The Headlines
The Eighth Circuit is once again taking power away from voters and tearing apart the Voting Rights Act. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights division is facing a “mass exodus.” And the Department Of Justice is now demanding sensitive voter data from all 50 states. All of these attacks on democracy are very important, and they are also only the tip of the iceberg–as I type this, politicians across the country are on a path to gerrymander their party into power instead of just earning the votes of the American people by backing policies that a majority of voters want! So today, let’s talk about what The New Republic is calling “The Gerrymandering Wars,” and why politicians trying to choose their voters is still such a huge threat to our democracy, even in Michigan.The Details
- Voters Not Politicians originally formed with one simple and clear goal: end partisan gerrymandering and give the power to choose your representatives back to the people of Michigan. That goal resonated with millions of everyday citizens from across the political spectrum, many of whom had little to no political or activist experience. Why? Because the majority of Michiganders agreed that voters should choose their politicians, not the other way around.
- Texas politicians do not agree with Michiganders. For weeks now, President Trump and Gov. Abbot have been speaking publicly about their plan to have the Texas state legislature do a rare mid-decade redistricting with the explicit purpose of drawing more congressional districts that favor the GOP.
- Because the Texas GOP has previously gerrymandered themselves into a supermajority, they have enough votes in the state legislature to do this with very few options for the Democratic party or voters themselves to fight back.
- Earlier this week, the Texas legislature released its draft map, which would create 30 districts with a built-in Republican advantage, as opposed to the current 25 districts. This will likely add 5 more anti-democracy seats at the direct expense of pro-democracy members of Congress.
- Future voting behavior is not always as predictable as politicians would hope, so there is a possibility that this map may not yield the intended results, which is probably why anti-democracy funders are also pushing the DOJ to pressure Secretaries of State to comply with their data sharing requests, while we beat back their efforts to restrict who gets to vote in Michigan and other states.
- With the Texas Democratic party facing few options to stop the GOP from gerrymandering their way to victory, Democrats in other states, including California, New York, and Illinois, have suggested that the best possible solution is to gerrymander a Democrat advantage in their own states.
- Even former Attorney General Eric Holder, a champion of independent redistricting, has given implicit approval of this scheme to out-gerrymander the Republican gerrymanders.
- In response, and as further escalation in the Gerrymandering Wars, lawmakers in Missouri and Florida have also floated the idea of redrawing their already heavily-gerrymandered districts to further increase the GOP’s built-in electoral advantage.
- None of this is okay. None of this is democratic. Politicians across the country are loudly debating the best way to rig the rules, instead of winning over more voters. They have all lost the plot and turned representative democracy into a game of oppressive strategy instead of persuasion.
- Gerrymandering is a tool that benefits political parties. It does not benefit voters, and it does not benefit our democracy. We will not gerrymander our way out of this all-out assault on democracy – it will not work for the long term.
- Michigan is not currently on the list of states that could be used to gerrymander a party into power because of our Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (although California has a similar constitutionally-mandated commission that is now under threat).
- However, Michigan is facing related attacks on our democracy – politicians are still trying to pick and choose their preferred voters instead of trying to genuinely persuade voters to their cause. How are they doing that here in Michigan?
- The voter suppression petitions gathering signatures this cycle are supported by politicians who want to avoid accountability by picking and choosing which voters are allowed to participate in elections, and restrict both voter registration and ballot access.
What’s Next
All of these attacks on our democracy, at the state and federal level, share a common goal – politicians rigging the rules of the game to consolidate power within their own political party, instead of legitimately earning the majority of the votes in an election. Many pundits are calling for Democrats to lean into gerrymandering wars in the states they control, because for too long the perception has been that Democrats aren’t ready to fight fire with fire. Here is the problem with that–we have to build as big a tent as possible to stop the authoritarian power grab underway, and if we lean into hyperpartisanship we won’t be able to build that big tent. But we CAN fight fire with fire. We are picking a big fight with very high stakes–one where we bring in thousands of people regardless of their political party affiliation. This is why we are taking on corruption and money in politics. Voters are furious about the corrupting influence of money in state politics. We know they are, because we talk to hundreds of voters a week about our democracy and the state of it. We can and must pick big fights, and we can do so without leaning back into gerrymandering. We will continue fighting back to rebuild a healthy democracy, where voters choose their politicians and all political power is inherent to the people. Sign up to help us get money out of politics next!Want to receive these updates in your inbox? Use this link to join our weekly update list.
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