Will Democrats Finally Insist On One Set Of Rules?
There's no dignity in tolerating sucker punches.
This escaped my notice initially, and only came to my attention amid a flood of Trump-Epstein news, but I want to resurface it a third time, because it’s just that revelatory.
It’s about the aftermath of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election earlier this year. Remember, the one Elon Musk tried to buy? The one Democrats brought to national attention, because, it carried the promise of finally undoing the state’s partisan gerrymander, after 15 years of undemocratic rule?
Well, the Democratic Party-backed candidate won the race, sustaining the court’s 4-3 liberal majority, which quickly turned around and rejected lawsuits seeking to redraw the state’s eight congressional districts. No explanation provided.
A month later, and Texas Republicans are poised, under Donald Trump’s orders, to further gerrymander their own state—a rule-breaking mid-decade redistricting with an insanely redrawn map that could flip five blue districts red ahead of next year’s midterms.
The liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court couldn’t have known what Texas had in store. But it also shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise. Texas Republicans redrew their maps midcensus in 2003, and Republicans across the country—including in Wisconsin—have gerrymandered ruthlessly wherever they’ve had the opportunity. The only reason Democrats would have benefitted from a new judicial review of the map is that the existing gerrymandering is so partisan to begin with. Wisconsin is a 50-50 state, the most narrowly divided in the country, yet Republicans control six of the state’s eight congressional districts. Nobody was asking the justices to impose a pro-Democratic map on Wisconsin, just to strip the partisanship out.
But norms. But decorum. But our principles.
This reflexive skittishness has to end. Liberals in positions of power who still think this way need to reconsider or yield to a new class of fighters. And those fighters need to be clear that there’s nothing unprincipled about a fair fight. In realm after realm, Republicans break rules, renege on agreements, tilt the playing field of democracy to their advantage, then turn around and insist Democrats remain bound by the status quo ante.
For too many years, in too many realms, Democrats have accepted these double standards—perhaps reluctantly, but in the end obediently. They should have reached their breaking point long ago. But it’s not too late for them to rebel. To make Republican cheating and the importance of uniform rules central to their appeal.
FUCK GERRY
In a happy turn, Democrats in Congress and leaders in key states have responded correctly to the Texas provocation. They have threatened to retaliate by wiping out GOP districts in California, New Jersey, New York, and a couple other states. But there’s room for improvement along at least two dimensions: