Texas Republicans just passed a slew of extreme laws. Now they'll gerrymander to stay in power.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/09/texas-republicans-just-passed-a-slew-of-extreme-laws-now-theyll-gerrymander-to-stay-in-power/

In recent weeks, the GOP-controlled Texas legislature has passed some of the country’s most unpopular and divisive policies: a six-week ban on abortion enforced by citizen bounty hunters; a prohibition on teaching students about “critical race theory” and the 1619 Project; and a sweeping voter suppression law targeting communities of color. Despite the national outcry, Texas Republicans seem unconcerned about a backlash in their home state. Here’s why: They know they can choose their own electorate rather than the electorate choosing them.

As Texas becomes more diverse, urban, and Democratic, lawmakers reconvened in Austin on Monday for another special legislative session to draw new redistricting maps for the next decade that will concentrate power in the hands of politicians who represent constituencies that are far whiter, more rural, and more Republican than the state as a whole.

Texas has an appalling history when it comes to redistricting. Since the state was covered by the Voting Rights Act in 1975, federal courts have objected to its redistricting maps every decade for discriminating against Black and Latino voters. During the last redistricting cycle, Republicans went to spectacular lengths to gerrymander the state: Though 90 percent of its booming growth from 2000 to 2010 came from communities of color, three of the four congressional seats gained because of this demographic change were drawn to elect white Republicans. Although Latinos constituted two-thirds of the state’s growth, the number of majority-Latino congressional and legislative districts actually declined, an example of what the League of Women Voters called in 2011 “by far the most extreme example of racial gerrymandering among all the redistricting proposals passed by lawmakers so far this year.”

There’s every reason to believe history will repeat itself in 2021, especially since this is the first redistricting cycle in five decades where Texas will not have to get federal approval for its redistricting maps after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. “I’m concerned Texas will repeat the errors of the past,” says Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

*snip*

[Comfortably_Numb]

1. Eff Texas. n/t

[ColinC]

3. They'll come around...

[Comfortably_Numb]

4. Your keyboard to Odin's ears.. I'm not hopeful.

[ColinC]

2. The GOP will lose to Beto next year and then gradually lose seats each year following.

By 2030, they will have lost all power in Texas. Likely permanently.

[Marius25]

5. Sorry but after his gun comments, I don't think Beto

is going to win. I hope he does, but he alienated a big portion of the state with that comment.

[ColinC]

7. Good point, but I think that portion is substantially shrinking.

Could be wrong, but I imagine he is still very popular there and that COVID, etc will be far bigger issues next year. If not him though, hopefully somebody can do it.

[gratuitous]

6. Republicans clearly don't fear being turned out of office

And the voters are powerless to do anything about, if they are inclined to do so. From all appearances, the state is being run exactly how a majority of the voters in Texas want it to be run. I've been told quite often that change is coming. Maybe it is. But I'm not sanguine about the prospects.