Football fans have their Super Bowl. Basketball fans have March Madness. For baseball fans it’s the World Series and for car racing fans its 500 miles at Indianapolis or Daytona. For political junkies it’s…

REDISTRICTING!!!

Every ten years the census gives every state new numbers on who lives where. In the succeeding months various official groups get together and start drawing new lines on the state map. Or the county map. Or the city map.

The census numbers set off one of the grand political exercises of our system of government: political redistricting.

Cities get new wards. County commission districts are changed. State house and senate districts have to be re-jiggered. And then there’s the big time. Congressional Districts. If a state is like Missouri and loses one of its seats in the United States House, the drama is palpable.

Will the powerful Republicans draw lines to protect their hard-won turf? Can the underdog Democrat defensive unit find a way to neutralize the powerful Republican offense? The cheerleaders are urging their sides on–businesses, unions, pro-lifers, pro-choicers, trial lawyers, defense attorneys, reformers, traditionalists. They know the lines are the determining factor in the game.

Punting is not allowed in this game. But will the final map go wide right or wide left?

And could the game be decided by the referees? Will the back judge, the line judge, and the chief judge throw a penalty flag and take the game away from the participants? Will someone file a lawsuit and throw the game into an overtime in the courts?

Yeah, Baby.

We can almost hear Hank Williams Jr. “Are ya ready for some Redistricting????!!!???”