Texas Republicans enacted a partisan congressional redistricting map that should give the GOP an additional five House seats and awards white voters control of 73 percent of Texas's districts despite comprising roughly 40 percent of the population. The NAACP filed a lawsuit alleging unconstitutional racial discrimination. The Supreme Court is unlikely to intervene, prompting calls for Democratic-controlled states to respond by aggressively gerrymandering to offset Texas's advantage. California has proposed a voter referendum on a new map, other states are preparing countermoves, and New York's governor shifted to support partisan redistricting, signaling escalation.
There is no real hope that the Supreme Court will stop Texas or white people from overrepresenting themselves in Congress. The more practical response is for other Democratically controlled states to play hardball and aggressively gerrymander their congressional districts to counteract Texas. Trying to live in a society with Texas is like trying to share a Thanksgiving turkey with a rabid dog: All you can do is snatch some flesh with your hands and take your vaccinations. Etiquette and manners are no use here.
California has already started the process. Democrats have proposed their own new congressional map that will be on the ballot as a voter referendum this November. But, predictably, other red states, including Ohio, Missouri, and, of course, Florida, are already looking into how they might gerrymander their states to counteract California, which is counteracting Texas. The next logical player to enter this gerrymandering arms race should be New York.
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