Listen To This Story

— OPINION —

If you live in California, Americans desperately need you to come through for them.

Voting Yes on Proposition 50, “The Election Rigging Response Act” — which would permit the California Legislature to temporarily redraw the state’s US House district lines in favor of Democratic candidates in the midterms — will not be enough to save our rapidly deteriorating democracy, but it is a crucial first step. 

Even if, like me, you are a strong supporter of our current statewide system of having an independent commission draw congressional maps every 10 years, you must vote Yes (if not yet registered, know that in California you can register and vote at your county elections office or any vote center in your county). 

Hold your nose if you have to and do it, because this is not the time to stand on ideals or a moral high ground. We need to fight Donald Trump and his despicable, corrupt cronies with every tool in our box.

There is simply too much at stake.

I get it. I voted for and celebrated passage of the pioneering Proposition 11, which created the independent commission, in 2010. In an ideal world, gerrymandering wouldn’t exist, and all 50 states would have independent commissions drawing congressional maps. 

This is the fair thing to do and is a great idea if you live in a functional democracy. But I hate to break the bad news to everyone: We no longer do.

Texas has already moved, at Trump’s prompting, to further gerrymander what was an already heavily gerrymandered state in the expectation of kicking five Democrats out of Congress and sending five more Republicans in their place in 2026. 

With party discipline being what it now is, and the closely divided House voting in lockstep on virtually every important matter that comes before it, make no mistake about it, this is a net swing of 10 votes to Trump. That is why he demanded Texas’s move.

Meanwhile, the Republican-packed Supreme Court appears poised to gut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, so more right-leaning states can join Texas, and soon North Carolina, in flipping Democratic-held seats to the GOP. If this happens, it’s estimated there could be up to 19 more districts redrawn across the country in favor of Republicans, according to a report from voting rights groups Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter Fund.

That’s an easy-bake recipe for locking in GOP control of the House indefinitely.

The House and Trump’s Hegemony Are on the Line

It is well-established that Trump-era Republicans do not play by any set of rules, either written or unwritten. It is long past time for Democrats to fight back. Voting Yes on Prop 50 is fighting back — giving Californians a chance to fight fire with fire by temporarily redrawing our maps. 

It might not be enough to fully counter what the right wing is doing, but at least it gives Democrats a chance to win back control of the House and create a check on Trump’s dictatorial aspirations.

With due respect to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who made an impassioned plea on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher last week to vote Prop 50 down, his naïve idealism and facile way of thinking no longer apply to our current circumstances.

Schwarzenegger still apparently thinks we live in a world where Republicans play by a fair set of rules and norms, and real bipartisan compromise on Capitol Hill and in statehouses across the nation is possible. He seems to have turned a blind eye to all that has been going on around us over the last nine months, to say nothing of the manner with which Republicans behaved prior to Donald Trump retaking the White House.

How are Republicans even in a position to gut the Voting Rights Act in the first place? Because then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to hold a vote on Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, for a year based off some made-up rule he created off the top of his head; and then turned around and ditched his fabricated nonsense four years later to ram Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett down America’s throat just weeks before Americans decisively elected Joe Biden president.

Right now, those who would defend our democracy need to get into the muck. Doing the right thing, while their opponents do the wrong thing, has only led to one thing: Democrats losing at every turn — and now this mortal threat to our republic.

Independent commissions are a great idea. California had the right idea. But it’s not the right idea for right now. 

Right now, those who would defend our democracy need to get into the muck. Doing the right thing, while their opponents do the wrong thing, has only led to one thing: Democrats losing at every turn — and now this mortal threat to our republic.

https://bsky.app/profile/thedeerwhisperer.bsky.social/post/3m3j7wjw6oc2a

Off-year election turnout is notoriously hard to predict and polls show this election remains close. There is a fair chance a cobbled together coalition of Trump supporters and above-the-fray purists might prevail, with disastrous real-world consequence.

Yes on 50 isn’t just an option at this point. It’s a necessity.

Nathan Max is a former staff writer at the San Diego Union-Tribune and Riverside Press-Enterprise, where he covered city government, public safety, education, neighborhoods, the military and high school sports. He earned a Master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 2003.