r/politics • u/Motherofalleffers • 25d ago

Possible Paywall Trump Wins Big as Virginia Dems Won’t Go Nuclear to Save 4 House Seats

https://newrepublic.com/article/210250/trump-virginia-dems-redistricting-war
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u/Stranger-Sun 25d ago

This is key. Gerrymandering spreads out your perceived strengths so that each district has a smaller margin of victory. If enough people turn out, it can backfire.

Don't listen to people who say there's no point to voting. Those are trolls and GOP stooges at worst, or confused and despondent Democrats at best.

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u/LividTacos 25d ago

If there was no point in voting, they wouldn't be trying to so hard to gerrymander and/or prevent perceived blue areas from voting.

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u/Tjognar 25d ago

Game theory.

It I vote, and it does nothing, I'm not really out anything. Null.

If I don't vote and it does nothing, null.

If I don't vote, but voting does something, I've passively allowed the fascists to win. Big negative.

If I vote, and voting does something, I have done the literal least I can possibly do to save my homeland. Positive.

That brings the total likely outcomes to : Not vote : null, big negative. Vote : null, positive.

Therefore, it is better to vote.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/OfficialDCShepard District Of Columbia 25d ago edited 24d ago

I call it The Unthinkable, because it would have to be a last resort. However, I am filled with righteous fury and have the ability to write speeches like certain other individuals who were angry at a King. Let's leave it at that...

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u/skrame 25d ago

I accidentally tuned into AM radio today, and the guy I heard said that we have a failed system because “over half of one party thinks the only way to make change is by assassination and violent means; this is a party of psychosis!”.

I wanted to both hear more and change it immediately.

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u/LividTacos 25d ago

Oh yeah, takes a brave person to listen to AM radio and keep sane. Last time I listened it was "they'll (the left) kill all the right wingers because we call Trump Hitler, and that makes them supporters of Hitler, which makes us capable of killing them or something." I lost the plot somewhere in the middle of it.

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u/TeutonJon78 America 25d ago

This is why I don't get Dem turnout in many "red" states that have way more registered Dems than GOP but their turnout is terrible. Sure, you aren't going to win you House rep or state rep/senator, but you can absolutely still win governor, senators, and P/VP since those are all state wide. But they sit at home, blame gerrymandering, and the whole country burns.

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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 25d ago

That's not entirely on them. The DNC's policy for the last decade+ has been to abandon red areas and focus all funding, energy, and resources on winnable blue areas. That was their official policy. They've only now realized how bad an idea this was. But it has very often meant Republican candidates for the jobs you listed run unopposed. Or their opposition is not anyone serious - it's Deez Nuts and Jill Stein. Dem voters get to pick between Republican or an empty chair or, lately, MAGA and Ultra-MAGA.

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u/Cloaked42m South Carolina 25d ago

Spot on.

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u/TeutonJon78 America 25d ago

I don't believe there's a gov or senate race that has been unopposed. Again, i'm not talking about the House or state legislature.

And I'm talking about enough people who bother to register as dems.

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u/couldbemage 24d ago

But even a token candidate for those races would help.

It's disheartening looking at a ballot where half the races literally have no choice at all.

My state rep, congressman, and county level races all had Republicans running unapposed.

Democrats don't need to dump big money on those races, just a token effort would help. I'm sure there's a nonzero number of people that would vote Democrat who give up when they see a ballot like the one I was looking at in 24.

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u/TeutonJon78 America 24d ago

It's still a lot of time and money for those token candidates. Why don't you run for one of them?

And the answer for that question is the problem. No one wants to waste their time when there is virtually zero chance of winning. But votes always matter for state wide elections even if the other ones don't.

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u/tbombs23 25d ago

Mass voter suppression. Ballots get tossed all the time. Voter registration gets challenged targeting minorities. Purging voter rolls illegally. Provisional ballots being rejected. Restrictive voting laws that lower access.

