Dan Gillmor
Cory Doctorow
Dan Gillmor and 1 other boosted
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

“Trump knows he can’t win the upcoming mid-term elections, so he is trying to rig them. And the way he is trying to do it is to dismantle the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as we know it. He is trying, for example to try and dismantle Hispanic and African-American opportunity districts."

~ Rep. Greg Casar quoted by John Nicholls

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism#SupremeCourt#JohnRoberts
/6

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/texas-gerrymandering-fight-trump/
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago
#Trump says #FBI ‘may have to’ help bring #Texas#Democrats back to state

After Republican Sen John Cornyn of Texas called on the FBI to help locate & #arrest Democrats who left the state to block a vote on a new congressional map, Trump said, “They may have to.”

“A lot of people have demanded they come back. You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back, you have to fight it out,” said Trump.

#law#AbuseOfPower #gerrymandering #redistricting #democracy #elections
https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-8-5-2025#00000198-7c2b-dc4c-adfc-fc3f02bc0000
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago
#Legal experts & even #Republican state AG #KenPaxton say it would be difficult to enforce consequences against the Democratic lawmakers.

#Texas House rules allow for fines of $500 every day the #Democrats are absent. The #House also issued civil warrants for the missing lawmakers to be arrested & returned to the House.

#Trump#FBI #law#AbuseOfPower #gerrymandering #redistricting #democracy #rigged #elections
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago
#Trump says #FBI ‘may have to’ help bring #Texas#Democrats back to state

After Republican Sen John Cornyn of Texas called on the FBI to help locate & #arrest Democrats who left the state to block a vote on a new congressional map, Trump said, “They may have to.”

“A lot of people have demanded they come back. You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back, you have to fight it out,” said Trump.

#law#AbuseOfPower #gerrymandering #redistricting #democracy #elections
https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-8-5-2025#00000198-7c2b-dc4c-adfc-fc3f02bc0000
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

“Trump knows he can’t win the upcoming mid-term elections, so he is trying to rig them. And the way he is trying to do it is to dismantle the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as we know it. He is trying, for example to try and dismantle Hispanic and African-American opportunity districts."

~ Rep. Greg Casar quoted by John Nicholls

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism#SupremeCourt#JohnRoberts
/6

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/texas-gerrymandering-fight-trump/
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

Billy Begala explains how the Republican gerrymandering proposal wants to "carve up Texas like a Christmas ham," disenfranchising Black and Hispanic voters and privileging rural white ones.

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism
/7

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/republicans-are-planning-to-carve
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

“Trump knows he can’t win the upcoming mid-term elections, so he is trying to rig them. And the way he is trying to do it is to dismantle the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as we know it. He is trying, for example to try and dismantle Hispanic and African-American opportunity districts."

~ Rep. Greg Casar quoted by John Nicholls

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism#SupremeCourt#JohnRoberts
/6

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/texas-gerrymandering-fight-trump/
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

"Partisan gerrymandering is legal because the US Supreme Court declared in 2019 that it is too difficult for federal judges to ensure that congressional districts are fairly drawn. (A demonstrably false claim.)"

~ Robert B. Hubbell

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism#SupremeCourt#JohnRoberts
/4

https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-battle-for-2026-is-joined
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

The inflated power of rural White voters confers upon them an unusual ability to force state and national governments to cater to their preferences and grievances. Herein lies the danger: precisely because they wield inflated power, rural Whites’ increasingly tenuous commitments to democratic norms and traditions are magnified across the U.S. political system in many of the same ways their preferences have been for two centuries” (p. 63).

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism
/3
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

As Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman show in their important 2024 study White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, no demographic group is so catered to politically and has so much unmerited and outsized clout as white rural voters. They write:

“No group was ever dealt a better electoral hand than rural White Americans."

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism
/2
William Lindsey :toad:
@wdlindsy@toad.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

Mark Mansour notes that the overt, unabashed gerrymandering proposed by Texas Republicans is designed, by their own admission, to "enhance the political efficacy” of GOP votes.

What this is really about is enhancing the political efficacy of WHITE RURAL voters. As Mansour says, it's "a chilling disenfranchisement of millions of voters—especially Black, Latino, and Asian Americans."

#Texas#Republicans #gerrymandering #racism
/1

https://mmansour.substack.com/p/the-texas-swindle
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

NY Gov #KathyHochul: “I'm tired of fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. … #politics is a political process.…we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other #states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald #Trump eliminated that forever.”

