Aside From Hakeem Jeffries, Does Anyone Think You Can Fight Authoritarianism By Copying It?

Has Trump Won When Both Parties Play By Disregarding Morality?

The lesser evil is on our team... whoopie doo

Over a dozen states have explicitly banned partisan gerrymandering through their constitutions or statutes, as outlined in their redistricting processes. One one level or another 17 states have some form of express partisan fairness requirement in their constitutions or laws for congressional or legislative redistricting, though the strength and enforcement of these provisions vary. Since Alaska only has one at-large Member of Congress, the fact that their state Supreme Court ruled 2 years ago that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional under the state constitution doesn’t really matter. But all the other states with similar decisions on the books do matter, including blue states New York, Washington and, most importantly, California and red states Ohio and Florida. These 5 states have trifectas, both chambers of the legislature controlled by the governor’s party.

Texas has a trifecta and a history of very extreme partisan gerrymandering. So does Illinois but Illinois is already gerrymandered to the hilt and probably couldn’t squeeze another blue seat out of the state, which currently has 14 Democratic seats and 3 Republican seats. Texas has 25 Republican seats and 13 Democratic seats. The White House has decided there’s plenty of room there to change that to 30 Republican seats and 8 Democratic seats, knocking out Lizzie Fletcher, Veronica Escobar, Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez and either Julie Johnson or Marc Veasey. One White House plan calls for stealing 6 seats and getting rid of both Johnson and Veasey, putting several Republican incumbents around risk in the process. Texas appears ready to start moving ahead with the gerrymandering plan today. Other states— both red and blue could follow.

Yesterday, CNN reported that Democrats are threatening a counterpunch. You may feel that Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t do squat when it comes to protecting Americans from Trump’s extreme agenda, but he’s ready to go to the wall when it comes to protecting his chances to become speaker. He and his team “have begun,” wrote Manu Raju and Sarah Ferris, “privately shaping a legally risky— and likely expensive— strategy to redraw House maps in several Democratic-controlled states, according to Democrats briefed on the effort. They are exploring their plans in California, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota and Washington state in hopes of flipping at least a handful of Republican seats next November. It’s a clear attempt to retaliate against the GOP’s aggressive redistricting effort to boot out as many as five Democrats in Texas— a move that will get publicly underway this week and one with the potential to give Republicans a major leg up in their fight to keep control of the House.”

Jeffries sounds desperate and sounds like he’s bluffing. California and New York have laws against this kind of move and Jeffries’ efforts are unlikely to get around them. Jeffries tried the same stunt in New York before and fell flat on his face, giving Republicans more seats than they would have had had he just not tried to stretch the law. Still, to a schlepper and hack like Jeffries it probably seems a lot more palatable than actually working on offering the voters a reason to replace Republicans with Democrats— and to get behind popular candidates who voters want to elect, something absolutely anathema to everything Jeffries stands for politically.

In an interview at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, Jeffries made clear that his party was ready to respond in-kind to the GOP.

“We have a responsibility of making sure that we look at every single state of the union and do what we can to ensure that we maximize fairness in those jurisdictions,” the New York Democrat said. “Some of the best and brightest lawyers in the country are looking at every single aspect of what’s possible in these states.”

It’s an extraordinary push from top Democrats, who could soon embrace the kind of GOP tactics that Jeffries described as “part of a scheme to rig the midterm elections”— especially since the redrawing of congressional maps typically happens only at the beginning of a decade to reflect changing populations and demographics.

Even House Democrats privately acknowledge their emerging plan may all be moot if it’s fully blocked in court, according to more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and campaign operatives involved in the discussions. Others are wary of eschewing their party’s decades-long push for fair voting rights and commissions in states that attempt to draw their congressional boundaries free from partisan politics.

But plenty more Democrats say they have no choice but to try to fight Trump as they face immense pressure from their base and can’t risk being relegated to the minority for two more years— especially since only a handful of seats could determine the next majority.

“We got to fight fire with fire, so I support anything the governor [Gavin Newsom] wants to do,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, who is part of the California delegation that’s been meeting privately with Jeffries on the matter. “We shouldn’t just admire the problem.”

Texas Republicans and the Justice Department argue that the move is necessary over concerns that the current maps are unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered.

Asked about Jeffries’ accusation that the GOP was attempting to “rig the election,” Speaker Mike Johnson fired back.

“That’s ridiculous. Hakeem Jeffries is also playing political games,” the Louisiana Republican told CNN when asked about the Democratic leader’s comments.

In the interview with CNN, Jeffries specifically called out three states: California, New York and New Jersey. But the party is also looking closely at Minnesota and Washington state, Democratic sources said.

And when asked about the push to redraw New Jersey’s boundaries, Jeffries said it is “incumbent upon all of us to take a close look at, how do we ensure that the congressional map, writ large, is as fair as possible in advance of the midterm election?”

Jeffries said he plans to sit down with his governor, Kathy Hochul, sometime in August about the maps in New York. The state just redrew its lines last year without any drastic changes to seven seats currently held by Republicans, but Jeffries suggested that more could be done to help Democrats there: “Let me just simply say the maps in New York are not as fair as they could be.”

Rep. Greg Meeks, a fellow New Yorker and a Jeffries ally, was blunter: “You can’t go to a fight where they have a gun and you have a knife.”

The Democratic leader and his members have also been in close contact with the California governor, who says he is moving ahead with an expedited push to redraw his state’s congressional maps before next November, according to two people involved with the discussions. Behind the scenes, their focus has been on how California can overcome its own law that hands over map-drawing power to a nonpartisan redistricting commission.

It’s a hurdle that Democrats face in some blue states across the country: Governors and legislatures have awarded power to independent commissions to limit partisan gerrymandering— unlike in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott and state lawmakers have full control. Democrats privately acknowledge this is legally complicated and likely extremely costly, but suggest it is not insurmountable.

