#disenfranchisement

[boymanmaletheshequel]

[binyasindayim]

[itsmythang]

Clarence Thomas voting against the voting rights act, is UNBELIEVABLE‼️

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Reflections on a rough week--and why we have reason to be hopeful.

May 16, 2026

We are arriving at the end of a second rough week. But despite the setbacks, we are winning. We have reason to look to the future with confidence and resolve. But we must also acknowledge the setbacks and feelings of disappointment, so that we can put them in perspective and move on. We have an election to win, and nothing that has happened in the last two weeks is going to stop us.

Over the last week,

The US Supreme Court refused to hear an emergency application challenging the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision invalidating the redistricting initiative approved by the people of Virginia.

Louisiana and South Carolina opted for maximalist racial gerrymandering.

Georgia’s governor is calling the legislature back into session to take up gerrymandering that would affect the 2028 election.

Although not directly related to gerrymandering, two developments late in the week reinforce the sense of asymmetry and unfairness inherent in Callais and its aftermath:

Colorado’s governor commuted the sentence of Tina Peters, a county elections official who allowed an election denier to copy election software for use in seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump is attempting to create a $1.7 billion slush fund to compensate alleged victims of Joe Biden’s alleged “weaponization’ of the DOJ, i.e., January 6 insurrectionists.

All of this is occurring against a backdrop in which the media is focusing on the post-Callais gerrymandering as if it were a game of Sudoku in which the outcome is determined by filling in the right numbers in the right boxes, as if democratic representation were a logic puzzle with a single correct solution, rather than a fundamental right being systematically dismantled one district at a time.

The pundits and commentators who have reduced democracy to an algorithm are creating overly pessimistic views of where Democrats stand two weeks post-Callais. The commentariat fails to grasp that Callais was not a decision about partisan gerrymandering. It was a green light to reinstate the Jim Crow Era in the Old South by legalizing racial gerrymandering.

The failure of insight and imagination among pundits leads them to overlook the reaction of Black Americans directly affected by the dilution of their votes because of the color of their skin or their status as descendants of enslaved people. It also causes them to overlook the sense of outrage by tens of millions of other Americans of every race and ethnicity—white, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous Americans, among many others.

Callais is the tipping point. The bare-knuckled, naked racism of the decision and its aftermath demonstrates that the moment of truth has arrived: We must do whatever it takes to save democracy in the near term.

Callais was a monumental overreach by right-wing extremists. It is the dying cry of the Old South. The neo-Confederates know that the moment of truth has arrived. They acted out of desperation, seizing their last opportunity to cling to power for a few months longer. They will lose the midterms despite their best efforts to fix the game. They will lose the Senate in 2026 or 2028, and the presidency in 2028. They understand that when they do, their minority rule reign of terror will be over.

It is not merely that they have overreached. They have stirred deep pools of outrage, anger, pride, courage, and perseverance of generations of Americans of every race and color who fought for civil rights over the last half century.

In truth, the full dimensions of the national injury inflicted by Callais will take time for Americans to appreciate and understand. That is why we must refuse to discuss Callais as if it were a decision about partisan gerrymandering and must instead describe it as a decision to reinstitute the Jim Crow Era in the South.

Only when understood through that lens will enough Americans rise to rid our nation’s political and judicial institutions of racists and white Christian nationalists who seek to limit the promise of America to a privileged class of descendants of white Europeans.

But rise they will. It is already happening across America. It will be unstoppable, just like the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

But as the moral outrage over Callais grows week by week, we will be buffeted by political commentators who will discuss the 2026 midterms as if it were a game of Sudoku. That approach heightens the sense of uncertainty about 2026 and dismisses the passion and motivation of grassroots activists. We can’t let those stories create anxiety and fear.

Case in point: Friday’s New York Times featured a conversation between the editor of the Cook Political Report, Amy Walter, and an opinion editor of the Times, John Guida. The discussion focused on the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision in Callais on the 2026 midterms. On the surface, it was a rational discussion that posited that the Democratic advantage going into the midterms had shrunk but that the Democrats were still the favorites.

The problem with the discussion was that it was four degrees of separation from reality. Walter and Guida described the developments post-Callais as “extreme partisan gerrymandering”—ignoring the fact that the former slaveholding states are using the decision in Callais as cover for reinstituting the Jim Crow era.

