Extreme partisanship started infecting American politics long before Donald Trump emerged, but the president’s unhinged desire for unlimited power is now driving the two-party system to the brink of all-out war.
Trump ignited the latest escalation by demanding that Texas and other Republican-controlled states defy tradition and redraw their congressional districts before the next census in 2030. Since the president’s party almost always loses seats in midterm elections, his goal is to create more Republican districts in red states and thus protect the party’s tiny 3-vote margin in the House before next year’s balloting.
Governors in blue states like California and New York are accusing him of “cheating” and are threatening to retaliate by altering their own maps to boost Democratic fortunes.
Both sides are digging in and loading up. Only a few sane and lonely figures keep warning that the democratic system is in jeopardy.
“We’re only supposed to be redistricting every 10 years,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who can speak his mind because he’s not running again. “At some point, the partisanship gets too much. … I just think it goes too far.”
Democrats know how damaging gerrymandering can be, and in states like California, they have created independent commissions to map districts. But Trump’s tantrum has pushed them to abandon their own principles.
“How I feel is terribly conflicted. I hate it. I really worry about a race to the bottom on something that I consider pretty despicable,” Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, told Axios. “But I understand why the governor and others are considering it. The only reason it would even be possible is what Texas and others are doing just stinks so badly that it’s pissing people in California off.”
One particularly nervous faction are Republican lawmakers in blue states, who could lose their seats if Democrats follow through on their threats. One of them, Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, has introduced a bill that would bar redistricting before the next census.
“It creates a lot of instability if you’re just constantly shifting the lines on the map around so that, you know, representatives are losing constituents, losing communities, gaining new ones,” Kiley told Fox News. “It’s just total chaos. It’s not good for representative government. It’s not good for constituents. It is not good for Democrats or Republicans.”
Partisanship is essential for a healthy democracy, and the modern two-party system has generally served the nation well since it evolved in the 1850s. Nor is it unusual for a victorious party to change the rules to solidify its power. The word “gerrymander” was coined in 1812, when Gov. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts approved a state senate district that resembled a salamander.
Moreover, Democrats are hardly innocent when it comes to map manipulation. Illinois, for example, is represented by 14 Democrats and only three Republicans.
But as Bacon said, at some point, “the partisanship gets too much … (and) goes too far.” That’s what’s happening now. Trump is demolishing something intangible but invaluable — the mutual respect, the spirit of civility across party lines that makes a functioning democracy possible.
The problem is not just what Trump and the Texas Republicans are doing, it’s how they are doing it. Democratic lawmakers have fled the state, depriving the legislature of a quorum and stalling implementation of the new maps. In retaliation, Trump and his ally, Gov. Greg Abbott, are implementing police state tactics, threatening to fine and arrest the absent Democrats and even declare their seats vacant.
“They’re just treating our country and our system of government like it’s a joke,” said the House Minority Leader, Gene Wu.
This is not a joke. The current Congress is already so polarized that not a single House Democrat voted for any of Trump’s major legislative initiatives. Under current maps, the gerrymandering is so severe that only a handful of all House seats are considered winnable by either party.
If open warfare breaks out, if maps are redrawn in both red and blue states, the number of marginal swing districts will continue to shrink, and the polarization will get even worse than it is now.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has offered Trump a truce if the president also backs down, but that seems highly unlikely. The president’s push to redraw districts is part of a much larger strategy to undermine any and all forces that might restrain his relentless ambitions — judges and economists, law firms and universities, norms and conventions and traditions.
As Kiley puts it, “total chaos” is looming.
(Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.)
