Imagine a Washington in which President Trump was held accountable. A Washington in which Congress does not roll over like a dog begging for a delicacy. A Washington that functions as it is supposed to work, with that whole check-and-balance that works.
Occupational, no?
Democrats must win only three seats in 2026 to utilize control over the home and impose some accountability on our Rogue Elephant president. This is something that Trump is very aware of, and therefore he presses Texas to take the extraordinary step to draw his congressional boundaries before the mid -term election.
Republicans, who have exercised iron cobbles control over Texas for decades, have 25 of Texas’s 38 congressional seats. A special session scheduled next week in Austin is aimed at raising the number by as many as five seats, increasing the GOP’s chance on the home.
ENTER, STAGE LEFT, California’s White House Lighten Governor.
As part of a recent Southern Campaign Swing, Gavin Newsom sat down with a Progressive Tennessee Podcaster to discuss the Republican power grip. (The picnic bank, rolled-up shirt sleeves, beer and f-bomb showed that the governor is authenticif there was doubt.)
“They’re not now. They play according to a totally different rules, “Newsom said of the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott and his fellow Republicans. Years ago, he noted, California created an independent commission to draw its political lines, which, by time, come out a decade once a decade after new census figures appear.
But with a super majority in Sacramento, Newsom said, the Democrats ‘Gerrymander could be like no other state’.
“We played honestly,” he continued, but Abbott’s actions “made me question the whole program.” Later, who expanded on social media, Governor Republicans accused them of cheating and warning their way to extra homes and warned: “Ca watches – and you can bet we won’t stand idle.”
There is a Texas expression for it: all hat and no cattle.
The fact is that voters have taken the power of political line trek of the governor and his fellow legislators, for good reason, and it is not, like Newsom, unilaterally, the power can take back the power non-regardless of how well his Chesty Swagger can play with Trump-Loathing Democrats.
“We have a commission,” said Justin Levitt, an expert on the redistrict of the right at Loyola Law School. ‘Not only that, a Constitution and the Commission in the Constitution. And not only that, we have a Constitution that says you can only be in the district once every ten years unless there is a legal problem with the existing cards. “
In other words, it is not up to Newsom to huff and blow and blow off existing home districts.
California voters approved Proposition 20, which transferred to a non-party commission to a non-party commission in November 2010. It passed with an overwhelming margin, 61% to 39%, and worked just as intended.
After decades of pre -baked congressional competitions, when the success of one party or the other was virtually guaranteed, California became a big part of the competition; In recent years, the state – a reflection in November, was the key to controlling the home. In 2026, as much as a dozen seats, out of 52, at least somewhat competitive can be.
“I think it’s worked out very well,” said Sara Sadhwani, an assistant politics professor at Pomona College and a member of the Redistrict Commission (others doing the map, has a professor in the seminary, a structural engineer and an investigator of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.)
There are two ways, Levitt said, that Newsom and fellow Democrats can undo the work of the commission.
They can violate the law and pass legislation, which draws new lines, face an inevitable lawsuit and prevails with a sympathetic ruling of the California High Court. Or they can ask voters to approve different lines through a new constitutional amendment, in a hasty special election before the 2026 mid -term.
Both scenarios look just as plausible as Newsom providing universal health care and fulfilling its promise to build 3.5 million new homes a year, to mention two other excessive promises.
To be clear, do not condone one of the above the plot that Trump and Abbott try to hatch. Their actions are politically ruthless and more than a little cynical. (A letter from Trump’s Hand-in Glove Department of Justice provided a legitimate fig sheet for the special session. Texas was recently informed that four of the majority conference districts were saved unconstitutionally on racial lines, thereby justifying the sign of a new map.)
However, this is no excuse for Newsom for California voters at the end of California, or calls a special election that can cost hundreds of millions of dollars at a time the state has a red ink.
Politics rooted in revenge are dangerous and wrong, whether it is Trump or Newsom that settles the scores.
There is also the issue of vacant threats. Some Democrats can make one of his pugnacious statements every time Newsom. This seems to be a big part of his presidential campaign strategy. But the same voters may be tired of the lack of succession, such as Californians.
Newsom has a well -deserved reputation for too much promising and under -delivering.
It probably won’t serve him well on the national stage.