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Murphy: Florida gun law passed after Parkland shooting a 'signal of what's possible'

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday that a gun law passed by the Florida legislature following the Parkland school shooting was a “signal of what’s possible” when it comes to legislation that could be passed on the federal level.

During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” moderator Jonathan Karl ran down the intentions of the bill, which included raising the minimum age in which a person can obtain a firearm to 21 and banned bump stocks, noting that it was passed by a GOP-led legislature and signed by a Republican governor.

Karl asked Murphy if Florida’s state gun law could be a model for the Senate to follow.

“The Florida law is a good law and it’s a signal of what’s possible, right? It married together, changes to Florida’s gun laws. With some significant investments in mental health and school security,” Murphy said.

“I had a long conversation with Senator Scott last week and had him tell me the story of how they were able to pass that legislation, get Republicans to support it and also prove that Republicans could take on the gun lobby because the NRA opposed that measure, and still get reelected, which has been the case I’ve been making to Republicans for a decade.” 

Murphy’s remarks come after 19 schoolchildren and two teachers were killed and 17 other people were injured on Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas when a gunman opened fire inside of a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School.

The massacre in Texas happened a week after the mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., which killed 10 people.

Murphy is among a bipartisan group of senators who are talking any possibility of a gun-related bill that could pass Congress in the wake of the shooting.

“We’re talking about red flag laws. We’re talking about strengthening and expanding background check system, if not universal background checks. We’re talking about safe storage,” Murphy said. “And yes, we’re also talking about mental health resources and more security dollars for schools a package that really in the end could have a significant downward pressure on gun violence in this country and break the logjam.” 

“We’ve got a short timeframe, Jonathan, who got get this ready for Congress, when Congress reconvenes in about a week but I think we can do it,” Murphy said.

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Mo Brooks gets into fiery exchange with Fox News host over 2020 election

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) got into a fiery argument with a guest “Fox News Sunday” host over the 2020 presidential election, which Brooks repeatedly claimed was stolen and riddled with fraud.

When Brooks pressed his claims of voter fraud and pushed for tighter election laws, guest host Sandra Smith countered that effort after effort had failed in court to prove the 2020 election was stolen from former President Trump.

“The congressmen and senators disagree with you — with what you just said,” Brooks told her. “Elections are going to be stolen if we don’t fix these problems.”

Smith and Brooks then talked over each other before the Alabama lawmaker told the journalist, “You just made a false statement.”

“The courts are not the final arbiter of who wins federal election contests,” he said, before citing unproven allegation and discussing a controversial film about the 2020 election, “2000 Mules.”

“And that has been looked at and fact-checked by multiple outlets, including Reuters, who have [reported] there isn’t any proof that there was widespread voter fraud,” Smith rebutted.

Brooks is fighting off a Republican challenger in a tight Senate primary race headed into a runoff after he lost the endorsement and backing of Trump. Brooks lost the support of the former president after saying the GOP should move on from the 2020 election.

Brooks was also one of several GOP lawmakers who were said to be subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 rioting, but on Sunday the congressman said he has not been served yet.

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Trumpism versus Reaganism

The 2022 Republican primaries are turning into a showdown over the party’s direction: Trumpism versus Reaganism. Who controls the party — the Trump insurgency or the Reagan establishment? Each can claim some wins this year. But the message from Republican voters to Donald Trump is coming through loud and clear: ‘Move on! Stop obsessing about 2020!’

On the surface, there’s not much ideological difference between the Reagan Republican Party and the Trump Republican Party. Both are staunchly conservative. The difference is in the personal style and tactics of the men. Trump leads the radical right — a longstanding sinister force in American politics going back to the anti-immigrant Know Nothings, the Ku Klux Klan, pro-Nazi supporters of America First, anti-Semitic supporters of Father Charles Coughlin, the Joe McCarthy movement, the John Birch Society and now QAnon.

The Trump phenomenon is more autocratic than its predecessors. Its highest principle is personal loyalty to Trump, who attacks anyone who defies him — even if they are on the same side politically. He publicly called Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Republican Senate Leader, a “dumb son of a bitch” and a “stone cold loser” for not doing more last year to block certification of Joe Biden’s electoral vote victory. 

