KARMA: Republicans cry foul as Democrats beat them at their own gerrymandering game
For decades, Republicans mastered the art of drawing congressional maps to lock in political advantages, and Democrats spent those same decades complaining about it, filing lawsuits, and demanding fairness. Then something shifted.
It started in Texas, where Trump publicly declared that Republicans were “entitled to five more seats” and pushed a mid-decade redistricting effort to make it happen. Democrats warned it was a dangerous precedent. Republicans shrugged.
Then the Supreme Court effectively took gerrymandering complaints off the federal table, ruling that partisan map-drawing was a political question beyond the reach of federal courts. Republicans celebrated. Democrats took notes.
California moved first. Then other states followed. And on Tuesday, Virginia voters approved a Democratic redistricting plan that could give the party 10 of the state’s 11 congressional seats, turning a 6-5 Democratic edge into a near-total lockout of Republicans.
Now the same party that cheered every Republican gerrymander from Texas to North Carolina is suddenly outraged. Former Virginia Governor Youngkin called the Virginia map “the most blatant power grab ever demonstrated,” apparently forgetting who threw the first punch. Fox News hosts fumed on air. Republican operatives warned of overreach.
The tears are real. The irony is richer.
Democrats didn’t invent this game. They just finally decided to play it.- Really American