The GOP is a dying party. If that were not true, they would never have put a buffoon like Donald Trump on their ticket in 2016 and again in 2020, let alone contemplating him for the House Speaker-ship or a third run in 2024. They failed to adjust with the times and the lunatic fringes in the GOP, the religious nut jobs, the white supremacists and the conspiracy theorist whackos are running the show. Marjorie Taylor Greene proudly announced a few days ago, as she figuratively (and maybe literally) flipped Kevin McCarthy the bird as she stormed out of his office, she is the base, not the fringe.

The tools of gerrymandering and voter suppression have never been more desperately needed so that what’s left of the party can survive. They know this in Texas. Their population grew by four million people since the last census, mostly Latino and heaven forfend that those people get to vote. To that end the GOP redistricted Texas to squeeze out POCs and in return the DOJ is suing their collective ass. Axios:

The Department of Justice on Monday filed a lawsuit against Texas, saying the state’s redistricting plans adopted by Texas Republicans “deny or bridge the rights of Latino and Black voters to vote on account of their race or color.”

Why it matters: A DOJ assessment of the new districts found that they violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference.

Be smart: Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act holds that state laws must provide voters “with an equal opportunity to participate in the democratic process and elect representatives of their choosing,” Garland said.

  • Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta added during the news conference that the new districts “were drawn with discriminatory intent.”

What they’re saying: “Texas’s 2021 redistricting plans were enacted through a rush process with minimal opportunity for public comment, without any expert testimony, and with an overall disregard for the massive minority population growth in Texas over the last decade,” Gupta told reporters Monday.

“Texas’s population grew by 4 million people from 2010 to 2020 and 95% of that growth came from minority populations. Despite this significant increase in the number and proportion of eligible Latino and Black voters in Texas, the newly enacted redistricting plans will not allow minority voters an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.

Instead, our investigation determined that Texas’s redistricting plans will dilute the increase minority voting strength that should have developed from these significant demographic shifts.”

— Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta

  • Texas officials did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

Worth noting: Garland said that the upcoming election cycle will be the first since 1960 in which the DOJ does not have the ability to clear new voting laws, and he urged Congress to once-again give the department such powers.

  • The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the DOJ’s pre-clearance powers in 2013.

Go deeper: Read the full lawsuit

Washington Post:

Garland’s decision to pursue litigation comes just weeks after the Justice Department sued Texas over a separate law that federal officials would disenfranchise eligible voters, including older Americans and people with disabilities, by banning 24-hour and drive-through voting and giving partisan poll watchers more access.

Texas lawmakers approved the new congressional boundaries in October after a redistricting process led by Republicans, who control the state Senate and House.

The lawsuit last month, filed by an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which Holder chairs, states that the new maps shift more power to White voters even though racial minorities made up 95 percent of Texas’s population growth over the past decade. Latinos accounted for more than half of that growth.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department called Texas’s redistricting efforts “extraordinarily rapid and opaque” and alleged that state Republicans “refused to recognize the State’s growing minority electorate.”

Recognize the fact that this DOJ is run by a Democratic administration. If Donald Trump had gotten reelected, and 73 million voted for him, this kind of challenge would not be taking place and democracy would be over. And the vast majority of Americans are blissfully unaware of that plain truth. Think about it.

And as a final comical note, you are aware of the fact, are you not, that Louie Gohmert is running against Ken Paxton in a Republican primary? Paxton is no prize, either ethically or intellectually but he’s a mental giant compared to Gohmert, who wants to knock the moon out of its orbit in order to combat climate change.

Texas threatens to secede with regularity every twenty years or so. I’m wondering if this new insult will shorten that cycle.

 

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3 COMMENTS

  1. This little lawsuit should be held up as Exhibit A of how Garland is doing nothing is a lie. If you want a functional society when you get done, you don’t swing the wrecking ball just because you got a thirst for revenge. Doing it right takes time, effort, finesse…things Twitter addiction makes you allergic to.

    • Like so many others I’ve been frustrated with Garland BUT I’ve tried to allow for the fact that the dam we know as the DOJ has had so many holes punched in it. Not to mention cracks created by those not quite skilled enough to handle a drill smashing sledgehammers into it. People forget, if they ever stopped to contemplate that there are plenty of people left behind by the prior guy engaging in ongoing sabotage, including career employees with full civil service protection who once upon a time left their political feelings at the door and did their jobs the way they were supposed to – that under Trump decided it was okay to let their freak flag fly. Being career employees they will have every protection in any disciplinary hearing and they know it. So for all those (and more) reasons I’ve often told myself to be patient. This lawsuit is a much needed positive sign, and I hope certain Senator’s colleagues are sending copies of it to them with a reminder about voting rights legislation that’s stalled in the Senate.

  2. The real irony of what the GOP is doing is that they continually say they want minority votes (I don’t think they really meant white votes but that’s where things are trending) and then they do things like this that make it next to impossible for any minority voter to give serious consideration to a GOP candidate.

    Latinos/Hispanics, in particular, tend to be conservative on many social issues, especially those which have a church/religious connection. Even African-Americans generally have a conservative bent with regards to social issues (though matters of civil rights and social justice can take precedence). But when the GOP treats (punishes?) them as “Democratic voters,” even the most socially conservative Latino/African-American voter is more likely to spurn the GOP than to support a group which holds them in utter contempt. (And even the POC members of the GOP caucus can’t seem to get their fellows to recognize that holding on to “white power/privilege above all” is simply not a sustainable practice. The GOP has to crack the 20% barrier with each group–and with Latinos, it’s more likely to need to break that barrier with each ethno-national group–in order to really get working majorities.)

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