This year, Trump is on a personal vendetta to wreak vengeance on his perceived enemies. He is campaigning to defeat Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) because she voted to impeach him for incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump met with a wall of resistance in Georgia last week when his endorsed candidate for governor got crushed in the GOP primary and the secretary of state — who refused Trump’s demand that he “find” votes for Trump after the 2020 polls closed — got reelected.

Ronald Reagan held fast to his conservative beliefs but was tolerant of those who disagreed with him. His “Eleventh Commandment” was “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” Yet no one ever accused Reagan of being a wuss. 

In a recent CBS News poll, a majority of Americans describe Trump’s Republican Party as “extreme.”

“We are facing a threat we have never faced before,” Rep. Cheney warned, “a former president attempting to unravel our constitutional republic.” And President Biden’s Democratic Party? A majority describe it as “weak.”

“Weak” versus “extreme” is not a happy choice for most voters.

A party taken over by extremists represents a particular danger in a two-party system like that of the United States — because sooner or later voters will demand change. When enough voters say, “We can’t go on like this,” they are likely to embrace whatever alternative is available.

Both parties need to solve their oxymoron problems. For Democrats, that means finding a tough liberal. There used to be plenty of tough liberals. Franklin D. Roosevelt told the 1936 Democratic National Convention, “[My enemies] are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred!” Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas Macarthur, a World War II hero, for insubordination. John F. Kennedy faced down the Soviet Union in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ever hear of “the Johnson treatment”? Defy LBJ and you might wake up thinking you were missing an important body part. Those old-fashioned Democrats were all big government liberals. But they were not to be trifled with.

Since the 1960s, “tough Democrats” have been hard to find. George McGovern was “a thousand percent” behind Sen. Tom Eagleton, his first running mate in 1972, until he was pressured into dropping Eagleton from the ticket.

Jimmy Carter was criticized as weak and ineffectual. Walter Mondale got pushed around by the special interests. Michael Dukakis got beaten up by “the wimp.” When the Democrats find a tough liberal, he wins (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama). What’s behind Biden’s decline in the polls? He’s perceived as a “weak leader.”

Republicans have a different oxymoronic problem. They have to come up with a “nice conservative.” The stereotype of conservatives is mean and nasty: Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Rand Paul, Tucker Carlson.

Ronald Reagan defied the conservative stereotype. He was a nice conservative. He sometimes said harsh things. But voters knew Reagan was not going to start a war or throw old people out in the snow. With conservatives like Gingrich or Ted Cruz, they can’t be sure. No one has ever called Donald Trump a “nice guy.”

The message of the 2022 Republican primaries is that it is possible for Republican candidates to distance themselves from Trump and survive. An NBC News poll taken just before the 2020 election asked Republicans, “Do you consider yourself to be more of a supporter of Donald Trump or more of a supporter of the Republican party?” By 54 to 38 percent, Republicans in 2020 said they identified primarily with Trump. Those numbers have now reversed. When NBC News asked the question again this month, 58 percent of Republicans said their primary allegiance is to the party, and only 34 percent to Trump.

Bill Schneider is an emeritus professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and author of “Standoff: How America Became Ungovernable” (Simon & Schuster).

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Durbin: 'I sense a different feeling among my colleagues' on gun reform

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, is calling on his colleagues involved in bipartisan talks on gun reform to “do the right thing” following last week’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas.

When asked by CNN “State of the Union” co-anchor Dana Bash on Sunday if lawmakers would take action following the shooting in Uvalde that left 19 students and two teachers slain, Durbin said the photos and stories of the victims have been “compelling” for lawmakers.

“I can’t say for certain, but I can tell you I sense a different feeling among my colleagues after Uvalde,” Durbin said.

A small group of Democratic and Republican senators have formed a bipartisan negotiating group in hopes of reaching a modest deal on gun control legislation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday gave the greenlight to bipartisan talks, revealing that he asked Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of his advisers, to negotiate with Democrats.  

