With California leading the charge to counter gerrymandering, should we in Washington state join in as well?
Would our governor even entertain such an idea?
With California leading the charge to counter gerrymandering, should we in Washington state join in as well?
Would our governor even entertain such an idea?
So what’s the point of the metaphor about soccer? Just say “this guy is threatening my life. It’s me or him.” That’s a different conversation. And like I said, when force is used to displace a ruler, if the people who do it are like “we’ve rigged the elections so that we win every time moving forward” then they’re not generally welcomed as liberators.
I’m saying that supposing there was such a dire situation that cheating in an election or even shooting a gun to end the situation was necessary, I’d want to know what’s the plan to get back to a democratic order. Because otherwise we’re cheering for oligarchy. Sure, less immediately threatening than the current oligarchy. But ultimately people who answer to party elites rather than the public.
Even with a trifecta under Biden, Democrats didn’t make DC and Puerto Rico states. They didn’t pack the supreme court. They didn’t imprison Trump and his lieutenants responsible for Jan 6. (Yes, they got rank and file rioters) I’d like to see people who are talking about “gerrymandering for Democrats” also talk about what they’ll do to ensure MAGA never returns to power. I’d like to see them explicitly lay out a timeline for when they reverse gerrymandering for all states. And I’d like to see them advocate for policies that people actually want - healthcare for all, universal childcare, free higher education. So that people might want to vote for them, not just against the other guys.
Democrats rightfully trumpeted that Trump was a threat to the country in 2020, Biden won, they got a majority in Congress and the Senate, and then what did they do with it? They didn’t prevent Trump from coming back. I want to elect people who genuinely see Trump as a mortal threat, not just people who say that and then fuck around for four years until things are worse the next election. If we gerrymander, we’re making our democracy worse. And if it’s to elect the same type of people we got in 2020, then there will be no urgency to fix the nationwide problem of gerrymandering, or to really change the conditions that allowed MAGA to take over.