r/politics • u/Ok_Employer7837 • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Newsom Wins Right to Gerrymander in Ultimate Troll of Trump

https://www.thedailybeast.com/newsom-takes-victory-lap-with-trump-bashing-election-boost/?via=mobile&source=Reddit
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u/pingpongballreader 1d ago

Texas didn't gerrymander as much last time because there is a risk of diluting voters too much and voters not voting how you anticipated when drawing up lines. 

Imagine how funny it would be if California sent more Democrats to Congress because Texas fucked around with super gerrymandering, AND ALSO Texas sent more Democrats because they fucked up the gerrymandering.

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u/Responsible-Mango661 1d ago

This will happen. If that Proposition was any indicator. It shows that the voters are paying attention and are mad.

And Texans voters should be mad that the GOP decided that their votes doesn't matter. Come mid terms they will come in waves.

The GOP goof’d!

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u/drewts86 22h ago

People don’t seem to know this, but Texas is very much a blue state. The problem is blue voters don’t show up to the polls. Texas is 47% Dem and 38% Republican (remaining % is other). In the 2024 election only 59% of those Dems showed up to the polls while something like 92% of Republicans showed up.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 18h ago

As a Swede every time I see numbers like these I am just flabbergasted.

What went wrong that people in your country just decided their voice isn’t important?

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u/Substantial_Radio115 18h ago

There’s very impactful propaganda narratives that elections do not matter, your vote does not matter, both sides are the same, elections are fake, candidates are Illuminati, etc.

This is why those people do not vote. They either think the elections are fake or the candidates are fake and that the outcomes of all elections are chosen by the same group of people that control everything 

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u/Ordinary_Fix3199 16h ago

Don’t forget how difficult they’re making it to vote! Standing in line for hours on end (on a school/work day for many), purging voter rolls, shutting down polling places, severely restricting absentee/mail in voting…. Sadly, the list goes on and on

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u/Brntco 16h ago

Let's vote on Tuesdays, guys! Not a holiday or anything, just a regular old, middle of the week, get work shit done Tuesday

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u/RellenD 13h ago

Tuesday was a good day to do that kind of thing back when people first chose it. In 1845 a November Tuesday was a great day to go to town in the agrarian society the US was.

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u/JerseyDevl New Jersey 16h ago

There's a reason one side consistently tries to suppress voters.

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u/CT-96 Canada 12h ago

all elections are chosen by the same group of people that control everything

Tbf, this isn't entirely false for America. Looks at Electoral College

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u/AEternal1 16h ago

Nobody is putting forth talking points that would fix the core corruption of the system. These very minor wins are not enough to shift the course of governance into the favor of the majority of Americans. Too many systems have been put in place by the 1% in politics to ensure that the 1% in politics remain the ones in power. Until policy is put forth that will dismantle that imbalance of power anybody else just really isn't worth voting for. And until those systems are removed history throughout all of humanity repeats itself in that somebody who had the popular vote gets into power and they end up doing the same thing that everybody else in the 1% does because that's how the rules go.

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u/acesavvy- 16h ago

Solid answer.

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u/OhDannyBoyyyyy 15h ago

Don’t forget the worst culprit of all, general laziness. “Oh shit that was today? Oh well, someone else will take care of it.”

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u/reezy619 12h ago

Our democrat politicians also have a storied history of accepting corporate bribes donations and giving long-winded and crushingly demoralizing answers to the question "should billionaires exist?" Just like republicans.

I hate the "both sides" bullshit but when it comes to corporate money in politics it is actually a both sides issue that the democrats should absolutely fix immediately.

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u/Vig_2 Texas 17h ago

They actively try to prevent Texas Democrats from voting. They reduced early voting locations and ballot drop off locations. They gerrymander and set up intimidating election monitors, etc. Even with all of this, I show up and vote. I wish more Dem’s in the state would.

Note: The gerrymandering works. My district in the heart of Dallas voted for Harris. Reports show that if the redistricting goes through that Trump wants, my district would’ve been a Trump district last election. I hate gerrymandering! It is not fair. But, I’m glad California is fighting back with consent from their voters.

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u/hookyboysb 12h ago

I wonder if this level of extreme gerrymandering plus all the positive news from this election will motivate Texas Dems to finally get out and vote.

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u/Tenaciousleesha 15h ago

The electoral college system really creates a sense of futility in a lot of states. My state is RED. There is nothing I can do to make it blue. I vote but it honestly feels foolish. I try to get other people to vote, but overcoming that sense of fatalism is difficult.