The group of nine senators met Thursday afternoon in the Capitol basement to chart out a path for negotiations. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a leading advocate in the Senate for gun reform, hosted the meeting.

The group said they are focusing on background checks and encouraging states to set up red flag laws to prohibit people deemed dangerous to themselves or others from owning firearms. 

Durbin said on Sunday that he is supporting the bipartisan talks and had been in touch with both Murphy and Cornyn.

“I offered to Sen. Cornyn, if you can make progress between you, if you can move us forward, don’t worry about the committee jurisdiction,” Durbin said.

“Do the right thing and do as much as you can do. And let’s join together, if we can, on a bipartisan basis and show the American people that what happened in Uvalde was not in vain,” he said.

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Rep. Mo Brooks blames decline of 'moral values' for mass shootings

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) on Sunday blamed the decline of “moral values” in the U.S. for mass shootings that have devastated the country.

Brooks told “Fox News Sunday” just days after a mass shooting in Texas left 19 children dead that the decline of the traditional American family was to blame for the rise in violence, saying children raised in a household with just one parent are more prone to mental health issues.

“It’s almost impossible for a single parent to do the kind of job that two parents can collectively do,” Brooks told guest host Sandra Smith. “Unfortunately, the data is very clear. Those single parent households, for whatever reason, end up resulting in children who are more likely to be on welfare; who are less likely to get the kind of grades you expect in school; are more likely to be involved [with] drugs; and unfortunately, are more likely to be involved in criminal conduct.”

A gunman opened fire inside Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, killing 19 children and two teachers before he was killed, according to police. The tragedy sparked renewed calls for stricter gun control laws by Congress, but Republicans have largely instead have blamed mental health and other societal ills for the rise in gun violence.

Brooks, who is in the midst of a tight runoff primary challenge in his district, argued most Americans do not support stricter gun control laws, contradicting polls that show just over half of Americans want at least some heightened restrictions.

The GOP lawmaker again tied the rise of mass shootings to a “decline in moral values” and subsequently the decent respect for human life.

“If we teach proper moral values and if we teach respect for human life,” Brooks said, “then that is the way to fix the problem.”

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US raises concerns over UN human rights chief's visit to China

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is raising concerns with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s recent visit to China, where she explored human rights issues in the country, including what is said to be the detention of at least 1 million Uyghur Muslims in prison-like camps in the region of Xinjiang.

Blinken said in a statement on Saturday the U.S. was “troubled by reports that residents of Xinjiang were warned not to complain or speak openly about conditions in the region” and “that no insight was provided into the whereabouts of hundreds of missing Uyghurs and conditions for over a million individuals in detention.”

“While we continue to raise our concerns about China’s human rights abuses directly with Beijing and support others who do so, we are concerned the conditions Beijing authorities imposed on the visit did not enable a complete and independent assessment of the human rights environment,” he said.

Bachelet, meanwhile, said in a statement on Saturday that she visited Kashgar prison and the Kashgar Experimental School, a former Vocational Education and Training Centre (VETC), inside the Xinjiang autonomous region.

The UN human rights chief said she also visited other locations to get a basic overview of how China is handling the Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority, but she noted this was a high-profile visit intended to spark discussion and dialogue with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), rather than a more discrete investigation.

“The visit was an opportunity to hold direct discussions — with China’s most senior leaders — on human rights, to listen to each other, raise concerns, explore and pave the way for more regular, meaningful interactions in the future, with a view to supporting China in fulfilling its obligations under international human rights law,” she said.

Her visit came after the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation released tens of thousands of leaked files and photographs from Xinjiang, which, among other things, show police guards are trained to shoot detainees who try to escape from the facilities. The organization believes between 1 million to 2 million Uyghurs are detained in the region.

During the visit, Bachelet spoke with leaders and officials in the Xinjiang region, including Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the region’s governor and the vice-governor in charge of public security. She also met with community activists, religious leaders and academics in the country.

