Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
The conservative court decided no matter how extreme a partisan gerrymander, it is legal. However, they said racial gerrymanders are illegal. A district judge dug into the Texas gerrymander and concluded that the actors involved explicitly gerrymandered based on race. Without disputing the facts, the conservatives on the Supreme Court rejected it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv_OsWd7cLo
While both parties gerrymander, Republicans are the worst offenders. More Democratic states turned over their district drawing to neutral drawers. Republicans did not join them. Trump is leading the charge to gerrymander more often. Democrats like California’s governor are temporarily overturning their states’ neutrally drawn districts in order to combat Trump’s aggression.
Fair maps are needed to improve U.S. democracy, but even fair maps won’t be proportional because of where people live. You’d have to get rid of the district system altogether if you wanted representatives to be proportional to population.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moG7ZOUXHv0
“These strange divisions underscore the complex political dynamics of the president’s latest power play. It’s become a loyalty test that could boost Republicans’ chances of keeping their trifecta in Washington, but one that also carries significant electoral risk for several of their own members in Congress and potential for broader voter backlash.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/14/gop-redistricting-00508626
Republican and right wing media hypocrisy and dishonesty on gerrymandering is outrageous.
Their responses to Newsom make this hypocrisy and/or dishonesty clear as day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MetueJ_uelQ
“Texas already has several mechanisms to use in coaxing the Democrats back. Each day they’re gone, the fleeing Democrats incur a $500-per-day fine. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also released an order for their arrest by the Texas Department of Public Safety, describing the Democrats’ conduct as “abandonment or forfeiture.” Republicans in the Texas House, meanwhile, have issued arrest warrants for the absent Democrats, and Attorney General Ken Paxton—who is challenging Cornyn in his re-election bid—has called for their removal from office.
…
Regardless of how involved the FBI will become, the bureau’s involvement at all degrades the principle of federalism by infringing upon Texas’s authority to discipline its lawmakers. It is also the most recent example of the Trump Justice Department being weaponized for political gain and tasked with duties outside its standard wheelhouse.
…
Though Patel dismissed concerns during his confirmation hearing that he would weaponize the FBI, he seems to have set his sights on the Texas Democrats, despite Trump’s Day One executive order to end the “weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community.”
While the Democrats’ plan is an attempt to circumvent a vote, they’ve broken no federal laws or statutes. There is simply no need for the FBI’s involvement.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/08/the-fbi-has-no-business-tracking-down-texas-democrats/
“Missouri Republicans are considering redrawing their state’s congressional lines to add another red House seat, the latest volley in a national battle over control of the lower chamber in 2026.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/05/missouri-redistricting-2026-midterms-00494356
“Trump’s team is putting “maximum pressure on everywhere where redistricting is an option and it could provide a good return on investment,” according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking and granted anonymity to describe it.
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a handful of Democratic-leaning states — including California — handed mapmaking power to independent commissions instead of leaving it in the hands of the state legislatures. States where Democrats retain the power to gerrymander, like Illinois and Maryland, have very little room to draw more advantageous maps than their current ones.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/07/republicans-are-full-steam-ahead-on-redistricting-and-not-just-in-texas-00496450
“Republican Gov. Mike Braun remained noncommittal about a mid-decade redistricting push following his meeting with Vice President JD Vance in Indiana on Thursday.
“We covered a wide array of topics. We listened,” Braun told reporters in response to a question about whether an agreement was reached.
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Vance’s visit to the state comes amid a push from President Donald Trump’s team to redraw maps “everywhere where redistricting is an option.” A plan in Texas is already well underway, where Republican lawmakers drew a new map that could net Republicans as many as five Republican-leaning seats, and Democrats in the Lone Star state fled in a last-ditch effort to stop the map from passing.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/07/vance-indiana-00497634
Having independent professionals in parts of the government who provide key statistics is important for having a better idea of what’s going on in the country. We need these professionals to be independent so we can have a level of trust in the numbers. Trump fires such professionals just because he doesn’t like their outcomes, not because he has a fundamental disagreement with their methods. This is how we go dark in understanding our economy; with our main source of data being controlled by the leader.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F7RXXlUM4Y
Gerrymandering is anti-democracy! Every state should use a neutral commission or algorithm and make it illegal to draw districts based on helping a party, person, or ideology win an election. Voters should choose their representatives; representatives should not choose their voters!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdCar0waOeI