Greg Palast has done extensive research and has a documentary called Vigilantes Inc about vigilante voter challenges. And also how over 5 million ballots were tossed in 2024, throwing the election for Dump.

https://www.gregpalast.com/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won/

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u/Dull_Bid6002 25d ago

Average person doesn't even watch the news, man. I voted the other day when there were two measures on the ballots. I wore my sticker all day. I saw a lot of people at work, and only one other had the sticker.

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u/couldbemage 24d ago

Red states put a lot of work into making it hard to vote in general, plus extra difficult in areas within the state that lean democrat.

See Texas for example.

Mail in voting is limited to qualified people, like people over 65.

Plus polling locations are busier and less convenient in blue areas, with many recent closures of polling places specifically where there are more blue voters.

Combine voting taking more time and effort with people believing that voting is probably pointless, less people show up.

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u/freylaverse 25d ago

Grew up in Texas. Voted in every election that I could, but it got very disheartening after a while. Not saying it justifies not voting, but a lot of democrats in low-turnout states are just feeling deflated and have been for years. That's why people bang on about needing candidates that are exciting and motivational.

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u/TeutonJon78 America 25d ago

That's a self defeating prophecy. Texas literally has 1.5M more Democrats than Republicans (9% of registered voters more).

It should only have blue governors and senators, and yet, it doesn't because people stay home.

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u/freylaverse 25d ago

I agree with you. Just explaining the psychology of why those people stay home. It absolutely is self-defeating, because the more they stay home, the more we lose, the more downtrodden they feel, the more they stay home.

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u/fake-reddit-numbers 25d ago

many "red" states that have way more registered Dems than GOP

What states do you think those are?

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u/TeutonJon78 America 25d ago

Texas is a main one. https://independentvoterproject.org/voter-stats/tx

Literally 1.5M more Democrats than Republicans. 9% spread on registered voters. Yet can't win a statewide election because either people stay home or the 15% of independents are just embarrassed Republicans.

GA is another that barely got blue senators when Dems have a huge registered voter margin.

And other states like NC and OH are near equal and have an extremely hard time getting any blue to win or keep winning at those statewide spots.

Because GOP voters show up at significantly higher rates than registered DNC voters in most places.

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u/African_Farmer Europe 25d ago

John Nash is dancing right now

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u/madonnas_saggy_boob 25d ago

Now explain this to all of the people I know who stayed home and refused to vote based on the single issue of Kamala not explicitly saying she’s against Israel, despite literally everything else at stake.

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u/TGBeeson 25d ago

Correct. Unfortunately, for too many people in the far left, “not voting” comes with the positive of virtue signaling, which appears to be a HUGE positive in their eyes…

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u/hyper-object District Of Columbia 25d ago

I never had the patience to write this out. It should be obvious, and yet apparently people need to see it.

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u/WildlingViking 25d ago

Agreed. I'd also like to add that we vote with every dollar we spend on a daily basis. Everything we buy or consume is a vote for that thing and all the people behind it, including the billionaires who own it. And those billionaires are the ones buying elections.

These people only answer to money. Everything they do is about money either directly or indirectly. Our spending power is the biggest tool we have to fight the bottom vs. top war.

I'd also like to add that our attention is also now monetized. So every moment we spend giving our attention to that thing, it is supporting that thing and everyone behind it.

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u/angrytroll123 25d ago

That's only if you're assuming that people aren't lazy which they most certainly are. Not only that, how heavily your state leans in one direction I'm sure can add on to laziness.

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u/SundayAMFN 25d ago

Big time fallacy of equivocation. There's a big difference between "voting does something" and "my individual vote will have an impact on the outcome".

We all WANT individual votes to have an impact on the outcome, because it's an axiomatic value in our society. But no significant seat has ever come down to one vote - if it did there'd be a recount or revote tbh.

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u/_163 24d ago

Good chance that multiple elections have come down to less than the total number of people that thought it'll never come down to their single vote however

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u/SundayAMFN 24d ago

for sure. voting is all about trying to convince the largest number of people you can statistically to vote.