Bachelet said she “raised questions and concerns about the application of counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation measures and their broad application,” but she was ultimately “unable to assess the full scale” treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

The human rights leader also pushed China to make giving information to Uyghur family members kept in the dark about where their loved ones are a priority for the government.

Camps detaining Uyghurs in Xinjiang were first reported around 2017, coming after years of terrorist attacks in China. The PRC reportedly told Bachelet during her visit that the VETC program, designed to re-educate the Muslim minority population it had considered extremist, was now “dismantled.”

Bachelet also discussed other human rights issues, including new restrictions in Hong Kong and tensions in Tibet.

Blinken on Saturday said Bachelet’s tour did not give her a full account of what is happening in China, noting she did not get to speak to activists or other non-governmental sources confidentially or speak with anyone from the Xinjiang labor transfer program.

“Survivors and family members of detainees have described cruel treatment that shocks the conscience, including torture, forced sterilization, state-sponsored forced labor, sexual violence, and forced separation of children from their parents,” he said. “We again call on the PRC to immediately cease its atrocities in Xinjiang release those unjustly detained, account for those disappeared, and allow independent investigators unhindered access to Xinjiang, Tibet, and across China.”

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What 2022’s primary results tell us about both parties

The results of Tuesday’s primary elections in several states offer critical insight into the electoral challenges both parties will be forced to contend with in 2022, 2024 and beyond.

On the Republican side, though Donald Trump’s endorsement is clearly not all-powerful — as his track record took a hit in Georgia especially — he is still the most influential figure in Republican politics. It would be a mistake for the G.O.P. rank-and-file, who are eager to put Trump behind them, to write off his primacy with Republican voters.

Though there were fewer major contests for Democrats, several moderate incumbents faced formidable progressive challengers in races that remain too close to call. This dynamic is illustrative of the power of the progressive wing and of the party’s internal divisions — two trends that have brought President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda to a standstill, making Democrats almost certain to lose control of Congress in this year’s midterms.

Given the broader electorate’s rejection of extremism on both sides — of overreaching policies on the left, and of Trump’s erroneous claims of fraud in the 2020 election on the right — Tuesday’s primaries underscore the obstacles each party faces with remaining politically viable in years to come.

With respect to Republicans’ performance on Tuesday, Trump’s revenge plays against incumbents Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in Georgia — who both earned Trump’s ire by certifying the 2020 election results — were decisively rebuked. Kemp swept his primary against Trump endorsee David Perdue, winning by more than 50-points, while Raffensperger won his race over Trump-backed candidate Jody Hice by enough votes to avoid a run-off.

Evidently, Trump’s endorsement is not omnipotent with Republican voters — especially when he is opposing entrenched incumbents, who have a very high reelection rate, to endorse pro-“Big Lie” challengers purely out of spite.

That being said, Trump’s brand of unabashed right-wing politics still dominates the party, and it is virtually impossible for any Republican to be successful by running on an anti-Trump platform. Even in the face of unrelenting attacks from Trump, neither Kemp nor Raffensperger openly trashed the former president, and both candidates made explicit appeals to the Trump wing of the party.

Kemp ran on his economic accomplishments and touted his staunchly conservative track record of implementing sweeping voting restrictions, limiting abortions, opposing critical race theory and transgender rights and loosening gun laws. During the campaign, Kemp deflected when asked about Trump, and went to great lengths not to appear critical of him. 

Raffensperger took a similar approach vis-à-vis Trump, striking a careful balance between appealing to Republicans who were concerned about voter fraud due to Trump’s misguided claims, while still defending the 2020 election results.

Likewise, though Trump rescinded his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks in the Alabama primary for U.S. Senate, Brooks continued to tow the Trump line. He held on to his “MAGA Mo” slogan, assumed Trump-like positions on issues like border security, and championed Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Brooks is now headed to a runoff election against Katie Britt.

Importantly, Tuesday’s results do highlight the power of Trump’s endorsement in races with no strong G.O.P incumbent, or when Trump backs an embattled incumbent — which also became evident earlier this month in the Republican primaries for U.S. Senate in Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as Pennsylvania Governor.

