OPINION: On Redistricting, Bad Behavior Will Not Justify Bad Behavior

Should the redistricting amendment fail, Spanberger’s opportunity to say “see, I told you so” to her fellow Virginia Democrats may very well be the opportunity to triangulate and pivot.

"Gerrymandering rally" by vpickering is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

By Shaun Kenney
COLUMNIST

Putting things succinctly, Virginia Democrats just made Governor Abigail Spanberger the poster child for a highly unpopular and divisive redistricting amendment and Virginians are punishing her accordingly.

Whether or not the hollow cries of “but Trump!” are reminiscent of “blame Bush!” sentiment two decades ago is perhaps debatable. After all, blaming then-President George W. Bush for the long war in Iraq worked for Democrats looking to come out of a national drubbing in 2004 even if the strategy backfired for the Clintons not just once but twice. Riding the populist dragon in 2006 with the likes of Jim Webb only to have Barack Obama steal the thunder of the neoliberals was painful enough, yet for that same populist impulse to switch parties and land upon the likes of Donald Trump? Pandora and her box, one supposes.

Yet the litany of horribles that continue to serve as the byproduct of Democratic hubris remains as it ever was. Virginia Democrats have both chambers of the General Assembly and the Executive Mansion, remain billions of dollars apart on the conference budget, yet are perfectly content to unleash their caucus into Virginia’s hinterlands to whip votes for what by their own admission is a patently unfair redistricting in the face of non-partisan lines drawn up in a process Virginians approved of by a 2-1 margin.

Alas, but Trump.

Spanberger ran on the canard of affordability in the wake of the Biden administration’s post-COVID spending spree, yet much of what she has enacted — and if collective bargaining is still on the table, may very well be enacted — only serves to make the problem worse. Minimum wage hikes might sound good in the short term, but they do not bring down the cost of energy, food, health care, college and university tuition, or clear red tape. Minimum wage hikes don’t even make very good jobs; they simply made mediocre jobs a bit less mediocre.

The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan isn’t a name quoted often today, but one of his many observations at a time when great men were tolerated was that when it comes to public policy, liberals are the accelerator while conservatives serve as the brake. In a time of progressives and populists, one might question whether the extremes are more gas than pedal.

In this, Trump serves as caricature, not so much that Trump is making people terrible but rather that Trump allows terrible people the opportunity to be who they are. This is a license both parties seem to revel within, using the worst examples of each to justify their own bad behavior with one repeated excuse:

…but Trump.

Now there isn’t a single one of us who can break the spell on our own, yet there are opportunities — to borrow an observation from the late James Baldwin — to choose not to be that monster and be one of the passionate few who hold the world together.

Of course, “but Trump!” is the excuse for Virginia’s redistricting amendment, and it is a shallow excuse at best. Democrats will point to Texas; Republicans will point to New York and then point further to places such as New England where 40% of Connecticut votes Republican and there isn’t a single Republican congressional representative in Washington. Is that democracy? Or is it just the imposition of power?

Now if the argument is that Trump and the Republicans are behaving like New England Democrats, then let’s hear it with the pause that introspection brings. Maybe Virginia’s non-partisan redistricting is a model that should be adopted rather than gutted? Maybe “but Trump!” shouldn’t be the excuse to behave like Trump? Maybe — and I’m spitballing here — democracy is best served by argument rather than rigged lines?

Lastly, there is always the concern of “rules for thee, not for me” when it comes to enforcing normative behavior. While I have little truck for prolonging the barbarism of religious fundamentalism of any stripe (secular or sacred), to threaten to end an entire civilization strikes most readers as a tad — oh, what’s the Latin phrase for it? — batshit.

Yet there are examples where conservatives are policing their own, most notable our own U.S. Supreme Court where the 14th Amendment — whose role in applying the Bill of Rights to the states should be tampered with lightly if at all — was recently challenged by the White House on the grounds that it did not consider today’s modern considerations (pace 1A and 2A defenders, one supposes). President Trump himself made an appearance in an attempt to persuade the justices by his presence, yet the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and good process was the surest guarantee against “...but Trump!” as one by one the justices poured cold water originalism on the idea with a bipartisanship bordering on the downright American.

The defense of good process by the white-blood cells of the American experiment isn’t a fire-and-forget solution, but it does require a couple of things: a free press, an educated citizenry, an involved electorate, and finally a recognition that moving fast and breaking things can do a lot more harm than good.

Whether or not Spanberger’s poll numbers will remain this divisive is anyone’s guess. They can always get worse and rarely improve. For myself, I suspect that it is temporary, yet very contingent upon what other pieces of legislation Governor Spanberger chooses to either sign, pocket, or return to the General Assembly.

Should the redistricting amendment fail, Spanberger’s opportunity to say “see, I told you so” to her fellow Virginia Democrats may very well be the opportunity to triangulate and pivot. Excusing bad behavior with a “...but Trump!” is starting to be recognized as being part of the problem — and certainly no solution to the very real problems Virginia families are grappling with today.

Shaun Kenney is co-founder of FXBG Advance and sits on the Board.

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