So now we've seen the lynching -- or quasi-lynching, whatever you'd like to call it -- of a Census worker in rural Southeastern Kentucky. Judging from the word written on his body before he was hanged -- evidently on September 12, not that that date means anything special to followers of Glenn Beck -- the grievance against him was that he was a representative of the Federal Government.
All right, I know when I'm licked. I give up.
Although the Department of Commerce has a constitutional duty to enumerate the population of the U.S. every ten years, there are considerations that may make doing so impossible in some areas. One such consideration is that people cannot do it without getting killed.
I suggest that Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announce that where local governments cannot guarantee the safety of federal Census workers due to antagonism being whipped up against the federal government, alternative means should be put into effect.
That is, Census workers will show up, in force and protected by force, in the County Courthouses (or similar locations) of given localities. All citizens will be required by law to show up and deliver their completed census forms to the Census representative. There will be no legal penalty, however, for those who do not show up. This seems to discharge the letter of the law required by the Constitution.
In areas of the country not whipped into an anti-Government frenzy, the Census should proceed as normal. In the absence of mortal threats, we should do the best job that we can do of enumerating people. It is only in the presence of mortal threats that we have to make allowances.
Now, if groups -- accompanied by Census officials and maybe members of the National Guard -- want to usher federal agents around and guarantee their security, they can do it. If any Census worker were shot in a predominant Black or Latino area because they represented the Federal Government -- something I can't recall every happening, but I suppose that it's possible -- I hope and expect that the local communities would do what they can to make it safe to travel there.
These rural anti-government areas can choose to do that -- or not. It's their choice.
Now, of course, the victory of the anti-government forces does, alas, come at a price. Apportionment of Congressional Districts is done on the basis of the Census. If there are staggering undercounts in rural districts because of some nasty tendency to kill Census workers -- well, they will have fewer seats in Congress. Possibly is will be a lot less.
If the Republican Party and its flying media monkeys want to solve that problem by trying to change the attitude of the populace that supports them towards the federal government, they're welcome to try. If not, we can't force them. They have the First Amendment right to say that the Census is a bad thing. They just can't escape the consequences.
I hate to surrender to them, of course, but we don't seem to have a choice. And if the result is our having 350 seats in the House of Representatives for the next decade because the other side is so successful in turning its vicious characterizations of the federal government into violent actions -- well, I suppose they can't be helped.
They can choose to be part of our national society, and stamp out this pernicious thuggery, or they can face the consequences. We can live with either choice. We just can't live with more deaths of federal workers because they represent the federal government.
So, Secretary Locke, please invite our allies from the Red areas to make their choices. Reapportionment awaits.