With all that’s happened over the past few years, four years ago seems like an eternity in many ways. Remember, for instance, what was happening back on January 6, 2021? Of course we all remember – the violent insurrection at the US Capitol, attempting to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election, took place that afternoon. And yes, *obviously* that should have been the end of the American people putting ANY trust in MAGA, Donald Trump, or the MAGA/Trumpified Republican Party ever again.
Instead, incredibly, later that very year, voters in Virginia – just down the road from the insurrection on January 6, 2021, with our Commonwealth even sending National Guard troops to protect the Capitol on that dark day – actually elected someone who literally said things like “I was honored to receive President Trump’s endorsement,” “President Trump represents SO MUCH of why I’m running” and “They said: this guy is like Donald Trump. I said thank you very much.” UGH!
So at that point, I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that a large plurality, if not a majority, of Americans had learned *absolutely nothing* from the first Trump term, culminating with the violent attempt to keep him in power, destroy our democracy, etc. And that sick feeling has never really gone away since; in fact, it greatly intensified after Trump defeated Kamala Harris…and certainly watching how his administration has behaved (corrupt, illegal, unconstitutionaly, sadistic, etc.) during its first six months in office.
But something else actually happened on January 6, 2021 that presumably almost nobody remembers, but which also illustrates the point I made about so many Americans not understanding the dire threat to our democracy, our values etc. posed by the MAGA movement. So yeah, at 9 am that morning, there was a meeting of the Virginia Redistricting Commission Selection Committee, to review and select citizen candidates to serve on the Virginia Redistricting Commission. The thing is, prior to January 6, 2021, some of us (raises hand!) opposed the idea of a redistricting commission, at least as this one was constituted, because we felt strongly that: a) it was set up to fail; and b) Republicans would absolutely NOT act in good faith. Which is exactly what ended up happening, of course. Also, given the vicious assault on our democracy by MAGA/Trump, some of us opposed the Redistricting Amendment in significant part because, while we certainly favored a NATIONAL ban on gerrymandering – such as included in the 2021 “For the People Act”/HR1 (which passed the US House on a party-line vote, but never got past the filibuster in the US Senate) – we *strongly* thought it was a bad, naive, stupid, etc. idea for Democrats to “unilaterally disarm” in the blue states, such as here in Virginia, while Republicans in the red states pushed to gerrymander Democrats out of existence. Again – get rid of gerrymandering on a national level, so that NO STATE could do it? Yes! But have the red states do it while the blue states went for redistricting commissions, etc? HELL NO!
Anyway, so in the end, enough Democrats in the General Assembly went along with basically all Republicans (and yes, the fact that Republicans pretty much all supported the redistricting amendment should have been a glaringly obvious “tell” that Virginia Democrats should have been, at the bare minimum, HIGHLY suspicious of the entire effort!) to send the fatally flawed amendment to voters, who (not surprisingly) given their hatred for gerrymandering, voted to approve the amendment and put it in the Virginia constitution. Which is where it remains today. And the results? At the bare minimum, it’s likely it cost former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA02) her seat, replacing her with the odious Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA02). It also locked in VA05 as deep-red, giving us far-right extremists like Bob Good and John McGuire (who was actually outside the US Capitol on 1/6/21!). And in VA01, it helped Rep. Rob Wittman (R) remain in office. Great stuff, huh? Not!
Anyway, I get why there were people who supported the idea of doing a supposedly “non-partisan” redistricting amendment and getting rid of hated gerrymandering. But it should have been clear, frankly, at that point – and certainly after January 6, 2021 – that it was beyond naive for Democrats to assume good faith from Republicans, and certainly to unilaterally disarm while Republicans went all-out to destroy Democrats and democracy. And yet the redistricting commission went forward past January 6, 2021, with the result being complete failure, pretty much – kicking it to two “Special Masters,” one chosen by each party (the Democratic selection was an actual expert in redistricting, while the Republican selection was a partisan operative…of course!).
So yeah, it’s really frustrating for those of us who saw this sh** coming, warned about it, and tried to get Democrats to change course. Instead, here we are, with Republicans across the country – starting in Texas, where Democratic lawmakers have literally fled the state to prevent a vicious, partisan gerrymander that would decimate Democratic representation in that state. Of course, that’s viewed by Democrats as such a threat to the chances of ever regaining a majority in the US House that FINALLY, albeit belatedly, we’re starting to see some “blue” backbone, with Gavin Newsom and other Democratic governors, etc. threatening to fight fire with fire, namely that if Texas Republicans move ahead with their noxious plans, that the blue states will do the same, even if it’s bad for democracy, because we’re not going to just sit back and let Republicans get away with rigging the game and entrenching themselves in power forever. Of course, it would be great if here in Virginia, we could throw our weight into this fight, but the redistricting amendment sitting there in our constitution really hamstrings us – unless, of course, we were to start moving towards repealing it (a process that could take several years, and probably has long odds against success).
All of which brings us to the video posted today by former citizen Redistricting Commission member James Abrenio (see the video, below), and to my chat with him about it. But first, note that back in February 2022, Cindy Cunningham sat down with Abrenio for an interview, at which time Abrenio said the following:
- “The vast majority of the Democrats, both politicians and [citizen] commissioners, came into it in good faith. I also on the flip side think that there were various Republican members that had no desire—unless they got the sweetest deal possible—to negotiate.”
- Whether or not it was a failure, or not whether or not we deserve criticism, we do–all of us deserve criticism; but one thing, I don’t think at least on the Democratic side you can criticize was our intention to do it right.
All of which was absolutely correct – Democrats came into the redistricting process in 2021 in good faith, while Republicans most definitely “had no desire – unless they got the sweeted deal possible – to negotiate.” So sure, we can criticize Democrats for naivete – and that’s FAR more forgiveable, by the way, among regular citizens than among seasoned legislators, who should have known better! But in the end, at least Democrats came into this with the right intentions. Republicans most definitely did not.
So now, James Abrenio is speaking out, saying “I was a Virginia Redistricting Commissioner. We must all condemn what is happening Texas.” Abrenio also adds an action item: “specifically, I’m asking my fellow commissioners, but my fellow Republican commissioners in large part, to stand up and say that this [what Texas Republicans are doing] is not appropriate.” I was chatting with James Abrenio about this, and I told him I thought he was absolutely correct to call on Republicans to do the right thing, but that I didn’t think any of us should hold our breaths waiting for, let alone actually expecting, Republicans do do the right thing. And in the end, my question to James Abrenio was simple: at this point, given what’s going on in Texas and across the country, would he support *repealing the redistricting amendment* – which he and, presumably, the other commissioners strongly supported back in 2020 and 2021? Abrenio’s response was very clear and direct:
“If they pass that s*** in TX, I’d be open to it.”
In other words, if Democrats fail to stop Texas Republicans from passing their extreme, insane gerrymander, James Abrenio would be open to an effort to repeal the 2020 Virginia redistricting amendment – and, presumably, for Democrats to then draw our own districts in the Commonwealth, just as Republicans are doing in Texas and threatening to do in other “red states.” What I’m wondering at this point is whether more former commissioners will speak out, whether literally ANYONE who supported the redistricting amendment will EVER admit that they were wrong, and whether there’s an actual chance to repeal this thing – or drastically amend it. Because one thing’s for sure: MAGA is what it is, and they’re not going to get any better, but if anything are going to keep pushing harder and harder against our democracy, norms, etc, especially if they see themselves losing in free-and-fair elections. So at this point, everyone needs to have their eyes wide open, stop denying reality, and deal with the (dire) situation that we’re facing. While we stil can, that is…
