Believe it or not, Vice President JD Vance has said a number of things over the years that I agree with.
For example, when he suggested “the American people will not tolerate another endless war” with regards to sending aid to Ukraine, I felt seen. When Vance told podcaster Theo Von “we need to release the Epstein list; that is an important thing,” I could not have agreed more. The sex trafficker received over $1.5 billion and 4,000 wire transfers to help pay for his operation. The American people should know who among us gave that monster money.
Recently Vance took to social media to point out that Republicans average 40% of the vote in California but under one redistricting scenario would be represented by only 9% of the state’s House seats.
“How can this possibly be allowed?” He pondered.
It’s a really good question — especially for Texas.
After Texas gained two spots because of population growth in 2021 — 95% of which is attributable to people of color — Gov. Greg Abbott signed off on a map that actually increased the number of districts in which most voters are white.
In fact, 60% of the new state Senate districts were majority white despite white residents making up less than 40% of the population. Today Republicans are suggesting the new map is their way of making space for Latino voters. The timeline suggests those seats belonged to Latino voters years ago.
Vance is correct to point out there’s a dearth of Republican representation in California politics. But while Democrats have controlled the governor’s mansion and both state chambers for 11 consecutive years in the Golden State, in Texas the Republicans have held all three for 22 consecutive years — in large part because of the type of gerrymandering Vance denounced. (In California, it’s hard to fault partisan redistricting for the current mix of representation … because the state does not have partisan redistricting. Voters established an independent commission 14 years ago.)
Texas’ current map already seems to tilt in Republicans’ favor. Last year, the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, won more than 40% of the vote in the Lone Star State, and yet today Republicans hold nearly 70% of the state’s House seats. And Abbott and his MAGA cohorts in office want even more.
In one sense it is a full circle moment for Vance to complain about gerrymandering considering it was a former vice president — Elbridge Gerry — who started it. One of the nation’s Founding Fathers, Gerry was governor of Massachusetts when he approved a Senate seat map that the Boston Gazette lampooned as being shaped like a salamander. That’s because it was drawn in an odd way to rig the system so that it bent toward Republicans. What Vance is complaining about was started by his party and has been the country’s reality since 1812.
That’s not to suggest Democrats are not also guilty.
Between 2010 and 2020, Illinois lost roughly 18,000 people. That reduction cost the state a House seat and required a new congressional map. For more than a decade, Republican Adam Kinzinger represented the 16th district — a swath of land that included moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats. However, after the new map was drawn by Democrats, the 16th district was erased and Kinzinger was without a district.
That is the same Kinzinger who proved to be a crucial member of the Jan. 6 committee because the war vet put his country over party. So, while Illinois Democrats were busy grabbing more power with the new map in 2021, they unknowingly forced out a moderate Republican who would prove to be one of the few conservatives in Congress to stand up for democracy. He proved not only to be an ally of democracy-oriented Democrats, but to be one of the speakers at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, a move that he and they hoped would bring out more moderates to vote against President Donald Trump.
Had the Democrats kept his district intact, perhaps they would have had an ally in the House fighting President Trump’s overreach. Remember in May when Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed the House by a single vote?
Therein lies the true danger of gerrymandering.
It’s not about what is snuffed out today but what is prevented from happening in an unforeseen future. Kinzinger voted with Trump 90% of the time, including against the first impeachment. Looking at that, I don’t blame Democrats for seeing him as a political foe back when they eliminated his district. However, when it mattered most, he was a democracy ally. Yet by then, he was seen as a doomed political figure because of gerrymandering. Sophocles himself couldn’t have written a more tragic tale of self-defeating hubris.
So yes, JD Vance has said a number of things over the years that I agree with: no endless wars, release the Epstein files, stop the gerrymandering. I agreed with a Vance who was interested in fighting for democracy. But to appease his boss, he’s retreated from principled stances. How the world has changed, and he with it.
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