To the surprise of no one, Virginia's leftward lurch continued Tuesday when voters approved the creation of a highly unusual mid-census redistricting plan aimed at changing the state's congressional makeup from 6-5 Democrat to 10-1 Democrat. This is a state that had a relatively even distribution of seats.
Some conservatives are finding a silver lining in the fact that the vote was so close in what is now obviously a blue state. That's the wrong takeaway. The silver lining, if there is one, is that it is yet another tacit admission that Democrat leadership knows Americans hate their party. And why not? Their party hates Americans.
There was only one reason for the redistricting: a power grab that decimates representational government. Unlike Florida, which is planning redistricting after the U.S. Census Bureau acknowledged an undercount in 2020 and, more importantly, has been growing like mosquitoes in August. Florida can make a strong case for redistricting that better reflects its rapidly changing population. Texas pursued its redistricting as part of a court ruling.
But Virginia has seen only expected modest population growth. No, this was done as yet another tacit recognition that the Democratic Party cannot win on its noxious ideas that are rejected overwhelmingly by Americans, and on relentless Trump derangement syndrome. The Democratic brand is just toxic. New Coke was a bigger hit.
A CNN poll found a meager 28 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, well below the Republican Party and President Trump. While the media only focuses on Trump, smart Democrats see the political reality.
The party out of power should be more popular at this point in election cycles, particularly with a president with low approval ratings and an uncertain economy. But Democrats' ideas and messengers are such garbage, they are not.
For whatever reasons of fear, derangement, and the rise of Islamo-Marxism, the party just keeps doubling down on what Americans hate. It's a wild political strategy, if it can be called that, because its raison d'être is winning power. As it cannot win over Americans by rooting against America at every turn, it must find ways to cheat or game the system.
"Saving democracy" for Democrats means bypassing democracy.
This has come in the form of ballot harvesting, election-night shenanigans where boxes of Democrat votes mysteriously show up late and are just enough for a win, allowing illegals to vote, increasingly easily gamed election laws, street thuggery, shutting down opponents online, not approving conservative political groups to raise money, de-banking conservatives, and so on.
To that un-American list we can now add redistricting. This one has the benefit of being legal, as the U.S. Constitution clearly states that states are in charge of election laws and redistricting. But it makes clear that with the rest of the party's gallery of undermining the will of the people, they know they cannot win on their poisonous platform.
None other than Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger understood this as she ran as a moderate Democrat opposing gerrymandering and, five minutes after her win this year, flipped on everything and dove into redistricting.
Most Americans instinctively understand there is something deeply sick in the Democratic Party, and it starts with the reality that they don't like America. That shows up in voting.
So chalk up the Virginia redistricting as just another form of cheating by a desperate Democratic Party.
Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children and seven grandchildren and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].
