#redistricting

John Oliver devoted his main focus this week to redistricting. You get an excellent idea of just how irredeemably racist the Republican Party is.

True, Republicans have given themselves a modest advantage this cycle by drawing maps which screw Blacks. But in a wave year, that electoral advantage could be minimized.

Democrats need to flip both chambers of Congress this year to restore balance to the country. Doing that requires two things:

Getting out the vote at the grassroots level by talking with neighbors one at a time. Zohran Mamdani got elected mayor largely because volunteers asked people in the neighborhoods what their main concerns were and then pointed to Mamdani's proposals relating to those concerns. If people agree with 80% of what you say, they are allies – not opponents. Don't make it difficult for people to agree with you.

A unified party is a winning party. Spending more time vilifying other Democrats than defeating MAGA Republicans is a sure way to guarantee GOP control for years to come. And yes, I'm talking about ALL sides involved. Once the primaries are over, it's time to shift the focus to winning the Midterm Elections. Purity is essential with food safety but it is poisonous when building winning coalitions.

Péter Magyar is now prime minister of Hungary because he won despite severe gerrymandering and media manipulation by authoritarian Viktor Orbán. Not only did the Tisza Party win, it even has enough power now to amend Hungary's constitution. This is the result of people to people power. We can learn from the Hungarians.

If we really want change, we need to work hard for it at both the state and federal levels. To push through the reforms suggested by John Oliver near the end of that segment, we need TWO good cycles in a row. While Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans will try to obstruct Democratic majorities in House and Senate in the 120th Congress, we can use their anti-reform obstructions against them in 2028.

Jen Rice at Democracy Docket:

The Colorado Supreme Court killed a set of proposed ballot measures aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional map to counter GOP gerrymanders in other states, finding that they violated the state constitution. Like in past redistricting pushes in California and Virginia, the measures would ask voters to let the state temporarily sidestep the independent redistricting commission and draw a more Democratic-friendly map in response to Republicans’ mid-decade redraws across the country. But unlike in California and Virginia, where lawmakers passed redistricting legislation that they sent to the voters for approval, the Colorado redistricting supporters attempted to put the measure to voters by gathering signatures for a ballot initiative. If their effort had not been blocked on procedural grounds, their next step would have been to submit at least 125,000 signatures by Aug. 3 in order to qualify for the ballot.

Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, a group backing the measures, blasted the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision Monday.

[...] But the decision did not appear to be a partisan one. All seven Colorado Supreme Court justices who unanimously blocked the measures were appointed by Democrats. The ruling also does not close the door on attempts to try again, but supporters would face a tight timeline to complete the necessary steps in time for 2028.

[...] The court determined that they violated a Colorado requirement that “(n)o measure shall be proposed by petition containing more than one subject” — in other words, it cannot ask two different questions at once. A state board previously approved two of the three proposals, finding they complied with the “one subject” requirement. Opponents of the ballot measures then asked the Colorado Supreme Court to review the case.