Trump’s pick for U.S. Senate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, easily won his primary on Tuesday, as did other Trump allies including his former press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in the Arkansas gubernatorial race. In Texas, Trump’s endorsee for attorney general, Ken Paxton, handily defeated Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who boasts the most famous name in Texas politics.

On the Democratic side, the most noteworthy race involved a runoff contest in Texas’ 28th congressional district — between incumbent Democrat Henry Cuellar, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, and progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros — that is still too close to call.

Cuellar, who frequently pushes back against the left-wing of his party, has faced attacks from progressives — like Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez (N.Y.) — for his conservative positions on gun rights and abortion. Even so, Cuellar was endorsed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other prominent party leaders, as he is viewed in establishment circles as the Democrats’ best chance of holding onto this seat in the general election. The district is rated as a “toss-up” by Cook Political Report, and is one of the main Republican targets in November.

Similarly, in Texas’ 15th district, Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Ruben Ramirez is still locked in a close race against progressive Michelle Vallejo, who was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and prominent Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.). Like Cuellar, Ramirez has the strongest general election prospects, as the South Texas district is competitive but leans conservative.

To be sure, the closeness of the primaries in Texas’ 15th and 28th emphasizes the challenges that establishment Democrats face vis-à-vis balancing the interests of the progressive wing with the party’s goal of remaining politically viable with swing voters and in centrist districts like Texas’ 28th. 

Ultimately, Tuesday’s primary results make clear that both parties continue to move away from the political center. Going forward, it remains to be seen which party, if either, will be able to moderate their positions in a way that enables them to build a lasting winning coalition for years to come.

Douglas E. Schoen is a political consultant who served as an adviser to former President Clinton and to the 2020 presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg. He is the author of “The End of Democracy? Russia and China on the Rise and America in Retreat.” Zoe Young is vice president of Schoen Cooperman Research. 

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Activist confronts Ted Cruz after senator's NRA speech

An activist confronted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a Houston restaurant on Friday night in a testy exchange after the lawmaker delivered a speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention blaming violent video games, social media and other factors besides guns for mass shootings in the U.S.

The activist appears at first to get into a civil debate with Cruz about expanding background checks and reducing the amount of firearms in America, according to a video shared by Indivisible Houston, a liberal political advocacy organization.

After the activist, later identified as Indivisible Houston board member Benjamin Hernandez, gets louder as he addresses his points, a security guard intervenes and separates the man from Cruz.

“It is harder when there are more guns to stop gun violence,” Hernandez says from behind the arms of the guard. “It is not ignorance. We are in this country and there are guns everywhere … why is it so hard?”

More security arrives while the man screams that “19 children died!” and “that’s on your hands, Ted Cruz!”

The incident comes days after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where authorities say a gunman shot and killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School with a semi-automatic rifle similar to an AR-15.

Republicans, including Cruz, have decried the shooting but have largely stuck to talking points about tackling mental health and other societal factors rather than reducing the amount of guns in the nation, which exceeds the amount of people living in the country.

On Friday, Cruz appeared at the NRA rally in Houston, just 300 miles from Uvalde, and said “what stops armed bad guys is armed good guys.”

Hundreds rallied at the NRA convention, with many gun control activists calling for the weekend’s events, which also included a speech from former President Trump, to be called off after the Texas shooting.

Gun control activists say they want what they describe as common-sense reform, like universal background checks, expanded red flag laws and limits or bans on assault rifles and semiautomatic rifles.

Another video on Youtube shows Hernandez had approached Cruz initially to take a picture with the senator before engaging him in a debate, starting with aplea for background checks.

“What about background checks?” he asks.

“You don’t want to listen,” Cruz says before explaining that laws proposed by Democrats would not stop the shootings.

“We can make it harder for people to get guns,” Hernandez responds.

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Gerrymandering, a legal form of vote stealing, more entrenched now than ever

In June 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a unanimous U.S. District Court decision that partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution. Although Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged that the practice leads to results that “reasonably seem unjust,” he maintained that partisan gerrymandering is a “political question,” beyond the reach of federal courts. Each state, Roberts indicated, should manage its own redistricting process.