#law#ElectionLaw #gerrymandering

NY Gov Kathy Hochul: “I'm tired with fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. With all due respect to the good govt groups, politics is a political process. And to think we're gonna do this with a purity test & make sure it’s completely fair to everyone involved —the reason we are able to draw the lines as Democrats is because the majority of the people in the state elected us to be leaders — & when we say that we cannot use that power to its fullest we are abdicating the responsibility that we all have. (If) Republicans take over the legislature, they can have at it. But until then we’re in charge, & we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald Trump eliminated that forever.”
NY Gov Kathy Hochul: “I'm tired with fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. With all due respect to the good govt groups, politics is a political process. And to think we're gonna do this with a purity test & make sure it’s completely fair to everyone involved —the reason we are able to draw the lines as Democrats is because the majority of the people in the state elected us to be leaders — & when we say that we cannot use that power to its fullest we are abdicating the responsibility that we all have. (If) Republicans take over the legislature, they can have at it. But until then we’re in charge, & we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald Trump eliminated that forever.”
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

NY Gov #KathyHochul: “I'm tired of fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. … #politics is a political process.…we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other #states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald #Trump eliminated that forever.”

#law#ElectionLaw #gerrymandering

NY Gov Kathy Hochul: “I'm tired with fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. With all due respect to the good govt groups, politics is a political process. And to think we're gonna do this with a purity test & make sure it’s completely fair to everyone involved —the reason we are able to draw the lines as Democrats is because the majority of the people in the state elected us to be leaders — & when we say that we cannot use that power to its fullest we are abdicating the responsibility that we all have. (If) Republicans take over the legislature, they can have at it. But until then we’re in charge, & we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald Trump eliminated that forever.”
NY Gov Kathy Hochul: “I'm tired with fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. With all due respect to the good govt groups, politics is a political process. And to think we're gonna do this with a purity test & make sure it’s completely fair to everyone involved —the reason we are able to draw the lines as Democrats is because the majority of the people in the state elected us to be leaders — & when we say that we cannot use that power to its fullest we are abdicating the responsibility that we all have. (If) Republicans take over the legislature, they can have at it. But until then we’re in charge, & we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald Trump eliminated that forever.”
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

“We’re not going to tolerate our #democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by bunch of law breaking cowboys,” New York Gov. #KathyHochul said Monday, flanked by several of the [#Texas] lawmakers who fled. “If #Republicans are willing to rewrite rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us with no choice: We must do the same. You have to fight fire with fire.”

#law#ElectionLaw #gerrymandering #redistricting #midterms #elections#Trump
https://apnews.com/article/us-election-2026-texas-redistricting-136cfeddc717f9fc69337bd3d39b1819
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago

NY Gov #KathyHochul: “I'm tired of fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. … #politics is a political process.…we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other #states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald #Trump eliminated that forever.”

#law#ElectionLaw #gerrymandering

NY Gov Kathy Hochul: “I'm tired with fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. With all due respect to the good govt groups, politics is a political process. And to think we're gonna do this with a purity test & make sure it’s completely fair to everyone involved —the reason we are able to draw the lines as Democrats is because the majority of the people in the state elected us to be leaders — & when we say that we cannot use that power to its fullest we are abdicating the responsibility that we all have. (If) Republicans take over the legislature, they can have at it. But until then we’re in charge, & we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald Trump eliminated that forever.”
NY Gov Kathy Hochul: “I'm tired with fighting this fight w/ my hand tied behind my back. With all due respect to the good govt groups, politics is a political process. And to think we're gonna do this with a purity test & make sure it’s completely fair to everyone involved —the reason we are able to draw the lines as Democrats is because the majority of the people in the state elected us to be leaders — & when we say that we cannot use that power to its fullest we are abdicating the responsibility that we all have. (If) Republicans take over the legislature, they can have at it. But until then we’re in charge, & we’re sick & tired of being pushed around when other states don’t have the same aspirations that we always have had. I hold those dear. But I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed dramatically. Shame on us if we ignore that fact & cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald Trump eliminated that forever.”
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago
#HakeemJeffries on the #Texas #redistricting scheme: "These extremists want to be able to choose their voters as opposed to allowing the Texas voters to choose the people who should be privileged to represent them in Washington. It's #theft. That's what #gerrymandering in its extreme form is."

#law#ElectionLaw #midterms #elections#Trump#GregAbbott #rigged

Rep Hakeem Jeffries: “These extremists want to be able to choose their voters as opposed to allowing the Texas voters to choose the people who should be privileged to represent them in Washington. It's theft. That's what gerrymandering in its extreme form is."
Rep Hakeem Jeffries: “These extremists want to be able to choose their voters as opposed to allowing the Texas voters to choose the people who should be privileged to represent them in Washington. It's theft. That's what gerrymandering in its extreme form is."
Nonilex
@Nonilex@masto.ai  ·  activity timestamp 3 days ago
#Republicans in #Ohio plan to redraw their map soon, & other states could join the fray, as well.
#Illinois Gov. #JBPritzker (D), who is hosting some of the #Texas#Democrats, said at a Sunday news conference that he’s considering all options in his state. But he did not offer any concrete steps he would take to establish new maps before the 2026 elections.

#law #gerrymandering#Trump