Life of Wry

Our president, worried he’ll lose the House in the 2026 midterms (with good reason), commanded Texas to redraw its congressional districts — five years before the census, when district lines are customarily revisited and redrawn per shifts in population — in such a manner as to flip five seats from Democratic majority to Republican. He believes this will go a long way toward preventing his defeat in a close race. Gov Abbot, eager to please, moved on trump’s demand right away. More Republican governors are now following suit and planning to rig the elections in their states, as well.

However, Dems need to win back control of the House if we have any hope of slowing down trump’s authoritarian takeover of our government. So.. as Republicans cheat with their partisan gerrymandering scheme, a move that totally undermines democracy, California is meeting the moment with Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act. Newsom’s not standing by with a plastic fork in what will be a big-time knife fight.

California has had a Citizens Redistricting Commission since 2010 which oversees the drawing of congressional districts every ten years. We voted on that in 2008 and it has worked beautifully (and fairly). It may be tough to convince people to pause this practice, but I believe that most see trump’s move for what it is (cheating.. and if it works, catastrophic) and will be willing to temporarily gerrymander five of our own districts. It’s only for five years; we’d go back to the Citizens Commission in 2030.

I enthusiastically support this move. I participated in a training session today organized by CADem (the California Democratic Party) to become a canvassing trainer. Sister District Yolo and Indivisible Yolo are facilitating door-to-door canvassing every Saturday until the November 4 election. We will be talking to and mobilizing voters in support of Prop 50. We need to get out the Dem vote and pass this thing.

Our new lawn sign arrived today.