollars of government spending are apportioned. It determines how much federal money goes into your roads, your police, your children's schools. 2/

And, perhaps most critically of all, it decides who represents you in the House. Every ten years, states gain or lose seats in the House, based on the results of the Census. Districts are created, redrawn, and destroyed based on the outcome. 3/

House seats are apportioned based on fractions of total population. The whole USA, carved into 435 districts of /roughly/ equal numbers of Americans (X). How many each state gets depends on how many times that state's population can be divided by X. But populations change. 4/

States lose or gain people all the time, through births, deaths, foreign immigration, interstate moves, all the different ways we end up where we end up.

But at the federal level, we only count heads once a decade to see who landed where.

And we're doing it right now. 5/

The only, repeat, THE ONLY reason Trump's GOP is trying to end the Census early is because it's not gone their way. America is becoming younger, more brown, more queer, and more urban. They are facing demographic DEATH. A death they are desperate to push off for 10 more years. 6/

That's what this is about. They, literally, don't want you to count. They don't want your lives to count. They don't want your race, your place, your gender, or your orientation to count.

They want to draw another decade of House districts as if you don't exist. 7/

Defy them, my beautiful friends. Fill out your census forms. Open the door to the census worker. Answer their few questions. Be counted. Force the GOP to confront your existence, and help put an end to theirs. 8/8

Go here. Fill it out. Hit send. It's important:

English
https://2020census.gov/en.html
• • •

[CrispyQ]

1. This is a great summary of why the Census is so important!

Thank you!

[ananda]

2. Because there's no risk?

???

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. That is one hell of a detailed answer!

I had dimly thought that these were the factors, but hadn't fully thought it through.

Now I see the reasons clearly.

This is valuable and very important.

[BComplex]

4. The third thing Biden & Kamala need to do is try to re-open the census.

The new supreme handmaid might protest

[wcmagumba]

5. I wonder if the census taking could be legally restarted...

for a period of time after Jan 20th? Perhaps the census should literally "never" stop but be some kind of ongoing practice with a yearly update...demographics and population variations seem to be changing all the time especially in this time of climate change and pandemics. These numbers being so critical to our government function, taking a census every 10 years seems to be inaccurate...

[I_UndergroundPanther]

6. Did my census months ago

I think everyone should be counted just for the reasons you outlined above.

[beachbumbob]

7. You need DOJ to take action, you know that will not happen

No consequences to found any where, for now