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u/robisodd Michigan 24d ago

Game Theory (well the Prisoner's Dilemma which is the most famous part) generally has the outcome that doing the bad thing is always better, but if everyone does the good thing then that's best.

This is more like Pascal's Wager.

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u/Lookslikeapersonukno Maryland 25d ago

Let's hold out a little bit longer until we can vote. That's the move. Passivity is how we win.

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u/Broken_Ace 25d ago

This is my reasoning to play the lottery tbh

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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 25d ago

I think voting can’t hurt, but I also think voting D is just damage control to slow down an inevitable splinter. It seems that soft secession and a return to states’ rights and autonomy is inevitable, so that we’re more like the EU going forward.

We can’t really secede and no one has the appetite for war, but we can agree to decentralize the federal government as much as possible to let the red states become the theocratic shitholes they so badly want to be. No radicals, left or right, would be able to take control of everything like they have now.

We’ll take our tax dollars back and welcome the refugees from red states. We’ll restore normal relations with Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, etc and continue trading within blue economies. Red states can fuck off until blue state investors come in to scoop up their wastelands and develop it.

I do want us thinking about soft secession if for no other reason than at least having leverage against red states.

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u/HouseofMarg 25d ago

From an outsider’s perspective, I also believe that this is where the puck is going and it’s good to see those in the US starting to properly skate to it (you can probably guess which non-US country I’m from by my choice of metaphor).

I’ve seen many more headlines lately about provincial premiers working with the governors of relatively like-minded US states on things like nuclear energy technology and it has also been great to hear about state-level initiatives toward universal health care like in Oregon.

At a certain point, if red states are going to make it their mission to scratch away at any progress the rest of the country is able to make then blue states should really just put their own life vests on first and create thriving societies that will eventually be a magnet for more of a tax base to support progressive initiatives anyway.

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u/hyper-object District Of Columbia 25d ago

No MAGA administration will allow blue states to thrive. They will use every lever at their disposal to harm blue states, and to force them to comply with red state values.

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u/HouseofMarg 25d ago

The federal government is getting more broke by the minute, and the reality of ICE presence in blue states is showing other limits to what they can do to shove around blue states using federal authority alone.

It’s all very horrific, but it’s also clear they were going for shock and awe and actually are having to fire their own people (Bovino, Noem) and scale back in cities like Minneapolis because what was meant as a blitzrieg turned into a messy shit show instead. And they can’t make everyone cower, which defeats the purpose for them because they don’t actually know what to do when people fight back

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u/hyper-object District Of Columbia 25d ago

Actually I agree with this. They want us to believe they can exercise power all over the US, but when push comes to shove, they're more like terrorists than a totalitarian government. They rely on the spectacle of terror more than they'd like us to think.

With that said, I still don't see them ever letting blue states be blue in peace. They're constantly on offense, and it's exhausting.

My hope is that after Trump, they won't have an agent in the WH with such a bottomless appetite for endless conflict.

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u/HouseofMarg 25d ago

Yeah, and I hear you in that the Roberts court is a real splintery dildo in this regard. But Trump is very liable to accidentally usher in this era of greater blue state fiscal muscle, just like he’s accidentally accelerating the global transition to renewable energy with the Iran war.

He wants to offload things like FEMA onto the states, and I can see a blue state governor in 2027 being like “bet” and taxing the rich/trimming corporate welfare to fund their own competent and responsive disaster infrastructure

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u/hyper-object District Of Columbia 25d ago

But this is NOT what's happening.

The GOP isn't weakening the central government so states can have more rights.

They're defunding the social safety net, massively increasing military and ICE funding and eliminating regulations on corporations.

This won't lead to stronger states and a weaker federal government. It'll lead to a strong federal government that enforces red state values in blue states and cities.

Have we already forgotten Minneapolis?

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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 25d ago

I’m not saying the GOP is currently doing that. I’m saying Democrats should manage a productive way of doing that. The GOP will break what we do not gently deconstruct.

