California Housing Is Killing Democracy

The Gerrymandering War took a bad electoral situation for the Democratic Party in 2030 and made it much, much worse. All thanks to California's housing shortage.  
  
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# California Housing Is Killing Democracy

### The Gerrymandering War took a bad electoral situation for the Democratic Party in 2030 and made it much, much worse. All thanks to California's housing shortage.

| | Darrell Owens  
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The approved Texas gerrymandered map, reducing Democratic representation on Trump's orders.

_The opinions expressed in this article, and all articles on my publication, represent only myself in my personal capacity. They are not the opinions of my employer, my employment capacity, any affiliate university, or any government or civic board and organization I am a member of._

_This article will be free in one week._

--

Gavin Newsom being the only Democratic governor in a position of power to ram heads with the lawless Republican trifecta of the federal government has been admirable. Certainly more admirable than his silly podcast. His staffers, imitating Trump and irritating his most fanatic followers after eight years of cheerleading Trump's incoherent social media use is very funny. It is your patriotic duty as an American who supports the principles of democracy to vote in favor of the upcoming California ballot referendum to rid ourselves of the independent redistricting and add 5 new Democratic voting seats. 

We can only espouse the principles of free and fair redistricting with federal legislation banning gerrymandering. Continuing to pleasure ourselves with a moral code that Trump, Texas and the rest of the South openly disregard with widespread disenfranchisement is no longer tenable. Trump began this gerrymandering crisis by instructing Texas to find him five more Republican electeds before the Midterm elections as his poll numbers reach historic lows. California has no choice but to counter-gerrymander and stop Trump's scheme.

There is no question that the Democratic Party has no chance of victory in this gerrymandering war. There are more Republican-run states than Democratic-run states due to geography and population density. Republicans already practice gerrymandering to a greater extent than Democrats -- 5 Democratic states are gerrymandered versus 14 Republican states. Red states do not have independent and fair redistricting commissions obstructing them like blue states usually do. The difference at this point is whether Democrats will be brave and counter-gerrymander and lose only 3 - 5 seats in the Congress, or be cowardly as they ordinarily are and lose 8 or more before the 2026 midterms. 

The other reason why Democrats shall lose the gerrymandering war is that the Census 2030 redistricting is looking horrible for California. California's population is relatively stagnant by force due to the housing shortage, and jumps back and forth between declining or slight upticks. Texas and the South have seen tremendous population growth in the last 20 years, due to the high cost of living in California and New England, pushing families down to the South where Southern housing production outpaces expensive blue states. 

As of the latest Census population estimates, Texas is on track to steal 3 Congressional seats from California in 2030, directly due to the fact that Texas has build tens of thousands more housing units than the Golden State.

Since 2000, Texas has outpaced California in home production. Although Texas relies heavily on enviromentally destructive suburban sprawl, Texas has been outpacing California in mutli-family housing in urban areas as well. No California metro area made the top ten in new apartment permits issued last year, while Houston, Austin and Dallas placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th place.

It was common around 2020 to see people brush this off by arguing that California and the coasts were exporting Democratic voters and turning red states into swing states. Writers like Charles M. Blow were making the case in the New York Times that Black middle class families living in northern states should return home to the South and create economic powerhouses, particularly in Georgia. I was always skeptical because however nice Atlanta is, the state is run by a Republican Party that despises Atlanta and its Black urban core. In 2020 when Georgia went blue it certainly seemed viable. 

Now that theory has blown up in liberal faces. The Republican Party is going all-in on segregating and disenfrachising their voters to remain in power. Short of a federal ban on gerrymandering, many liberal voters of all races are going lose their voting power in red states. Still, the presence of a growing liberal population in the South is necessary for Republican to continue sucking away congressional representation from blue states in the next Census. Thus, Democratic voters can be used as electoral meat shields to empower red states, even though their votes count for a fraction of rural voters. The voter export theory, like the demographics is destiny theory, has not only come short but has now severely backfired. ...

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