As conservative commentator David Frum said several years ago: “If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy”1.
This, in the United States is now attempting to reach its culmination. As part of this rejection of democracy,the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has signed a new redistricting bill that will redraw the state’s electoral map to heavily favour the Republican Party. This precipitated a weeks-long walkout by Democrats from the state legislature. Abbott said that this “creates the one big, beautiful map that ensures fairer representation in the United States Congress for Texas”. This is set to create as many as five additional Republican congressional districts. This ‘redistricting’ was at the behest of the Mango Paedo, who wrote on his version of Xitter (pronounced ‘shitter’), Truth Social: “Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Currently, 25 of Texas’s 38 districts have Republican majorities. The new redistricting will bring the Republican-favoured districts to 30. The new districting plans will remove Democratic-majority districts in several major cities including Houston, Austin and the Dallas-Fort Worth area2.
As part of the national reaction from the Democrats to this gerrymander, voters on Tuesday in California approved a similar ‘redistricting’. This overrides California’s independent redistricting commission, and temporarily adopting maps drawn by the state legislature to take away five seats in the US House of Representatives from the Republican Party and give them to the Democrats3.
I suspect some Americans wouldn’t have a clue where Australia is, let alone how we vote or who decides on the distribution of electorates. As most Australians know, the independent Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) decides on the boundaries of electorates, such that there can be no interference from political parties in the decisions on where those boundaries are, which are based solely on demographics. Americans may not know what the AEC is, but they should be very envious of it, as their current system of ‘redistricting’ is shambolic at best, and monumentally corrupt at worst, as demonstrated by the idiocy in Texas and the reaction to it in California.
There are a few fruitcakes in Australia who have suggested abolishing the AEC, and they include people like Clive Palmer4, and probably others who are upset that their huge bags of money cannot give them control of legislation to suit their greed. To my knowledge there has never been any attempt by any major party in Australia to try what Palmer has suggested, because I suspect they realise it would be electoral suicide. May it continue that way.
Sources
- https://blotreport.com/2019/05/22/david-frum-quote-2/
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/29/texas-governor-greg-abbott-signs-redistricting-bill
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/04/california-prop-50-voting-result
- https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/clive-palmer-wants-the-australian-electoral-commission-axed-and-dead-people-off-the-electoral-roll/news-story/e1f69744b0649890da2b6c8bdbe3dcab
