Barack Obama — the man who turned “gerrymandering is a threat to democracy” into a personal bumper sticker — is now backing a redistricting scheme in Virginia that would hand Democrats 10 out of 11 congressional seats. In a state that’s roughly split 50-50 politically.
Ouch! Turns out gerrymandering is only a threat to democracy when Republicans do it. When Democrats do it, it’s called “equity.”
Let’s do some quick math here because the numbers are the whole joke. Virginia is a purple state. In recent elections, it’s basically been a coin flip. The kind of state where both parties trade governors like baseball cards and presidential margins come down to a couple of points. A fair map — the kind Obama spent a decade demanding — would probably produce something like a 6-5 split, maybe 7-4 on a good year for one side.
But 10 out of 11? That’s not redistricting. That’s a heist.
Obama built an entire post-presidency brand around fighting gerrymandering. He gave speeches about it. He raised money for it. He founded the National Democratic Redistricting Committee — an organization whose entire stated purpose is to end partisan map-drawing. He went on late-night TV and lectured America about how gerrymandering was “undermining the will of the people.”
And now the will of the people in Virginia — a state where roughly half the voters are Republican — should be represented by giving Democrats 91% of the congressional seats?
“Rules for thee but not for me” doesn’t even begin to cover this one. This is “rules for thee, and also I’m rewriting the rules, and also I’m the referee, and also the game is already over and I won.”
Here’s what makes this so perfectly Obama. He doesn’t just do the hypocritical thing — he does the hypocritical thing while still lecturing you about principles. Some politicians are shameless. Obama is shameless with a TED Talk. He’ll gerrymander your state into a one-party monopoly and then give a 45-minute speech about the sacred importance of fair elections. Standing ovation from the Georgetown crowd. Chef’s kiss.
The man who invented the modern political lecture circuit can’t even follow his own syllabus.
Now, some people might say, “Well, Bob, maybe the proposed map reflects population centers and natural district boundaries.” Sure. And maybe my dog ate my homework. You don’t accidentally draw a map that gives one party 91% of the seats in a 50-50 state. That takes effort. That takes intention. That takes a team of lawyers and data scientists working overtime to squeeze every last Republican voter into a single district like sardines in a can.
That remaining one seat? That’s the bone they throw so they can say it’s not a total shutout. “See? Republicans got one seat! That’s representation!” One seat out of eleven. How generous.
Imagine if Republicans tried this in a blue-leaning state. Imagine if the GOP backed a redistricting plan in, say, Colorado that gave Republicans 10 out of 11 seats. Obama would be on CNN within the hour calling it an assault on democracy. The New York Times would run seven opinion pieces before lunch. MSNBC would pre-empt their entire schedule for a panel discussion featuring four people who all agree with each other.
But when Obama does it? Crickets. Because the media has always graded Obama on a curve so generous it would make a community college blush.
This is the Democrat playbook in a nutshell. They don’t actually oppose gerrymandering. They oppose losing. When they’re on the wrong end of a redistricting map, it’s a constitutional crisis. When they’re drawing the map themselves, it’s “reflecting the changing demographics of the commonwealth.” Same game, different press release.
Virginia voters — the ones who actually live there and split their tickets and swing back and forth every few years — deserve better than a rigged map dressed up in Obama’s good intentions. Ten out of eleven seats in a purple state isn’t democracy. It’s not even creative cheating. It’s the kind of blatant power grab that would make a banana republic dictator say, “Whoa, dial it back a little.”
But that’s Obama for you. Always was. The guy who told you to play fair while he stacked the deck. The professor who wrote the exam, graded the exam, and then gave himself an A.
Welcome to clown world, Virginia. Your mapmaker just drew you a one-party state — and he did it with a straight face and a Nobel Peace Prize on the shelf.