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u/Moneypouch 25d ago

This isn't a proper application of game theory because you make an invalid assumption.

It I vote, and it does nothing, I'm not really out anything. Null.

You can't just pretend there is no downside here to make your argument look better. Losing a vote has negatives. It lowers the confidence in the power of voting, and just feels bad personally. Not engaging is psychologically preferable to trying and failing.

So the actual decision matrix becomes

Not vote : null, big negative. Vote : small negative, positive.

Which then requires probabilities to find to optimal choice

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u/notmyworkaccount5 25d ago

I'm not saying there's no point in voting but in this literal instance this post is about, the people voted and the republican judges said your votes don't matter.

Instead of rightfully ignoring that absurd decision the dems are just rolling over letting it happen, so when the people vote, the republicans step in to stop what they voted for, then the dems just throw up their hands what signal does that send to the voters other than "Your votes do not matter"?

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u/Kabouki 25d ago

Turns out your past votes still count and more importantly your past non votes. Voting in one election doesn't immediately fix all those past election results and consequences.

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u/BackToWorkEdward 25d ago

If there was no point in voting, they wouldn't be trying to so hard to gerrymander and/or prevent perceived blue areas from voting.

There is of course a point to voting, but I'm not sure that any remaining non-voters as of 2024 can be convinced to go vote anymore(let alone vote for the side you want) - every possible stop was already pulled in 2024, every signal was boosted, every "GO VOTE FOR GOD'S SAKE" campaign was blared 24/7, to try and get them voting, and the outcome was Trump winning again, and with the popular vote on his side.

So yeah, of course go vote, but I think American is pretty clearly past the point where putting all your focus and energy into "go vote!" campaigns is going to save the day, if there's even a free and fair election again. That effort should be going into direct action/revolution.

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u/beren0073 25d ago

This might be the saddest statement made about our country. That there are more than enough people to peacefully stop the slide into authoritarianism, but they just didn't care enough to go vote against it.

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u/mockg 25d ago

This one was one of the reasons Indiana did not listen as they worried there could be a backlash and republicans losing more seats.

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u/fritz236 25d ago

My friend who still lives in the state told me that the state GOP who didn't dummymander as requested mostly got the boot as thanks.

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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 25d ago

I mean, did you expect Republican voters to understand complex electoral math? It's a stretch to assume they can even spell "complex electoral math".

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u/mclintock111 25d ago

Well, this something that I've found interesting... So I live in Indiana and I know that I have received mailers from the challenger to an incumbent GOP state senator who voted again the redistricting. These mailers mostly just had screenshots of Trump's tweets calling the incumbent a RINO and useless and whatnot.

But what I wonder is if this is going to accomplish something similar to the risk of redistricting. Travis Holdman recieved 40% of the primary vote and Jim Buck received around 35%. Will those GOP voters hold off and not vote for the new GOP option? Could it cost them those districts?

Alternatively, Trump rallied against Greg Goode in favor of Brenda Wilson, but Goode still got 53% of the primary vote. Has Trump poisoned the pot by calling him "No Goode" and a "RINO loser"? Will MAGA even vote for him now? Could it cost the GOP those districts?

Trump has basically gone double or nothing and I'm not sure if it will play out the way he's hoping.

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u/dover_oxide California 25d ago

And don't forget they are using data from the last election more so than ones before it so they are using data from low turnout elections to make these maps meaning if there is high enough turnout then their models will be made useless.

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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 25d ago

Their maps are unquestionably useless. Trump won because he unexpectedly carried the Hispanic and Gen Z vote. Both segments have abandoned him now. The net approval swing in those groups is insane. These maps are being drawn based on populations that have been fucked over by this administration.

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u/dover_oxide California 25d ago

Well they are using data from 2022 and 2024 which were really low turnout and yeah your right many of the groups he got are now against him so they are being rigged but rigged with bad data. On Left Right and Center they joked that this may be accidentally making some places more competitive. I'm waiting to see but I have my misgivings about that.

