In this deeply politically divided country, it's interesting to consider how the office of the presidency has shaken out in this century: in 26 years, we've have 14 years of Republican rule(8 years of George W Bush, 6 years of Donald Trump so far) and 12 years of Democratic rule (8 years of Barack Obama, 4 of Joe Biden). It's important to note that the two Republican presidents have one thing in common, they both lost the popular vote in their first elections, but won because of our country's continued use of the absurd electoral college system.
The fact that both Bush and Trump strolled into office claiming a huge mandate they didn't have reveals one of the big differences between the progressive and the conservative mindset; imagine how the Republican party would react to two Democratic presidents in a row losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college. I've always felt that conservatives in the US have an air of entitlement, a sense that, of course they should be in charge, even if they don't get a majority of the vote (remember, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016 by millions).
Our nature of our divided country can always be seen in our midterms elections, when the party of the president almost always loses seats in congress. The 2026 midterms certainly seemed to be shaping up that way, with Trump's approval rating sinking to as low as 34% in some polls and his unpopular war on Iran dragging on, it seemed like the Democrats were about to win big in congress.
But then in just the last ten days, two court rulings have made a deep change in how congressional districts for the House of Representatives are drawn. First, and most strikingly, the 6 conservatives on the Supreme Court voted to essentially gut the decades old Voting Rights Act, allowing conservative states to draw legislative maps that hurt the influence of black voters who vote heavily for Democrats. The response to this was swift, with Southern states redrawing maps right away, with Louisiana even pausing an election outright after ballots had been mailed out. Even though the Supreme Court likes to pretend that it's above politics, this was a blatant hand out to the GOP. And then things got worse, with a court in the state of Virginia throwing out redrawn legislative maps that the voters had just approved.
The sum total of these two rulings is that Republicans will effectively now have 10 more seats in the House than they did before. The fact that they were able to do this without actually winning over any new voters showed how rigged our system is. Putting it bluntly, some unelected judges just gave one political party an advantage that has nothing to do with any gains in popularity with the voters. (Some democracy we got here!) Just like Bush and Trump having less people vote for them while still winning, conservatives in this country just want to win any way they possibly can.
So what can the Democrats do? Not a lot other than hope that Trump's low approval rating will continue until November, giving them the chance to still take the House despite these rulings helping Republicans. In the long run, I think its time for Democrats to fight fire with fire; the next time they hold congress and the White House, its time for them to grant statehood to Washington DC and Puerto Rico, which would not only help the party but also be the right thing to do. (The American citizens of Washington DC do not have any representation in congress.) I also think that the Democrats should pack the Supreme Court with more judges; if Republicans in the senate could deny Barack Obama a Supreme Court pick for ten months back in 2015, and then rush through a pick for Trump in 2019 in less than a month, the Democrats should respond by remaking the court. It's the only way to prevent further partisan rulings like this. These moves would be bold, but I feel that this is the only way for Democrats to fight back against a radical Republican party that wants to win at any cost.
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