Political Calvinball
Republicans are constantly changing the rules of the elections to benefit them.
Republicans released the map of the Congressional district they intend to steal. They’ve slightly watered down one heavily Republican district to eliminate the only swing district in the state to make two safe Republican seats. The map is a problem, but the process is corrupt—and so are the Republicans leading it.
The new map essentially ensures that a Republican will win the First Congressional district that’s held by Democrat Don Davis. His current district is a highly competitive Democrat-leaning district that is probably slowly trending Republican. Ted Budd, the GOP Senate candidate won the district in the 2022 midterm by about six points while Biden won the district by one point in the 2020. The district favored Democrats in the 2020 council of state races, but Republicans won a couple, too.
I say the district is slowly trending Republican because in 2016, it was a solid Democratic district with Hillary Clinton winning it by almost five percent. By 2020, Republicans had narrowed the margins within the district lines considerably. Left alone, the district might have been a lean-Republican seat by the end of the decade, but the GOP couldn’t wait that long.
The new district heavily favors a Republican. Josh Stein in 2024 and Beth Wood in 2020 are the only Democrats to have won it and, let’s face it, Mark Robinson may have been the worst candidate in the history of candidates. Wood won the district by a single point. Roy Cooper lost it in 2020 and few Democrats have even gotten within five points of winning it this decade. Trump won the proposed district in 2024 by twelve points and by eight points in 2020.
It will take a hell of a wave for a Democrat to win a Congressional race in the new district. It will be a safe Republican seat, stolen by GOP mapmakers. Democracy is taking another hit under Republican rule.
The whole process is corrupt. The Republican assault on democracy continues. The legislature, not the voters, are now choosing which party controls Congressional districts. In a state that sees most statewide elections decided by a few percentage points, Republicans will now control 79% of the Congressional districts.
More importantly, the GOP has shown that they will change the rules if Democrats get an advantage. They are setting a precedent to redistrict Congressional seats whenever they see fit, not just the year following the decennial census. They have also shown a willingness to change the rules after the fact. Nothing is out of bounds for Republicans.
Republicans have turned our politics into Calvinball. Google AI describes Calvinball as “a fictional game from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbs where the only rule is that the rules must constantly change, with players inventing new ones as they go to gain an advantage.” As Calvin says, “The only permanent rule in Calvinball is that you can never play it the same way twice!” That pretty well describes elections in North Carolina under Republican rule.
We’re back to one party rule again. All of these tricks the GOP play to gerrymander the state rob the people of democracy also affects people nationally. The GOP is way over represented in a purple state and in the US Congress. I doubt the GOP House would have a majority if it weren’t for NC GOP gerrymandering.
Mr. Mills, you've been involved in politics long enough to not be surprised that Republicans will lie, cheat, and steal to win any election; it is their way. The GOP agenda rests on one document and one fact. The fact is that their strategy of being the White People's Party will not win elections and the document is Lewis Powell's 1971 memo on how to overthrow the Republic. Shortly after he presented his sedition plan Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon appointed him to the Supreme Court there by embedding an anti-integration seditionist in our highest court.Your exasperation at their skulduggery cedes them too much legitimacy. I think you can move more people by calling them what they are, anti-American seditionists.