Gavin Newsom & Obama Lastly Struggle Hearth with Hearth

August 22, 2025

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Final Up to date on: twenty second August 2025, 02:49 am

Former CleanTechnica contributor Gavin Newsom (now Governor of California) and former “overly bipartisan” President of the USA Barack Obama are bored with the nonsense and finished with the acute, unprecedented assaults on our political norms and democratic rules. Slightly than responding to ridiculous distortions of our political system with statements about how Republicans are violating norms, degrading our democracy, and going towards the desire of the folks, they’ve determined to struggle hearth with hearth this time.

In case you’ve been following US politics within the slightest, you certainly find out about what’s been happening in Texas with congressional redistricting, but when that’s not your beat, right here’s a fast abstract to catch up: President Donald Trump reportedly pushed Texas Republicans to extend Republican energy and seats in Congress. In response, they principally mentioned, certain factor, we’ll simply redraw congressional maps in Texas and add a number of extra Republicans to the US Congress. Apart from blatant issues of gerrymandering, redrawing these congressional maps usually occurs originally of the last decade, not in the course of the last decade. Republicans are blatantly breaking extra norms of our democracy by deciding they’ll simply go forward and redraw their maps mid-decade in an effort to acquire a bonus in Congress. Republicans are anticipated to realize 5 seats within the US Home of Representatives from this transfer.

California Governor Gavin Newsom determined to step as much as the plate and reply to this. As a substitute of simply letting Republicans blatantly take extra energy by way of funky map making, merely responding with statements about how that is flawed and why Republicans shouldn’t be dishonest and distorting our political construction like this, he mentioned, okay, if you wish to play that means, we will play that means too. Newsom determined California would simply do the identical factor in an effort to neutralize Republicans’ transfer. Does this put us down a extra harmful path? Presumably. However you may’t struggle hearth with paper. For as soon as, Democrats are combating hearth with hearth. What different choice is there?

On Tuesday, at a fundraiser for the Nationwide Democratic Redistricting Committee, former President Barack Obama backed Newsom up. “I imagine that Governor Newsom’s method is a accountable method,” Obama mentioned. “I believe that method is a great, measured method, designed to deal with a really explicit downside in a really explicit second in time.”

Certainly. It’s not regular instances, and we will’t reply in regular methods. If the MAGA celebration goes to make use of a selected software in an irregular means in an effort to wrest extra energy for his or her aspect, it’s top for Democrats to do the identical. What’s the choice? What’s the official various?

“We can not unilaterally permit one of many two main events to rig the sport,” Obama added. “And California is likely one of the states that has the capability to offset a big state like Texas.”

Obama additionally pushed Democrats to deal with gerrymandering in the long run in an effort to make our election system extra democratic once more. Nevertheless, that’s a vastly tough downside that he and others have been attempting to repair for years. Democrats can’t simply say, “we’re going to cease gerrymandering as a result of it’s flawed,” after which permit Republicans to do it, gaining an increasing number of seats in authorities. “On condition that Texas is taking course from a partisan White Home that’s successfully saying: gerrymander for partisan functions so we will preserve the Home regardless of our unpopular insurance policies, redistrict proper in the course of a decade between censuses — which isn’t how the system was designed; I’ve great respect for the way Governor Newsom has approached this,” Obama additionally mentioned.

We’re in excessive instances. Trump and Republicans are repealing fundamental applications, insurance policies, and even authorized rulings meant to guard the USA public from air pollution, from poisonous chemical compounds, from unsafe company practices, and from monetary abuse and recklessness. They’re doing this far more so than Republicans would have even thought of doing 10, 20, or 30 years in the past. It’s brazen destruction of issues put in place out of widespread sense and from scientific proof, nevertheless it fits the monetary pursuits of sure billionaires within the Republican Celebration, and what else issues? It’s only a constant, actually absurd assault on the logic and democratic progress that did make the USA nice. However folks aren’t paying consideration, far more excited by social media distractions and obscure gender matters that can probably by no means have something to do with their precise lives. So, the cancerous actions proceed, and the erosion of our consultant republic accelerates.

This redistricting controversy is only one component of our ongoing political disaster. It’s a reduction that, for as soon as, Democrats will not be sitting again and discussing it as if we live in regular instances whereas letting Republicans mutate and deform our political steadiness. “This isn’t politics as standard,” mentioned California Democratic Assemblymember Anamarie Avila Farias this week. “That is an emergency for our state. That is an emergency for our nation. That is an emergency for democracy.” Certainly. It’s.

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