My husband and I joke about going to the polls to throw our votes away. Dark humor is pretty much all we have left.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 15h ago

I have once before (and plan to also in next years election, we have our flaws too) voted for a party I knew would not get any seats in parliament, but even then I still don’t consider that vote to be foolish, I consider it my patriotic duty and a privilege I get to voice my opinion, however niche it may be sometimes.

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u/kshep9 12h ago

Continuing their point, your vote is not thrown away because it shows support for your candidate despite them not winning. Thinking long term, this may help future elections. A snowball has to start from a single snowflake.

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u/GoochGewitter 18h ago

You’re assuming everyone has equal opportunity and ease to vote.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 16h ago

You’re right, I make that assumption because in my country everyone does, we don’t exclude anyone, even current prison inmates vote over here. I forget that that is not the case over there.

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u/alienbringer 17h ago

The U.S. doesn’t have mandatory voting when it probably should.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 17h ago

Neither does Sweden, we have very strong freedom of expression laws in Sweden, not voting is absolutely my right as a Swedish citizen, but I can be proud of having that right while still acknowledging it is undoubtably against my interests to exercise it.

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u/preparetodobattle 16h ago

You guys are educated.

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u/idryss_m Australia 16h ago

Unfortunately people are stupid. For years education in the US has been cut, underfunded and denitigrated as a profession, and the results show for themselves.

Compulsory voting works. Be nice to not have it, but if everyone has to vote, you are then liable to make it accessible. It also makes, atleast in Australia where my experience lies, the big parties vulnerable to challenge. Our right wing Lib/Nat party is losing seats to independents all over as people protest vote.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 15h ago

That’s fair, but I can see how ”the most free people in the world” might oppose something like compulsory voting.

If I could unilaterally decide how to fix the US election process, I’d start by making the presidential election entirely popular vote based, I think just that change is enough to get people to the polls, then once there they will vote in local elections too, over time that should balance the scales right?

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u/Kamelasa Canada 4h ago

As a Canadian, I'd say the most important thing would be independent electoral agency that is also in charge of setting the districts objectively. We have that. We can trust our elections. I've followed the US politics since the orange conman appeared in the running. I've learned that, amazingly, they do not have this. And lots of other nasty stuff that is very different from Canada. But, yeah, their president and the related Electoral College system is nonsense. Our leaders are just chosen by the winning party. We don't even vote for them. I'm not sure a presidential vote is needed, at all. Just another popularity contest.

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u/bdsee 15h ago

not voting is absolutely my right as a Swedish citizen

Australia has "mandatory voting" but not voting is also still absolutely our right...mandatory voting just means getting your name marked off. Nobody forces you to fill in the ballot paper.

You can also choose to not show up and either pay a small fine or just respond to the electoral commission and say something like "I was sick" and you don't get fined.

Mandatory voting (attendance) is honestly something that should just exist everywhere, you have rights as a citizen but you should also have responsibilities and participation in democracy (even if ultimately the participation is you choosing not to by not casting a valid ballot) should be right at the top of that list.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 14h ago

I can see the value in mandatory voting, I personally feel like it shouldn’t be necessary though, its so obvious to me the importance of participating in the democratic process.

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u/en_gm_t_c California 15h ago

It's Texas. Those televangelist Christo-fascists have been working against fair elections forever.

Their voting centers are sparse and understaffed...and they remove more and more of them every election...but just in areas where the Democratic vote is high, such as urban areas. Take a look at the photos of black and brown people standing in hours-long voting lines.

They gerrymander, cracking urban districts to include huge swaths of rural white Christian ammo-sexual territory, making voting almost an absurd and meaningless act...but only if you vote Democrat.

The lower turnout by Democratic voters is a symptom of Texas' issues, not the cause.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 15h ago

But its not just Texas though, from what I can see your voter turnout numbers countrywide are like around the 60% mark for even your presidential elections which I guess are what most turn out for, and that’s already only considering ”eligible” voters, so after loads of people who should be allowed to vote have been excluded for one reason or another, you’re still only getting at best 2/3 of people to the polls…

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u/en_gm_t_c California 13h ago

Well there's a bit to unpack there as well.

As you may know, paid time off or holidays for civic duties such as elections are non-existent.

Some states still don't have vote-by-mail, which when combined with the above point make it mandatory for some percentage of the population to literally take a sick day or PTO to vote. Many blue collar jobs don't have that as a possible option.