“If Republicans want to play by these rules, then I think that we shouldn’t have one set of rules for one and the other set of rules for another. I think we need to even the playing board,” New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN.

Such discussions in Democratic circles all began in the last two weeks after Abbott declared that he would move forward with asking the state legislature to redraw Texas’ maps, at the request of the White House. Trump and his team have said they believe they can squeeze five more seats out of the state — something he conveyed to the Texas GOP delegation last week. (Republican leaders believe it is more likely they can get two or three, according to two people familiar with those discussions.)

New seats in Texas— plus an additional two or three seats that could come out of the GOP’s separate map-drawing effort in Ohio— may be enough to hinder Democrats’ chances of reclaiming the House.

Rep. Marc Veasey, who is one of the Democrats being targeted in Texas, told CNN that if Republicans are successful in his state, his party will face an uphill battle to flip the House.

“Obviously it would make it much harder,” Veasey said. “I think the biggest thing that keeps Trump up at night is losing the majority in the US House of Representatives and having to answer to Democrats and be held accountable.”

The Texas Democrat said his party has no choice but to try to make up ground in California, New York and anywhere else it can: “Hell yeah, I would encourage us to do that. … I think you have to.”

Many California Democrats feel the same.

“I don’t take anything off the table,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN, adding that the state can get its voters to approve the change. “We would not have any majority in the Congress without that big, vast number [of Democratic seats in California], but we always want more, so one way or another. So I don’t take anything off the table.”

Rep. Lou Correa of California said the stakes are “too high” not to try to squeeze out more seats, adding: “It’s gonna be a knockout midterm election like you haven’t seen in a long time.”

But there are some members— particularly progressives, who have long championed voting rights— who are uncomfortable with the Democratic push.

“I think it is unacceptable and dangerous for essentially what people marched during the Civil Rights Movement for,” Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told CNN when asked whether states like California and New York should consider the same approach as his own state.

And some Democrats who sit in swing districts worry about the fallout.

New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Long Island, said changing the maps now is “probably not” a good idea.

“Traditionally people do this every 10 years after the census, so that seems like the normal thing to me,” Suozzi said.

But Jeffries predicted that it’s the Republican push that is a risky one, contending that changing solidly red districts in Texas— in order to make Democratic districts more competitive— could have the effect of putting more swing voters in GOP strongholds.

“We believe it may actually backfire, and that they may draw lines that endanger their Republican incumbents, who we will have a better chance of defeating in the 2026 midterm election,” Jeffries said.

So far, Texas GOP leaders and the White House have shared few details about their soon-to-be-unveiled maps with the state’s House delegation. That will change in the coming days, with the state legislature returning for a special session this week to consider them.

Texas Republicans are now largely on board with the White House’s plan, though one member of the delegation told CNN last week that there is a real fear the White House may overreach and end up creating ultra-competitive seats that Democrats can win.

Texas Rep. Pete Sessions— who lost his seat in Trump’s first midterm in 2018, just before state Republicans redrew their map to better protect GOP incumbents— is taking a cautious approach. He’s been in touch with the White House personally, though he declined to share details of those conversations.

“As you recall, New York did this a year or two ago,” Sessions said, referencing the Democratic effort that ended up costing their party seats after the map faced legal challenges. “Just because the legislature does something, it’s still subject to the law.”

Other Texas Republicans are encouraging Trump’s team to be even more aggressive.

“I support the governor in his effort because we need to make sure we keep the House. We got to keep the House,” Rep. Troy Nehls told CNN. “If we can get five, let’s get five. Yeah, I’d like to try to get six.”

Please look at this as more than just a partisan tug-of-war over a handful of congressional districts. It’s potentially another profound tear in the already frayed fabric of American democracy. Partisan gerrymandering has long been a corrosive force, undermining the idea that voters choose their representatives, not the other way around. When both parties abandon the principle of fair representation in favor of raw, zero-sum power plays, the entire system begins to rot from within. “Fighting fire with fire” sounds bold— until the whole structure burns down. That’s the road Jeffries and his team seem more than eager to sprint down— not to defend the public good, but to cling to their own narrow ambitions. I’ll be bold enough to say that Jeffries isn’t preparing to illegally redraw maps to protect reproductive rights, climate policy, labor power or economic justice. He’s doing it because five seats in Texas could ruin his shot at personal power, another example of his unfitness to become speaker.

And it’s especially galling coming from a party that spent years championing fair maps, nonpartisan redistricting commissions and voting rights reforms. Democrats fought hard— at least rhetorically— to position themselves as reformers defending democratic norms. Now they’re hoping no one notices as they quietly toss those ideals aside for short-term gain. It’s a moral abdication. If the best the Democratic leadership can offer is a watered-down version of GOP tactics, why should voters believe they’ll govern any differently? The alternative path is harder— but it’s the only one that doesn’t end in mutual self-destruction. Democrats can choose to double down on what they claim to believe: protecting democratic norms, offering a clear and compelling vision, and recruiting candidates who actually inspire people— more like Bernie Sanders and AOC and less like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. Because if the party of voting rights is reduced to begging governors to torpedo independent commissions, it may win a few more seats— but it loses the argument. And eventually, the soul.

So… congratulations to both establishment parties! The map-makers and legal consultants are now more important than the voters. If democracy was a game, the players just ripped up the rulebook and handed the refs cash under the table. Call it what it is: disgusting constitutional vandalism and a win for Trump as he drags the system and the whole country down to his unspeakably vile level basically into a pit of authoritarian decay and moral rot, a slow-mo demolition of the republic, engineered by a man who views democratic governance as an obstacle to be crushed.

"Pushback" by Nancy Ohanian