Hypocrite Obama scorns gerrymandering — unless it – Latest News
Former President Barack Obama this week inserted himself into the national debate over partisan gerrymandering along with his proprietary mix of self-righteousness, self-interest and duplicity.
With Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pushing via a new congressional map to benefit Republicans and California Gov. Gavin Newsom searching for to do the identical for Democrats, Obama lent a weary world his knowledge.
“Over the long term, we shouldn’t have political gerrymandering in America, just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas,” he started in a Wednesday post on X.
“But,” he stipulated.
But of course.
“Since Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House and gerrymandering in the middle of a decade to try and maintain the House despite their unpopular policies, I have tremendous respect for how Gov. [Gavin] Newsom has approached this,” insisted Obama.
“He’s put forward a smart, measured approach in California, designed to address a very particular problem at a very particular moment in time.”
Who didn’t see that one coming?
Obama’s high opinion of himself has solely ever been matched by his scorn for the plenty.
He hopes no one will discover his blatant projection: Obama himself personally participated, to put it evenly, in a extremely helpful gerrymander over 20 years in the past.
Without a doubt, the previous president’s initial suggestion has advantage.
It could be fantastic if House districts have been drawn in order to be maximally consultant of discrete communities, and to keep representatives maximally attuned to their constituents’ pursuits.
Perhaps sooner or later the 2 events will come collectively to make sure as a lot.
Alas, that’s not the world we dwell in at this time.
As it stands, each side are locked in an unforgiving battle to enshrine probably the most structurally advantageous maps into law in as many states as attainable.
In Illinois, the place Texas Democrats initially fled to disclaim Abbott the quorum needed to move his new map, Democrats signify 14 of 17 districts, or more than 82% of the state.
Yet Kamala Harris received Illinois final 12 months by fewer than 11 share factors, 54.4% to 43.5%.
Democrats achieved this feat by creating a map so preposterous that even Stephen Colbert felt compelled to ask Prairie State Gov. JB Pritzker about it during an in any other case softball interview.
In New Jersey, the place President Donald Trump received 46% of the vote in 2024, the GOP holds simply 25% of the congressional seats.
In Massachusetts, Trump received 36%, however Republicans maintain none of the state’s 9 seats.
Trump really received Nevada, but Democrats occupy three of its 4 spots within the House.
And in California, the place Newsom is supposedly championing a “smart, measured approach” — and the place a supposedly impartial commission is accountable for redistricting — the GOP is already at a huge drawback.
Trump received over 38% of the vote within the nation’s largest state, and Republicans signify solely about 17% of its districts.
“We’re responding to what occurred in Texas. We’re neutralizing what occurred, and we’re giving the American people a fair chance,” Newsom declared earlier than signing his plan into law on Thursday.
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Just how a lot more lopsided should it be for elections to be “fair” to “the American people,” by which Newsom means “the Democratic Party”?
Now, it’s plain that Republicans have additionally drawn unrepresentative maps in states they control.
Wisconsin, Texas and the Carolinas are significantly damning examples.
But with each Team Red and Team Blue adopting no-holds-barred approaches to redistricting, trustworthy observers should admit that gerrymandering is a bipartisan pastime during which all’s honest — even when it shouldn’t be.
And that’s exactly what makes Obama’s declare to the ethical high ground so galling.
Newsom has each proper to advance his undemocratic map; Obama has each proper to assist it.
They ought not insult our intelligence by flattering themselves, although.
They’re motivated by the identical political goals that Republicans are, not some nobler dedication to precept that excuses their actions — a lot much less makes them deserving of reward.
Obama is similar formidable, self-serving partisan he was back in 2001, when he personally helped draw an Illinois state Senate district to spice up his political prospects after falling short in a House marketing campaign the 12 months prior.
The traces he created gave him new constituents in some of Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhoods — donors he tapped to fuel his ascent to the US Senate and, not long after, the White House.
So a lot for under reluctantly endorsing Newsom’s proposal to retaliate towards Texas: Obama himself embraced the ability of the gerrymander in a smoke-filled room many years in the past.
His haughty tone now’s completely consultant of the Democrats’ collective hero advanced.
Not to say their palpable disdain for the public, whom they imagine could be duped into believing in it.
It provides insult to damage — and sanctimony to sin.
Isaac Schorr is a workers author at Mediaite.