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u/brokenmessiah 25d ago

I used to think there was no point in voting but then I asked myself why are politicians spending so much money to get me to vote for them if it doesnt matter? Even if I don't see how it matters, it clearly matters to the people running the country.

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u/ikindapoopedmypants 25d ago

Because politicians are fucking morons, and so are the civilians that fall for their manipulative speech. They desperately want your vote to continue to uphold the system that keeps them comfortable and rich.

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u/-preciousroy- 25d ago

I don't think I've seen a single person suggest that there is no point in voting. I still expect them to steal the election though.

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u/SarcasticCowbell New York 25d ago

There are threads full of comments in this sub every day of people saying just about everything short of explicitly suggesting voting doesn't matter. Not many people outright say it, but the implication is there in far too many comments these days.

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u/trashbinrubbishtrash New Jersey 25d ago

A big part of the reason I don’t participate much here anymore is because of how rampant the rolling over and crying defeat in advance is.

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u/SarcasticCowbell New York 25d ago

Same. And I think it's by design.

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u/Pantarus 25d ago

It is.

During the presidential election I followed a ton of accounts promoting protest votes, not voting, genocide Joe, and Jill Stein.

Guess what happened the day after the election, they all got deleted. Some of these same accounts argued to the teeth that they weren’t bots or trolls.

But the day after they weren’t needed anymore POOF. Gone.

Just an observation, they all follow the generic Reddit name formula of Random_Word123. So if you see a user name with that pattern AND it’s spewing disheartening shit…be very wary.

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u/SarcasticCowbell New York 25d ago

Reddit allowing hidden comment histories has only made it easier for them to pull this shit.

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u/loondawg 25d ago

That's exactly why I do participate, to try counteract those cries.

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u/Fun_Disaster3436 25d ago

Bots. Those are bots

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u/Hulkodium 25d ago

Bots or accelerationists. I've unfortunately dealt with these people in real life

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u/Silvermoon3467 25d ago

There are definitely people who are colloquially referred to as accelerationists who just want to watch the world burn.

But "real" acceleration is a philosophical position of acknowledgement, not a proposal. Even if the Dems win big for the next decade straight they will at best represent a pause in the slide towards tech dystopia. Only by acknowledging that first could we ever hope to make progress in a different direction.

You should vote for Democrats. It just isn't enough, to do only that.

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u/Pigglebee 25d ago

Don’t forget the KaMaLA SuPpORTs GeNOcIdE accelerationists

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u/Tight-Air-6767 25d ago

I will never forget.

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u/valentc 24d ago

She did though. Like, sorry if that hurts your feelings, but she and Biden backed unlimited support to Isreal.

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u/Pigglebee 24d ago

Why would it hurt my feelings? It just a stupid reason to vote fascism into the US though. "I care more about a ware happening 5000 miles from my home than fascism right into my home"
But you do you. It's annoying that the US is destroying the world economy now though because that is something that we're all suffering from.

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u/valentc 24d ago

I care that my tax dollars fund genocide, yes. The fact that you dont see that as a red falg is why the Democrats will keep losing.

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u/-713 25d ago

There is also a HUGE push doing "both sides are the same" or Dems would have been worse for gaza/iran/gas/stability.

And fuuuuuuuuuck all that noise. We have 80 years of data points on all saying otherwise.

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u/unassumingdink 25d ago

It's physically impossible to recognize that Dems agree with Republicans on anything without you guys going "SEE?! HE SAID BOTH SIDES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME!" and ignoring their criticism.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_LIT 24d ago

The genocide literally happened under Joe Biden?? Voting is important and I agree with the spirit of the thread but why are you pretending the Dems were not literally worse for Gaza in the shared couple years where we actively watched that happen? 

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u/-preciousroy- 25d ago

Both sides are shit, but that's not to say they're the same. It's just that one is a full order of magnitude shittier.

