So...in response to a plan by Texas republicans to gerrymander texas in a desperate attempt to keep the house in 2026, democrats are thinking of gerrymandering blue states to offset that. The real question here is, is this a good idea, and should we support it?
On the one hand, as someone who has been a victim of gerrymandering for much of my adult life in PA (see the pre 2018 house maps...), I hate gerrymandering, and I generally align with the forward party's stance on having independent redistricting. HOWEVER, we need to consider the situation that we are in. We are in a situation where we have this illiberal GOP that is trying to break democracy and turn us into a dictatorship, and knowing that they can lose the house, they're trying to stop that by gerrymandering the crap out of everything.
Come to think of it, the GOP has been like this for decades now. They stole a SCOTUS seat from us in 2016 by stalling the process of filling it until trump was elected. They held onto the house in the 2010s mostly by gerrymandering. In 2024, some suggested that voter suppression cost dems the election. The GOP plays by a different set of rules than the rest of us and THEY DON'T CARE. Like the dems keep talking about democratic norms and compromise, but the GOP doesnt give a crap, they care about power, and will do anything to keep and maintain it. This is why I've become as far left as I am in the first place. I remember when the tea party came to power in 2011, and I was like "these guys are playing for keeps, you cant mess around with this." Here's the thing. In 2008, they saw a glimpse into oblivion. The reagan coalition was starting to decline, Obama win in a virtual landslide, and they understood, this could be game over, this could be a realignment. So what did they do? They went scorched earth against Obama, and because the dems were weak, they rolled over us. And during that time frame, I left the GOP, became a democrat, and even in 2016, I was sounding the alarm bells. These guys arent fricking around, dont compromise.
So what did the dems do? Compromise, keep meeting them half way, and act like it was still 1992. It wasn't. It was 24 years later. An entire generation of young americans had been born and could now vote in that time span. And the dems seemed out of sync. And they misread their opponent.
Even I did. Like, I really did think the GOP was done at the time. I figured that the dems were gonna be the emerging majority as time went on, and the GOP would fade away. And I did fight the dems just as I fought the GOP and supported third parties. SOme will say it was a mistake, but it made sense at the time, given the gems were completely useless. But then MAGA awoke something in this country. Now in 2025, we got literal outright nazis saying nazi things, the trump movement has metastasized into an authoritarian fascist movement, and we're at risk of losing our democracy. Whatever future the dems had that seemed almost guaranteed 10 years ago seems gone now. The dems through it away, and MAGA has been successful in a political sense. And now we're losing. And we are at risk for losing democracy.
Ya know, I took this comparative politics class in college, where I learned how to analyze countries and their political structures, and we had to do these assignments where we used various sources to write short reports about countries, including their political systems. One thing we learned early on...a lot of countries that claim to be democratic, arent. They're one party states. You can vote, but you can only vote for the one party. Other parties are run out of government and forcibly suppressed. There's the illusion of political freedom, but it doesnt exist. And this is why Im so smart in reading between the lines with stuff. I might critique capitalism and understand it's not as voluntary as it seems. or I might look at our two party duopoly and understand that our democracy is flawed and one step away from these kinds of states. Really, we have a two party system where the other parties are kind of actively suppressed via all kinds of legalistic ways. And voters are bullied and cajoled into supporting the two party system. I believe democracy belongs to the voters, and the US is a flawed democracy. We are run by the rich, for the rich.
However, in this era of trump, things are threatening to become so much worse. We might end up becoming a ONE party system. These systems arise out of failed democracies where one party seizes control and then breaks the democracy. It happened in 1933 with the nazis and hitler in Germany. It happened in 2000 when Putin consolidated control over Russia, destroying their fledgling democracy.
And now, the US in 2025 is at risk of going that way. And the republicans control the house, the senate, the courts, and the presidency. They dont own all these things through completely legitimate means. They gerrymander in congress. They try to engage in voter suppression and push "voter ID laws" and complain about fraud to push people they dont like off the ballot. They stole a SCOTUS seat by refusing to fill it while Obama was in office. And now they control everything. They have NO GUARDRAILS. Trump is enacting project 2025, and now texas is talking about gerrymandering to maintain a house majority there. So the question is, should democrats use the power they have to gerrymander blue states?
As much as I hate to admit it, YES, THEY SHOULD. Look, I hate the idea of gerrymandering. I believe the voters should choose the politicians, the politicians shouldnt choose the voters. BUT, if we're playing checkers and the GOP is playing 5D chess 1 move away from checkmate, we better get our heads out of you know where and DO SOMETHING about it, or we risk losing democracy altogether. The GOP has backed us into a corner. Our only move, to avoid being checkmated, is to use the power we have to play by their rules, and push back. I hate to say it, but that's where we're at.
I hate that it's come here. I really do. And...Im not gonna lie, between this, the Medhi Hassan debate yesterday, and everything I've watched all year with where our country is going, I feel like maybe I am changing. I'm changing my views somewhat to adapt to the times, and I am being a bit more hard line and authoritarian on this fascist movement. I am getting to the point where no, we can't tolerate the intolerant. No, we can't just let the right run all over us, because they're trying to do some really dark and evil crap. We have LITERAL CONCENTRATION CAMPS NOW. I'm not being hyperbolic even. That's the scary thing. We are in our germany 1933 movement, and if we don't wanna lose democracy altogether, we gotta do what we gotta do to take it back.
It's like fighting cancer. Chemotherapy sucks, it's technically poison itself, but when dealing with metastasized cancer, all you can really do is poison yourself and hope the poison kills the cancer before it kills you. That's where we're at when dealing with the far right. So...yeah. Let's gerrymander away. I do fear the long term consequences of such an action. Remember, I dont trust the democrats as far as I can throw them. They can easily misuse their power too. But what choice do we have when we're basically literally descending into fascism? It's our only move. So yes, democrats, do whatever you have to, within reason of course, let's not escalate the erosion of democratic norms more than absolutely necessary, to combat the fascists. Gerrymander deep blue states to counteract the effects of the GOP gerrymandering red states. Get the fascists out of government, and pass some legislation to secure our democracy the next time you have a majority. Pass crap like HR1. Expand voting rights. Maybe find a way to ban gerrymandering on a national level. Kick them out of government, and then LOCK THE DOORS BEHIND THEM so they can't get back in. That's where I'm at with this. Again, no more mr nice guy. We can't be nice guys with fascists. We gotta be mean machiavellian thinkers when dealing with them. Hate to say it, but that's where society is at.
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