The next day, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u2014 projecting a fresh swagger as Trump\u2019s chief antagonist on the issue \u2014 stood with fellow lawmakers from the nation\u2019s most populous blue state to announce their own legislative success<\/a> in putting to voters a redrawn congressional map for California that strongly favors Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got here because the president of the United States is one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history,\u201d Newsom said, couching the California effort as defensive rather than offensive. \u201cWe got here because he recognizes that he will lose the election, [and that] Congress will go back into the hands of the Democratic Party next November.\u201d<\/p>\n In the last week, with lightning speed, the nation\u2019s foremost political leaders have jettisoned any pretense of political fairness \u2014 any notion of voters being equal or elected representatives reflecting their constituencies \u2014 in favor of an all-out partisan war for power that has some politicians and many political observers concerned for the future of American democracy.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerica is headed towards true authoritarian rule if people do not stand up,\u201d Texas state Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from the Houston area, said Friday on a call with reporters.<\/p>\n The race to redistrict began with Trump, whose approval ratings have plummeted, pressuring Texas to manipulate maps to secure more House seats for Republicans so he wouldn\u2019t face a hostile House majority in the second half of his second term. It escalated when Newsom and other California leaders said they wouldn\u2019t stand idly by and started working to put a new map of their own on the November ballot \u2014 formally asking voters to jettison the state\u2019s independent redistricting commission to counter Trump\u2019s gambit in Texas.<\/p>\n Those two states alone are home to some 70 million Americans, but the fight is hardly limited there. As Trump suggested, other states are also eyeing whether to redraw lines \u2014 raising the prospect of a country divided between blue and red power centers more than ever before, and the voice of millions of minority-party voters being all but erased in the halls of Congress.<\/p>\n California Gov. Gavin Newsom answers questions on Thursday after signing legislation calling for a special election on a redrawn congressional map.<\/p>\n (Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n Of course, gerrymandering is not new, and already exists in many states across the country. But the bold, unapologetic and bipartisan bent of the latest redistricting race is something new and different, experts said. It is a clear product of Trump\u2019s new America, where political warfare is increasingly untethered to \u2014 and unbound by \u2014 long-standing political norms, and where leaders of both political parties seem increasingly willing to toss aside pretense and politeness in order to pursue power.<\/p>\n Trump on the campaign trail promised a new \u201cGolden Age,\u201d and he has long said his goal is to return America to some purportedly greater, more aspirational and proud past. But he has also signaled, repeatedly and with hardly any ambiguity, an intention to manipulate the political system to further empower himself and his fellow Republicans \u2014 whether through redistricting, ending mail-in ballots, or other measures aimed at curtailing voter turnout.<\/p>\n \u201cIn four years, you don\u2019t have to vote again,\u201d Trump told a crowd of evangelical Christians a little over a year ago, in the thick of his presidential campaign. \u201cWe\u2019ll have it fixed so good, you\u2019re not gonna have to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018No democracy left\u2019<\/p>\n The redistricting war has dominated political news for weeks now, given its potential implications for reshaping Congress and further emboldening Trump in his second term.<\/p>\n Sam Wang, president of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton University, has studied gerrymandering for years, but said during the media call with Wu that he has never received more inquiries than in the last few weeks, when his inbox has filled with questions from media around the world.<\/p>\n Wang said gerrymandering reached a high point more than a decade ago, but had been subsiding due to court battles and state legislatures establishing independent commissions to draw district lines. <\/p>\n Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defends his state\u2019s redistricting move while calling California\u2019s \u201ca joke.\u201d<\/p>\n (Eric Gay \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n Now, however, the efforts of Texas and California are threatening that progress and pushing things \u201cto a new low point,\u201d he said \u2014 leaving some voters feeling disenfranchised and Wang worried about further erosion of voter protections under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which he said the conservative Supreme Court may be preparing to weaken.<\/p>\n Wu said allowing politicians to redraw congressional lines whenever they want in order to \u201cmake sure that they never lose\u201d sets a dangerous precedent that will especially disenfranchise minority voters \u2014 because \u201cpoliticians and leaders would no longer listen to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere would be no democracy left,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That said, Wu drew a sharp distinction between Texas Republicans unilaterally redrawing maps to their and Trump\u2019s advantage \u2014 in part by \u201chacking\u201d apart minority populations \u2014 and California asking voters to counteract that power grab with a new map of their own.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia is defending the nation,\u201d he said. \u201cTexas is doing something illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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