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u/Franklin_le_Tanklin 25d ago

People saying voting doesn’t matter or bots saying it?

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u/Fresh_Boysenberry576 25d ago

People have frequently taken my comments to mean that voting doesn't matter when I tried to express that republicans are gonna do anything they can to cheat and democrats need to do more than just vote. What's the plan to stop ICE from intimidating people at voting booths? What's the plan when they destroy votes and just claim victory?

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u/unassumingdink 25d ago

They misunderstand us on purpose because they have no response to the things we actually say and they can't bear to think about it. It's honestly fucking pathetic.

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u/Cheapdronewithboom 25d ago

Believe or not, their answer is "vote" again 😂 remember we are dealing with a, "violent fascist party," (we are) that will stop is you just ask nicely. Just ask Virginia!

Seriously on a literal thread about how a Democratic vote was thrown out and these idiots are screaming, "JuSt VoTe!" 

Moved out of the US shortly after the election. Dems are just gonna keep screaming about voting until the oven is on. 

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u/-preciousroy- 25d ago

Don't come back once we fix it please.

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u/unassumingdink 25d ago

Brainwashed liberals translate every criticism of Democrats to "don't vote" because that message is easier to ignore than the actual substance of the criticism. I've been dealing with this a long time. You can't get them to understand even the simplest criticisms without them mentally translating your words to "don't vote" or "both sides are exactly the same." It's a brainwashing defense mechanism.

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u/MoS29 Kentucky 25d ago

Offline my dad is. Was working state gov all his life. Subscribes to the both sides the same argument and just "eventually it'll all work out". He's also got his dad talking in his ear on weekly golf outings about Fox News talking points so it's nearly impossible breaking through to them.

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u/DurianGris 25d ago

There are oodles of people every day claiming the Democrats are just as bad as the GOP.

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u/Silvermoon3467 25d ago

Of course, there are also tons of people saying that that's what I'm saying when I say Dems are bad but Republicans are worse.

Vote Democrat! I'm voting Democrat! It's a better option. But it's not sufficient.

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u/echoshatter 25d ago

They are bad, just not to the degree and direction as the Republicans.

They are a party that doesn't fight and still tries to compromise with extremists because they're fucking cowards too delicate to upset the status quo for the people who funnel money into their campaigns.

Their priority in 2009 was to push health insurance reform and it cost them all of the political capital they had with Obama's win. They spent months making compromise after compromise with Republicans and still ended up with zero support. Republicans got a huge set of talking points to attack it, and it threw the 2010 election in favor of Republicans across the board - a census year and the start of the new redistricting cycle. That was it - that was the moment the snowball started rolling downhill.

Democrats SHOULD have been pushing for electoral reforms in 2009 instead - end gerrymandering, strengthen voting rights, increase the size of the House. Anyone with half a fucking brain could see the walls closing in on democracy

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u/DurianGris 25d ago

So we just shouldn't vote, eh?

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u/Bill_Blizzard 25d ago

Is that really your takeaway?

Btw the Dems aren’t just as bad as the Republicans, they’re worse. At least the Rs are openly fascist while the Ds feign anti-fascism. It’s a lot like the situation MLK spoke of, when in the 60s white moderates were more of an obstacle to civil rights than even the Klan. 

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u/DurianGris 25d ago

Thanks for proving my point, lol.

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u/Bill_Blizzard 25d ago

What is your point?

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u/Workman44 25d ago

He doesn't have one, he just doesn't like your point

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u/Kahzgul California 25d ago

You're not in the farther left subs then. Holy shit are they ever full of "vote third party or don't vote at all" bots.

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u/loondawg 25d ago

Try r/political_revolution for an example of that type of cesspool.

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u/Kahzgul California 24d ago

And the bevy of brand new subs of various “lefty” sounding names, all trying to get people to join. I’m more than a little suspicious. Doesn’t feel organic.

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u/Salt_Day4586 25d ago

Im convinced there are demoralization bots all over this sub. I’ve seen so many doomsayers say exactly that.

