Note To Both Parties: Gerrymandering Is CHEATING!

Donald Trump actually started his second term with good job approval. Independents had joined Republicans to elect him - mainly because he promised to lower prices, bring good jobs back to this country, and end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

But he has done none of that. Inflation continues to rise, and will likely get worse thanks to his nonsensical tariffs (on nearly every country in the world). And both wars continue to rage on. This has caused Independents to abandon him en masse - giving him the lowest job approval of any president since World War II.

This has caused most people to believe the Republicans (who have gone along with Trump on every issue) will lose the House of Representatives in next year's election. If that happens, Trump will truly become a lame duck president. Democrats would be able to stop most of his agenda.

Trump decided he had an answer for that. He decided Texas Republicans should do some redistricting. And Texas Gov. Abbott (being a Trump sycophant) has called a special session of the legislature to accomplish that redistricting. It is Trump's hope that by gerrymandering Texas districts, they can squeeze out another 5 districts for Republicans - and that may save the House for the GOP (because it would also mean five less districts for Democrats).

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has responded by saying California might also redistrict if Texas does - giving more seats to Democrats in that state - and some other Democratic governors have said they might do the same.

I understand the Democrats wanting to fight fire with fire. But both parties are wrong. Gerrymandering is cheating and should not happen in any state.

We need a new law - and it should probably be a national law that would apply to every state. The law should mandate that legislative districts be created by a bipartisan commission. That commission should create districts of equal population and giving districts to the different races in the same portion as their population in the state.

Politicians should not be able to choose the voters they want in districts. Voters should be able to elect the politicians they want. And the process should be fair to both parties and all voters. Anything else is an unjustified attack on our democracy.