Copyright Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Judging by the tens of thousands of people who came together to protest his presidency, Donald Trump won’t be winning over North Bay voters anytime soon. The signs at the “No Kings” rallies became confirmation that many local residents think the president is some combination of corrupt, authoritarian and orange. “I need to tell my grandchildren I did not stay silent,” read one sign. The signs and costumes paraded in towns across the North Bay would not have been welcome at any Republican gatherings. Still, we await the outcome of Tuesday’s election to determine whether Democrats are willing to do more than paint signs, dress up as frogs and ducks, and chant slogans. Trump and his minions have been willing to do whatever it takes to win, while Democrats have remained divided and toothless. “(These elections) will serve as a pulse check for Democrats, who are desperate to show their supporters some momentum,” said a New York Times election analysis. The political landscape has changed, and we wait to learn whether the nation’s shared sense of purpose can ever be restored. The conservative columnist and former Ronald Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan worried last week that we’re at risk of losing our system of government. In the Wall Street Journal (“A Republic, but Can We Keep It?”), she wrote: “The last nine months a lot of lines seem to have been crossed — in the use of the military, in redirecting the Justice Department to target the president’s enemies, real and perceived … You ask: Is all this constitutional? The president ‘jokes’ that he may not accept the Constitution’s two-term presidential limit. Are you laughing?” “We may have to make some readjustments or revisions in our constitutional traditions,” she added. “We’re in endgame time.” How divided is the country? In Tuesday’s election, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist is favored to become the next mayor of New York City — proof enough that it’s a long way from Broadway to Tulsa. (There are also elections in New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maine.) In California, Proposition 50 would authorize a reconfiguration of congressional districts, hoping to create five more Democratic districts in California as a counterbalance to a Texas redistricting scheme to create five more Republican House seats. In the final analysis, voters will be asked to overcome their resistance to gerrymandering in hopes of denying Trump an ongoing majority in the House of Representatives. From health care to climate change to tariffs to immigration raids to military forces deployed in American cities to who gets seated in Congress, there’s a lot at stake as we wait to find out whether Democrats are willing to do what they haven’t been willing to do in the past, which is to play by Trump’s rules. In their ballot argument, state Democratic leaders say: “Donald Trump and the Texas Republicans are making an unprecedented power grab to steal congressional seats and rig the 2026 election before voting even begins.” In response, the measure’s opponents, including members of the state’s redistricting commission, say, “We know American democracy is on fire, but accelerating gerrymandering only adds fuel.” There is no assurance, of course, that a Democratic majority in California will lead to passage of Proposition 50. As the Public Policy Institute of California reported last week, many voters disapprove of both political parties. “Close to a third of registered voters are neither blue nor red,” the report said. No one is pretending these competing reapportionment plans don’t represent a dramatic change, even though Proposition 50 restores the authority of this state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission after the 2030 census. When western Sonoma County is placed in the same congressional district as tiny Alturas, the county seat of Modoc County, we know business as usual will be left to another day. It’s 349 miles by car from Alturas (in the northeastern corner of California) to Occidental, maybe farther if you want to measure the differences in world views. In 2024, Trump won 72% of the vote in Modoc County (population 8,400) and 25% of the vote in Sonoma County (population 485,000). A New York Times headline last week: “How the Democratic Brand Turned Radioactive in Rural America.” At Trump’s direction, something similar is happening in Texas where Republicans contrived weirdly shaped congressional districts, variously described by the Houston Chronicle as “Sad Big Bird … elephant eating a peanut … the amoeba that ate North Houston … (and) extraterrestrial taking a poop.” The newspaper didn’t hold back: “Under the proposal, familiar gerrymanders drawn by the Republican-run Texas Legislature in 2021 would transmogrify into new worms, bacteria and non-Euclidian horrors that stretch and distort political lines — not to mention the Voting Rights Act — beyond recognition. Sometimes all you can do is point and laugh.” In disenfranchising black voters in Houston, one community leader said, the GOP plan is “inherently racist.” Subtlety goes out the window when the president tries to rejigger congressional districts to preserve his ability to do whatever he wants. When Tuesday’s votes are counted, we’ll find out whether California voters will try to torpedo at least one of his schemes. Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com.