To their credit, Walter and Guida acknowledged and discussed the fact that Black representation in Congress will shrink and that both parties may need to split majority-Black districts to amplify partisan advantage. But they treat the dilution of Black voting power as a subset of partisan gerrymandering, rather than acknowledging that the real thrust of Callais was to allow former slaveholding states to reinstate the Jim Crow Era.

That is a very big miss on the part of Walter and Guida. The wholesale disenfranchisement of 25 million Black Americans in the Old South is not the same as partisan gerrymandering. Partisan gerrymandering is a dirty business used by both parties to injure the other based on partisan beliefs.

Racial gerrymandering is not a species of partisan gerrymandering. It is an extension and proliferation of the effects of slavery. It does not disadvantage voters based on their partisan beliefs; it disadvantages voters based on their personhood and identities as the descendants of enslaved people. It is vile and depraved. It has angered tens of millions of people and is supercharging an already invigorated grassroots resistance movement.

The fact that Walter and Guida appear not to understand the seismic shock that just occurred in former slaveholding states suggests that their mental and statistical models about voting patterns in 2026 are deeply flawed. Black Americans and tens of millions of white, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous Americans are outraged by the reinstatement of Jim Crow laws.

There are new rounds of national and regional protests scheduled for May, June, and July (so far). Given the stingy coverage the Times gives to the No Kings Day protests, it is unsurprising that Guida would be unaware that the Callais decision has sparked a new round of pro-democracy protests and resistance.

Do not pay attention to any pundit telling you about the effect of Callais on the midterms unless they acknowledge up-front that Callais has relegated 25 million Black Americans to second-class citizenship by diluting their votes based on the color of their skin and their status as descendants of enslaved people. If the conversation starts at that point, it has a better chance of reaching reliable conclusions about the effect of Callais on the mood of voters.

Concluding Thoughts

Oh, boy! The cross-country flight home from the East Coast and the time change back to Pacific have caught up with me. I used to make the trip once a week, four times a month, for a couple of decades with no problem.

We should expect to see greater passion, urgency, and scale in the pro-democracy protest movement, which will translate into more victories and greater winning margins in 2026. People are outraged as never before. I truly believe that Callais will be the tipping point. Give it a week or two for people not paying attention to understand what happened. Be a messenger spreading the word that we must stand side-by-side with Black Americans as they fight, once again, for full voting rights as promised by the Constitution.

[phoenixyfriend]

"Latino men shifted to the right!" NGL given all we've been hearing about voter roll purging and attempts at disenfranchisement in red and purple states, I feel like the shift in the Latino vote is less about a change in opinion than a change in access.

[insteading]

Republicans pass gerrymandered map: recap of TN special session

The new map shows three districts in Memphis, two of which stretch all the way to the Nashville area, which has been carved up into five dis

I do not live in Tennessee, but an internet friend of mine does, and has said "Legislators are going to try this profoundly antidemocratic move in your purple / leans Democratic state the moment they get a chance," and she has been correct a lot in the last several years.

Essentially, the Tennessee legislature redivided the district that contains Memphis into three strips that now include the part of the state where conservative legislators perform best. This was absolutely about rendering Black voters voiceless, and the recap of the special session above documents just how much protest there was about it.

"Power is not permission to stop listening," Campbell said.

[crmsnmth]

Jaded Anarchists (3)

Clothed in the costume of rebellion Patches sewn on like badges Earned from nothing but a need To look dangerous

They shout about burning systems While clutching comfort like a life line Claiming ruin as a lifestyle They can drop the moment it becomes Inconvenient

They talk of liberation With mouths that never tasted risk Never felt the weight Of real consequences Never dug their hands into the wreckage Of something that needed breaking

Their slogans are loud But their spines are quiet No conviction beneath the noise Just performance A curated chaos for anyone watching

THey chant about tearing down walls But dare not lift a finger To dismantle the ones inside themselves Fear, apathy, a craving to belong To something dangerous Without ever being in danger

Revolution is not a fashion choice Not a weekend aesthetic Not a recycled line from the old books That they never finished

ANd I am tired Tired of seeing the word anarchy Turned into a prop A hollow sound Echoing out of mouths That will never bleed for what they claim to Love

If you want to play rebellion Do it far from the fire Some of us are actually busy Trying to actually burn

[gwydionmisha]

Millions in India stripped of vote before critical state election, as government seeks to ‘purify’ electoral roll

Experts say Muslims and other minorities have been disproportionately deleted from the electoral roll ahead of the West Bengal elections thi

With predictable results.

Modi's party takes control of India's West Bengal in key state election

The outcome is expected to strengthen Modi's political position midway through his third term.