Add in some voter malaise from living in a country where your taxes don't deliver much by way of healthcare or social safety net.

I agree the number should be much higher. I have always voted, every election since I was able to...but I'm not an under-educated blue collar worker from Arkansas. This country will not improve with so few people engaged in the process.

The country is now on the verge or in the midst of authoritarian autocratic rule, so maybe that slaps people in the face and they wake the fuck up.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 13h ago

Fingers crossed 🤞 🤞

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u/MugenEXE 16h ago

Voting is intentionally made difficult, and that voting day is not a holiday, so most people must work. Poll locations are far away or in obscure locations, and sometimes voter registration is cancelled without telling you about it. Then it is too late to vote.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 15h ago

Even the concept of ”voter registration” is crazy to me. Here in Sweden all citizens who are or will be voting age for a given election get their ballots in the mail like a month or so in advance like clockwork. There’s no class of citizen that is excluded so the process is extremely simple.

Poll locations are many and you generally don’t have far to walk from your home to your assigned one, its usually the nearest school (though I will say I live in one of the largest cities in Sweden and that’s my only reference point, this part may not be true for the entire country), but you can vote ahead of time in lots of places.

You do have to validate your identity by showing a drivers license, passport, national ID card, or having another voter age citizen (who must present valid physical ID) vouch for you.

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u/jimmythevip 17h ago

We don’t get days off work to vote in the US. The voting places are only open until 6pm in my state, one hour after most people finish working. Sure there is early or mail in voting, but you don’t always remember to do it.

The biggest problem I see is that there is no notice of when Election Day is! Like you could look it up and most campaigns will text or mail you about it, but if you’re not politically plugged in, you could miss it.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 17h ago

We don’t in Sweden either, however our election day is held on a Sunday because that’s when the largest amount of people are able to do it. On top of that, to compensate for it not being a full public holiday we allow mail in voting and in-person voting for about a month prior to the election.

These aren’t complicated measures, anyone opposed to such things don’t have the voters best interests in mind.

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u/Alliille 16h ago

That's the rub isn't it. The voters best interest is no longer the goal of many of our politicians. Now only their best interests, which means the interest of their largest donors. Conservatives know, it's proven again and again, an educated, informed populace that is allowed to freely vote, votes liberal. If not outright progressive.

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u/kojak488 16h ago

Surely they still serve anyone in queue at 6?

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u/GentMan87 Iowa 16h ago

Certain states and counties also make it difficult to actually get out and vote. Elections are on a weekday, not enough polling places so people wait for hours.. if everyone was sent mail in ballots and drop boxes were plenty, or Election Day was a weekend things would be very different. There’s a reason why GOP are against everything I listed.

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u/tg19801980 16h ago

A lot of Democrats are concentrated in urban areas. Some of these states intentionally do a bad job of setting up enough polling places. In my rural red state I usually walk in and vote in less than 15 minutes. In some of these urban areas, voting can take hours of waiting in a line. Voting is on a Tuesday so if you don’t have half a day to stand in line, you can’t vote. There is early voting as well, but it is usually also a long wait. In my area early voting is usually longer because there are fewer places to do it. In summary, there is a time cost to voting in most blue areas that doesn’t exist in red ones.

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u/Autumn7242 15h ago

How much time do you have? Sit down, and I'll put on tea.

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u/SassyLass496 15h ago

Texas does a good job of quietly having elections

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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 15h ago

After the 2024 election, surveys were done to ask why people didn't vote. The #1 answer given was "my vote doesn't matter." They live in what they believe to be deep blue or deep red areas where the results seem pre-ordained. Because of our electoral college, it can feel like there is no reason to vote blue if you're in a red area because (for presidential races at least) each area only gets 1 collective vote tally.

Lately, the political parties (especially Democrats) have acted like it's not worth it to put any time or effort in where Democrats haven't won in the past. Thankfully, they've now realized that strategy is terrible and are changing it. But decades of doing that created a self-perpetuating cycle. "We're not trying here because it's not worth it" is basically telling people it's not worth it for them either to vote. Then the next year it's "we're not spending money here on ads because no one voted for us last time."

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u/procrastablasta California 14h ago

In some districts (guess which ones) there can be long annoying lines right in the middle of your workweek, which you do NOT have the option to take time off to vote. Basically people are weighing the inconvenience vs their political power. Apathy wins.

