Democratic leaders in the California Legislature on Friday threw their support behind Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to bring a potential redraw of the state’s congressional districts to voters in November.
Newsom has urged lawmakers to join a national fight over congressional district lines that could help determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The governor’s call for maps favoring Democrats appears to have won over legislators after some expressed early concerns about an accelerated push to set aside California’s current nonpartisan district boundaries.
At a press conference in Sacramento, California Democratic leaders appeared alongside legislators from Texas, who fled their home state to delay a Republican-led redistricting effort aimed at boosting the GOP.
I get your worries, but “we go high” is how we ended up with fascism, and doing it again is how we kill democracy.
My worry is making Democrats safer in their districts will necessarily coincide with those Democrats being less accountable to their constituents and more beholden to large money interests. I guess it’s better than not fighting, but things will likely continue to get worse on both sides of the aisle.
Personally, I hate the democrat party, but I have to keep voting for them because we have this fascist party on the other side. I’ve said it repeatedly, especially being in a red state. We need every person to claw the republicans out of their places of power, and so that means allying with the corpo group that is against them because they are out of power. The thing is WHEN the GOP is out, we can’t rest then have to claw the dems out so that we can actually get some real representation.
Voting isn’t a one and done game, it’s a fucking shitslog where you grab a shovel and keep shoveling shit and that hole is never empty. BUT when it comes to building for a better tomorrow, it’s worth shoveling every day just for that one step forward. But right now we’re in over our heads so we need every fucking hand on deck, even if it’s ones we hate.
There’s “we go high”, which is basically an arrogant form of meekness; there’s “gloves off”, which is fighting aggressively without being completely unethical and antidemocratic; and then there’s “if they can do it we can”, that eliminates all standards of conduct, ethics, and morality in favor of a race to the bottom that fascists will inevitably win.
I know you think that blatantly partisan gerrymandering is the middle one, but it’s actually the last one. Especially when you consider the fact that third parties and independents will likely lose some if not all of what little opportunity they have left in the Neoliberal stronghold as a result.
What is a “gloves off” middle option though? Like I get your point, but to stop fascism you can’t go high, and if your options are going high or throwing the guardrails aside to put up a meaningful resistance… Then you have to put up a resistance
“gloves off” is supporting the daily “music festival” (what we have to call the protests to avoid censorship on social media) in LA and coordinating other cities to join the festivities. It is making a list of corrupt judges who’s verdicts will be ignored. It is claiming that gerrymandered politicians will similarly be ignored. It is strategy that depends on the one thing the GOP doesn’t have: broad public support.
So fucking true. Well said.