Four justices dissented. In an emotional statement, which she read from the bench, Elena Kagan warned, “Left unchecked as the court does today, gerrymanderers like these may irreparably damage our system of government.”

The maps drawn to comply with the population count of the 2020 United States Census demonstrate that partisan gerrymandering — a legal form of vote stealing used by politicians who disregard the political composition of the electorate in their state to ensure they retain power for themselves and their party — is stronger and more resistant to reform than ever.

Republicans, who control a substantial majority of state legislatures, benefit significantly from gerrymandering, netting many seats in local assemblies and senates and 13-18 more members of the House of Representatives. States with Republican legislatures and a Republican governor have doubled down on partisan gerrymandering.

Ohio, which gave 53.3 percent of its votes to Donald Trump in 2020, is now represented in the House by 12 Republicans and 4 Democrats. Post-2020 census, the state lost one House seat. The redistricting map drawn by an electoral commission controlled by Republicans put the GOP in a position to hold 11 House seats, the Democrats 2, with two competitive races. After the state’s Supreme Court rejected the plan — twice — the commission has resubmitted it. And a U.S. District Court recently decided to allow the maps to be used in 2022 because the general election is only a few months away.

Florida, which gave 51.2 percent of its votes to Donald Trump in 2020, is now represented in the House by 16 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Post-2020 census, the state has gained one House seat. The partisan redistricting plan passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature was not partisan enough for Gov. Ron DeSantis. He submitted his own map and pushed it through the legislature. This plan makes it likely that Republicans will win 18 House seats, the Democrats 8, with competitive races reduced from 5 to 2. DeSantis’s plan has been challenged in court, but it is almost certain to remain in effect.

Wisconsin, which gave 48.8 percent of its votes to Donald Trump in 2020 and has a Republican legislative majority and a Democratic governor, has kept its Congressional map largely intact: 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Democrats have by no means been immune to gerrymandering. In the last few decades, however, they have been far more likely to confront a political version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma: Do the right thing, establish non-partisan or bi-partisan commissions to draw election district maps, and put a “kick-me” again sign on their backs — or try to maintain their slim majority in the House of Representatives by fighting fire with fire.

New York provides a real-life example of a house divided against itself. In February 2022, after an electoral commission failed to reach a consensus on a redistricting map, the Democratic majority in the legislature provided a “master class” in gerrymandering, putting the party in a position to control 22 (a pickup of 3) of 26 seats in the House of Representatives. In a 4-3 decision, the state’s Court of Appeals, all of whose members were appointed by Democrats, struck down the maps because they were “drawn with an impermissible partisan purpose,” in violation of a 2014 amendment to the state constitution prohibiting gerrymandering. A new map, drawn by Jonathan Cervas, the court-appointed master, provides safe seats for 15 Democrats and 3 Republicans, and 8 swing seats.

Now that the Supreme Court has declined to intervene, the prospects of slowing down or stopping partisan gerrymandering are vanishingly small, because self-interested legislatures must approve reforms of the practice.

Because the stakes are too high to give up, reformers should learn to play a long game.

To increase media coverage of and public interest in the evils of gerrymandering ahead of the midterm elections, the Freedom to Vote Act, which authorizes the Department of Justice, private citizens, and political parties to bring lawsuits challenging Congressional maps to the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, should be brought to the Senate floor again by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), even though the bill will not pass as long as Republicans can filibuster it.

Opponents of partisan gerrymandering should lobby to establish independent electoral commissions that are not subject to a veto by the legislature or governor. Indeed, Ohio, Missouri, Utah, Iowa, and Arizona as well as several blue states have taken this step, albeit with varying grants of authority. 

Reformers should also try to pass amendments to state constitutions defining and then banning extreme partisan gerrymandering. Although they do not always prevail, electoral commissions and constitutional amendments force gerrymanders to defend their maps to potentially skeptical judges. And putting these measures on the ballot can help remind Democratic, Republican, and independent voters that democracies cease to be democracies when the outcome of elections is predetermined.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of “Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.”

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