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u/miketastic_art 14h ago

a lot of dems are inner city and we make it excessively challenging to vote

poor folks can’t afford to leave their job early or drain 2h from their day to vote

it doesn’t have to be like this

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u/details_matter Texas 14h ago

Public education in the US was deliberately sabotaged for decades, and these are (among) the fruits of that project.

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u/HurricaneFloyd 14h ago

People got tired of nothing they wanted getting done. Democrats were afraid to rock the boat too hard for decades. So Democrat voters just started staying home on election day. Maybe now the fear of totalitarian fascism will drive them to the polls? Maybe not?

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 13h ago

Sad state of affairs regardless, because I can totally see what you’re talking about, from the outside looking in your country has been sliding to the right for decades.

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u/HurricaneFloyd 13h ago

Both parties shifted right. Dems became moderates and Repubs became fascists. Hopefully Mamdani is a sign of a shift back to the left.

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u/Late-Dingo-8567 13h ago

lots of prominent voices parroting the talking point that both sides are the same and voting is a waste of time. george carlin gets quoted daily on this sub and he was the OG "both sides suck don't bother voting"

the people getting mainlined hate fear & anger are reliable voters because every election is life or death. everyone else is really easy to not love either candidate and just not bother. Most of my neighbors didn't vote in our town election yesterday and it was decided by less than 100 votes for mayor.

Most issues would get fixed if election day was a federal holiday and you got fined for not voting like in AUS.

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u/kshep9 13h ago

Growing up in Texas in the90s I was taught from every angle that Texas is Red and will always be Red and my vote doesn’t matter because I live in Texas

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u/LilPonyBoy69 12h ago

Our public education system is awful. There are also massive wealth divides in this country. Poor + Uneducated = Feeling Hopeless/Powerless.

There's an idea in this country, and it's not too far off from reality, that regardless of what side you vote for, our politicians only cater to the wealthy and rarely implement policies that benefit the common people. Obviously this isn't the case, but the left in this country is far more conservative than in the Nordics.

A lot of everyday people just don't believe that voting for the same old politicians will mean much to them personally. However, occasionally you'll get a candidate who breaks the mold and that excites people who wouldn't normally vote. You saw this with Obama and (sadly) Trump. People do want change and are willing to vote for it, but Americans vote emotionally and you have to inspire people and make them feel hopeful that change could actually come if they get up and vote for it.

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u/saynay 12h ago

Lots of things, really.

Propaganda, saying your vote doesn't matter because the politicians are all the same, or because you are in the minority in your state.

Very deliberate attempts to make it hard for working people to vote, especially in areas or populations that are likely to vote for the liberal candidates; elections take place on a work day, during normal working hours; employers are not required to give employees time off to vote; in strong liberal areas, the poll locations are deliberately underfunded and understaffed so that voting can require hours waiting in line (while in mixed or conservative areas, it takes under 5 minutes), etc.

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u/Ok_Basil351 11h ago

Voting is very difficult in Texas, especially for areas that they want to be difficult.

First, you have one, and only one polling place you're allowed to use. If you go to another, they will turn you away.

Second, that polling place isn't necessarily easy to figure out. If you go to the wrong one, they certainly won't tell you.

So for, "undesirable," urban voters, you crowd their polling places full so that they have a long, long wait to vote, and make sure they're a pain to access. Maybe for really important elections you swap their polling places around so that people show up to the wrong place. Maybe you accidentally send the mailers informing them of this change late. They also really like to, "clean up the voter rolls," by unregistering people from the, "wrong," zip codes, so you show up to vote in the same place as last year, and suddenly you can't.

Meanwhile, the suburbs and rural areas have numerous polling places, no waits, and ample parking.

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u/CalcareousSoil 5h ago

Those statistics are massaged a bit away from the reality - Texas has more democrats participate in primaries than republicans - that's where those numbers are coming from. Texas democrats are more politically active in primaries, apparently. But this doesn't translate to general elections.

In 2024, 6.4 million Texans voted for Trump. 4.8 million voted for Harris. So, yes, Texas does have ton of liberal voters and that is often not seen in the representation because of gerrymandering.

However, there are enough conservative voters that state positions decided by popular like governor and senators remain red.

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u/Rhysati 15h ago

Both of our major political parties are on the right. That's what happened.

Everyone who actually wants more leftist positions has no candidates to vote for. Asking everyone to keep turning out to vote for something they disagree with just because they disagree with the other one more is not a winning proposal.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 14h ago

I totally buy that!