Contributor: California must fight Texas’ redistricting fire with fire

It’s not a shock that Donald Trump has pushed Texas Republicans to redraw congressional district strains to search out 5 extra GOP seats for the U.S. Home of Representatives in time for the 2026 midterm elections. He simply signed a deeply unpopular invoice to chop taxes for the rich and minimize healthcare for tens of millions of individuals, and his approval rating retains dropping. In an election based mostly on district maps as they stand — and will stand till the following census, in 2030 — his celebration’s 2026 prospects for holding the Home are grim. In contrast to his predecessors, he’s confirmed prepared to interrupt our democracy to get what he desires.

If Trump’s gambit succeeds — and proper now it seems as if it’s going to — then California and different states that would counter the untimely Texas redistricting have just one alternative — to reply in variety.

Contemplate the stakes: A majority of People disapprove of Trump’s job efficiency and have performed so since inside a month of his taking workplace. But he’s undercutting the establishments that we’d in any other case rely on to talk independently and resist presidential excesses — judges, journalists, college leaders and even government officials who make the error of neutrally reporting information like financial knowledge.

With historical past as a predictor, Democrats would succeed within the 2026 midterms, retake the Home and supply checks and balances on the Trump administration. The framers regarded Congress as the first actor within the federal authorities, however it’s now a shell of its former self. Elections are how America holds presidents in examine. But when Trump will get his approach, voters might vote however nothing will change. The already tenuous connection between the poll field and the distribution of energy will evaporate.

One can perceive why Democratic legislators may not wish to mimic Trump’s techniques. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who represented New York for almost 1 / 4 century, warned many years in the past in regards to the tendency to “define deviancy down” and normalize actions which can be something however regular. However we don’t get to choose and select the occasions we stay in or the kind of response that’s required to fulfill the second.

When voters in California approved independent redistricting 15 years in the past, they’d have moderately anticipated that many different states would comply with their lead. They’d have hoped that Congress or the Supreme Court docket would step in to create a federal commonplace. They’d have understood different states altering the principles for purely political causes as unconscionable. And but right here we’re.

As Gov. Gavin Newsom succinctly put it: “California’s ethical excessive floor means nothing if we’re powerless due to it.”

The answer Newsom has proposed is a prudent one — redrawing simply the congressional strains, not these for the state Legislature as nicely, and solely doing so till the following census, when Trump could have handed from the scene.

Each objection to the proposal falls aside beneath inspection.

A radical left-wing plot? Even many average members of the Democratic Social gathering, equivalent to Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, have praised it as a obligatory response.

An finish run round voters? In contrast to in Texas, California voters themselves will determine whether or not to approve the plan.

An costly particular election? Value was a cause to oppose the wishful-thinking 2021 recall election launched in opposition to Newsom (which he defeated with greater than 60% of the vote), however the argument applies much less so at present provided that Trump’s excessive unilateral actions — funds cuts and slashed packages, ICE raids, the assault on increased training, together with the College of California — are placing California’s fiscal future in danger.

A race to the underside? The College of Michigan recreation theorist Robert Axelrod demonstrated that if we wish to foster cooperation, a tit-for-tat technique outperforms all others. As a abstract of his analysis succinctly put it: “Be good. Be able to forgive. However don’t be a pushover.” California officers have indicated that they’ll withdraw the proposal if Texas Republicans stand down.

A political danger? Actually, however the chief taking over the danger is Newsom. If the proposal is defeated on the poll, voters might be in the identical place they’re in proper now.

Czech dissident-turned-statesman Vaclav Havel, in his well-known essay “The Power of the Powerless,” described the Prague Spring not solely as a “conflict between two teams on the extent of actual energy” however because the “closing act … of a protracted drama initially performed out mainly within the theatre of the spirit and the conscience of society.”

We have no idea how the present drama will play out. However the alternative that Havel set out — of dwelling inside a lie or dwelling inside the reality — is as potent as ever. If Trump continues to goad Texas into abandoning its dedication to the norms of our election guidelines, People who maintain onto hope that their voices nonetheless matter might be relying on California to indicate the way in which.

Vivek Viswanathan is a fellow on the Stanford Institute for Financial Coverage Analysis. He served within the Biden White Home as senior coverage advisor and particular assistant to the president, and beforehand labored for Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov. Gavin Newsom.