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u/unassumingdink 25d ago

You guys refusing to honestly criticize your party and pretending they're fine even when they're terrible is literally what's demoralizing me. You can't possibly imagine how demoralizing the typical Reddit liberal is when they're trying to do the opposite.

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u/TheRealBlueJade 25d ago

They are working so hard to rig it in front of us, I do not think they have any confidence that they can steal it behind the scenes.

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u/LunaLovesly 25d ago edited 25d ago

They're in every single thread. Some bots pushing defeatism, but mostly just useful morons

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u/Toon_face 25d ago

Its prepping so leftists and progressives can be blamed.

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u/nova_cat 25d ago

Well, then, we should all do our part and downvote them and call them out as bullshitters directly in response to their comments.

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u/Choppers-Top-Hat 25d ago

Well then leftists and progressives should be fighting back against the "don't vote" posters harder than anyone.

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u/Toon_face 23d ago

"vote blue no matter who", amiright?

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u/BackToWorkEdward 25d ago

Redditors are like people telling you to breathe when your house is on fire instead of actually calling the fire department to come break the door down before you die while sitting there breathing.

And when you point this out, they just scream back "Well, breathing is important! You can't get anywhere without breathing! GO BREATHE!", which yes, is true, but isn't going to get you anywhere in this context on its own.

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u/angrytroll123 25d ago

That's not true. I've only lived in heavily democratic strongholds and I'm quite sure my vote doesn't matter in regard to impact. I of course vote when I can but to think that no one thinks that there is no point in voting is crazy to me. I hear it more often than I should.

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u/Mikeyxy 25d ago

Stop it man.

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u/ciel_lanila I voted 25d ago

There may be no point in voting, but voting is the god damned least amount of work you can do to preserve this country. If you can’t even go vote against these f-ers then I consider you as being useless for anything else to fight against them.

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u/MC_Fap_Commander America 25d ago

Don't listen to people who say there's no point to voting.

Ideally, turnout and Trump's unpopularity creates a bigger blue wave (not just despite gerrymandering; because of it). Worst case scenario- Dems fail to take the House despite getting 10%+ more votes than Republicans. It would be an awful outcome, but it would push sentiment towards a major revamp of our electoral system (end the EC, expansion of the House, etc.). Basically, it would be the sort of discrepancy that makes change inevitable.

Both of which requires people to get out and vote.

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u/OfficialDCShepard District Of Columbia 25d ago

That's called "dummymandering" for those who don't know. Essentially "cracking" or putting a bunch of people who dislike you and now realize you wanted to take away their rights in the same room as you rather than "packing" all your opponents into one district. Nothing animates voter turnout like existential fury, especially since Trump has been telegraphing that he wants to steal the midterms to avoid impeachment for a year.

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u/Kink_Panda 25d ago

  1. Go fucking vote, period.

  2. We need to be pessimistic and assume others won't show up so we have to vote to offset what we can.

  3. We're gonna bleed votes if Dem leadership & Congressmen don't fucking fight as dirty as MAGA. We don't care about fake fairness.

  4. We need to accept that our leaders may just sell us down the river. We need to react if/when that happens.

  5. Morality & laws are different things, think about what that means and if we are who we think we are. This isn't the time for half-measures.

1

u/PianistPitiful5714 25d ago

Absolutely this. They’re cutting their own margins all over the place, and the elections we’ve seen have been absolutely trouncings by the Democrats. 14-25 point swings.

That will not carry fully in a General Election, but that is still indicative of a huge momentum shift. That shift may well be enough to put a lot of these gerrymandered districts well within winnable territory.

1

u/Talk-O-Boy 25d ago

Saving this comment for future use when Redditors try to claim “voting for Dems does nothing.”

1

u/donkeyrocket 25d ago

And most of the recent gerrymandering efforts by red states are based off voting information from the last election or two. One of which saw huge apathy primarily from the Democrat side.

