John Wahl on race-based redistricting in Jefferson County

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
John Wall joins us. John, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Oh it's good to be on the show. Although although
I'm not quite Secretary of State Party chairman, but hey,
you know, state Party trierman does everything that's work My bad.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
You know, I get you mixed up all the time.
But glad to have you with us. So let's talk
about Yeah, there's breeds that you filed. What's going on here?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, you know, this goes back to a fundamental principle,
and it said, I am sick and tired of watching Democrats,
the Democrat Party try to steal our congressional seats, not
by winning at the ballot box, because they can't do
it in at Lema, but when they can't, they take
the route of trying to use the court system to
read draw districts and create Democrat districts where they could

(00:46):
never win with the voters. Sure, and so that was
our brief, was the US Supreme Court in defense of
the defense of the state and explaining this principle that
this is party politics, whether you like it or not.
California does, New York does it. And it is unfair
to use the Voting Rights Act that was supported by
Republicans passed by Republicans to protect individual minority minorities having

(01:11):
the right to vote and not be infringed, which is
what the Democrat Party was doing to them. And we
supported that legislation, but it was never designed to be
used to steal congressional districts. And so we kind of
went through our brief, went to that history, explained why
this is an important issue, why the fit should be
the state legislature and the people's representatives redrawing lines, not

(01:31):
federal courts.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, did you see what our chief Justice, well not
our chief justice, but one of the justices on the
Supreme Court, Katanji Jackson said about these congressional districts based
on race because black people are like disabled people.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
How offensive it truly is offensives and you know it
goes I think it goes a step further too. One
of the things that I have been talking about for
years is with the redistricting cases, is that these federal
courts and these federal judges make the assumption that all
black voters are Democrats. And I find that extremely offensive

(02:08):
and incredibly disrespectful to the Republican African Americans across the
state of all of thement across this country. There are
people of all views and all backgrounds in different racial groups.
And for them to assume that just because you're black,
you have to be a Democrat is un Americans horrible
and I think it shows the problem this when we

(02:29):
let ourselves fall into these.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Opinions and these these stereotypical categories.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, there you go, you got it. We actually accept division,
and we accept a type of racism. And the answer
is looking at every single individual is a child of God,
and it doesn't matter what color their skin is.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, I mean, how quickly they decide, you know, when
they want to keep bringing up race talking about Democrats,
and you know that what about doctor King's speech that
one day we will you'll be to the point where
we don't judge somebody by the color of their skin,
We judge them by the character. And and and then
and to keep dreaming, it looks they keep racism alive
because it's how they can, you know, use it to

(03:13):
get votes, and use it to control and use it
to you know, keep everybody in line to march to
their beat of the drum on the Democratic Party. So well,
the good news is district lines for Jefferson County commissioners
are going to be staying the same with the Eleventh
Circuit sort of appeals opinion that came.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Out yesterday now, And I think that's incredibly important because
they were they were they saw the victory they had
on the congressional level, and they were trying to do
the same thing on the county commission there in Jefferson
County and once again use the courts to do what
they couldn't do with elections. Yeah, and I'm really proud
of the Eleventh Circus stay. I hope that I hope
we win that case outright here in a few months,

(03:52):
and we're going to keep fighting fighting flights. And then look,
you brought up the perfect answer. Then the solution. It's
a don't look at the color of people skin. And
this is exactly what the Democrat Party has done for years.
They used people minorities. Yeah, that's why the Republican parties
stood against slavery. They used they were segregated. They were

(04:12):
the party that was pushing segregation in the sixties and seventies.
It was a Democrats, not the Republicans. And still today
if you look at it, the parties are doing the
same things that Democrats are trying to use minorities for
their own goods, and it's a Republican party who are
standing up to saying no, let's be colorblind.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Well, John, I sure do appreciate
you coming on this morning. Thanks for talking with us
on this and we'll do it again soon, Boddy.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
I always good to be on the show, all.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Right, Wes Allen as our Secretary of State. By the way,
John there is our Republican Chair for the state of Alabama.