What do you call it when a politician tells you to put elections “back on a level playing field” by voting for a redistricting map gerrymandered to give Democrats 10 seats to Republicans’ one?
“Lying” doesn’t quite foot the bill. “Rank deception” is closer, but I think this kind of rhetoric calls for the big guns.
I’ll settle on “shameless Orwellian gaslighting,” because supporting the Virginia redistricting push in the name of “fairness” involves redefining basic words in the same manner as the oppressive government in George Orwell’s “1984,” and this rhetorical strategy seems designed to make people with rational concerns about the ballot initiative question their sanity.
This particular shameless Orwellian gaslighting comes from America’s 44th president, Barack Hussein Obama.
I’m not sure what sin I committed in a previous life, but it must have been egregious for the gods of YouTube to subject me to this vomit-inducing ad—and they do so, multiple times a day.
Perhaps it’s retribution from George Soros, whose Fund for Policy Reform shoveled $5 million into the effort that bombards me with Obama’s message. I really should have thought twice before criticizing his dark money manipulations in my second book.
I find the ad disgusting on multiple levels, but the basic problem is the fundamental lie that the Virginia redistricting effort is all about restoring “fairness.”
You see, I’m old enough to remember the halcyon days of yesteryear when Virginians overwhelmingly voted (66% to 34%) to pass a constitutional amendment creating a bipartisan commission for redistricting. Oh, that was only six years ago?! Imagine that.
Something else funny happened in 2020. The U.S. Census Bureau undercounted Republican-leaning states and overcounted Democrat-leaning states.
Sure, President Donald Trump has demanded that Republican-majority legislatures redraw maps to give Republicans an edge, but in doing so, he’s merely echoing what has been longstanding Democrat practice in states like California and Illinois.
Gerrymandering is technically legal—with a few important caveats the Supreme Court seems constantly to be considering—but there’s something sordid about it.
When Barack Obama urges Virginia residents to “let voters decide, not politicians,” he’s trying to tap into moral outrage about gerrymandering involving politicians choosing their voters, rather than the other way around.
The thing is, he’s trying to make the fairness argument for something that’s inherently unfair.
The Virginia maps aim to take the Old Dominion’s current six-five advantage for Democrats and turn it into a 10-to-one slant. That’s not exactly representative of a state that gave Kamala Harris 52% to Trump’s 46% in 2024.
Even Virginia Democrats are souring on this blatant partisan power grab.
Mark Moran, a Democrat running against Sen. Mark Warner in Virginia’s U.S. Senate primary, announced on X that he would be voting against the measure.
“I think the Virginia redistricting is extremely anti-democratic and that it is a reactionary policy to Donald Trump that was created by DC consultants,” Moran wrote. He noted that “the new maps slice up Arlington and take away the voice of everyone outside of northern Virginia.”
Advocates note that the redistricting will only last until 2030, but Moran noted that four years is hardly “temporary.”
“They say it’s ‘temporary’ but FOUR years of gerrymandering isn’t ‘temporary’ and because I value our constitutional republic over all else… I’ll be voting NO and I encourage everyone else to, but I can’t hold my tongue any longer despite what this will do to me with the Dems in Virginia,” he added.
I suspect the sonorous voice of Barack Obama in that nauseating redistricting ad likely drove Moran to the tipping point. A human being can only take so much repeated lying before the truth explodes out of him. God bless Moran for speaking out.
A new poll from Heritage Action suggests many other Democrats may secretly agree with Moran.
Heritage Action asked Virginians this question:
“The U.S. Census results are used to create electoral maps that determine how many congressional
districts each state has and how those districts are drawn. Should electoral maps disproportionately
favor one political party over another?”
Most Democrats (57%) said “no,” as did most independents (69%) and Republicans (56%).
Heritage Action also asked whether “partisan elected leaders, or bipartisan commissions that include private citizens” should draw electoral maps. Vast majorities of Democrats (73%), Independents (79%) and Republicans (71%) chose bipartisan commissions.
Then Heritage Action presented the language of the ballot initiative, and asked respondents whether they considered the language “clear” or “confusing.” Less than half of voters (38%) said it was clear, while 50% called it confusing. Even more Democrats found the language confusing (46%) than clear (43%).
Sure, the Heritage Action poll only surveyed 814 likely Virginia voters between March 20 and March 24, with a margin of error of plus/minus 3.43 percentage points, but that’s still evidence that some Democrats agree with Moran.
It was always rather bold for Democrats to try this scheme only six years after Virginians voted for bipartisan redistricting—next month, we’ll see if it was foolish, as well.