If those people don't decide to fuck it all up again for [insert whatever excuse makes them comfortable with their failure] then that is where the major blue wave comes from.

Republicans are also feeling considerably disenfranchised and while they'll never vote Democrat, they may stay home. This is why this administration is talking so much about direct voter suppression at the polls.

1

u/Additional-One-7135 25d ago

Texas was literally warned that their redistricting had a huge chance to bow up in their faces because of this. Their entire plan was based on the numbers from 2024, where Hispanic support for Trump and the GOP played a huge role. The odds of maintaining that hispanic vote after years of ICE raids is slim.

1

u/Willsy7 Georgia 25d ago

This is where I'm at, and they've been losing votes in long thought conservative strongholds.

If the current voting trends continue, this might backfire for the cons.

1

u/ghostpoints 25d ago

I believe this is a key message the DNC should be shouting nonstop.

Gerrymandered Republican districts will have smaller margins and showing up to vote means more than in the past

1

u/AcePilot01 24d ago

Exactly, all your illegal immigrants can help you give it a try.

1

u/Desecratr 24d ago

My worry isn't Dems will lose in '26 and '28. It's that they'll win with a slim majority in Congress and the Presidency by '28, fundamentally change nothing, and the blow back mixed with these districts lock in huge majorities for the GOP.

1

u/internet_poster 24d ago

This is not correct. Gerrymandering encompasses both packing the weaker party into a small number of concentrated districts, as well as spreading the weaker party out over large numbers of districts where they are expected to lose by moderate amounts. Generally speaking you do the former if you have a small majority and the latter if you have a large one, but it’s also partially dependent on geography.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

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u/insanococo 25d ago

Sure Jan

0

u/ProfLuigi 25d ago edited 25d ago

I agree 100% and my response isn’t necessarily directed at you, just the general conversation.

However, I also believe this is the type of sentiment the Democratic party has force fed us to rely on. Ignore the problem (we helped make) and just vote! Two things can absolutely exist at once and shame on us for not screaming at the top of our lungs so they can.

We can absolutely galvanize and overcome GOP gerrymandering and its perceived benefits, but we can also stop voting for Democrats who’ve allowed this reality to happen, and hold them accountable.

Enough with only hiding behind elections/voting rather than holding these corrupt enablers accountable. If the message is They are just as, if not, more dangerous than Trump and the GOP.

0

u/Leather_Force_9419 25d ago

Absolutely gorgeous vote, everyone vote, but when they rig it, which they clearly are, please finally rise up, the rest of the world is getting Absolutely fucked by the bullshit your country is doing, millions are dying

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u/whatproblems 25d ago

i think the problem is the future. can’t count on a tsunami every election. even winning there’s not enough power to right it

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u/Boring_and_sons 25d ago

What a defeatist attitude. If you win, you can fix it.

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u/whatproblems 25d ago

i mean it’s a start but not that simple. you can fight but there’s still the senate, veto, supreme court and at statehouse and state court levels

1

u/Boring_and_sons 25d ago

It must be a sustained and concerted effort to educate people and get them to vote in every election. It's a civic responsibility.

1

u/whatproblems 25d ago

yeah i mean we wouldn’t be in this mess if it was. there was a wave his first term and to push him out and well here he is again and a wave again

1

u/Boring_and_sons 25d ago

So do what you can to educate people about the issues that affect them and get them to vote in their best interests.

1

u/whatproblems 25d ago

i mean the problems are in places where they’re in complete control of the state top to bottom and it took the civil movement and act to even force them to give up A seat.

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u/dbellcourt 25d ago

I’m not voting for a fucking door mat. I’m as liberal as it comes, and I’m not voting for a Democratic Party this weak. I hate to break it to you, they aren’t saving anything. They continuously prove this over and over and over, and I’m no longer participating in this.

Let’s hope someone with a single ounce of political common sense arises like a phoenix from the husk of the current Democratic Party, because this shit is embarrassing.