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I agree that we should make ethical judgments about issues of public policy. And I even agree that there is a time and a place to hurl slogans and jeremiads. But I also hold the—apparently eccentric—view that ethical judgments and jeremiads are best preceded by trying actually to understand a complex situation.
Let us agree, at least for the sake of this discussion, that the majority opinion in the recent Supreme Court case on the Voting Rights Act was wrongly decided, deeply flawed as a matter of law, and reflected all manner of ethical shortcomings on the part of the Republican majority.
That still leaves a lot of questions. One would be whether there is any moral/political/practical difference between 1) gerrymandering a lot of Black Louisianans into a weirdly shaped congressional district, as was formerly thought to be required by the Voting Rights Act, see below, versus
2) dissecting the city of Memphis into thirds, and then putting each third into a majority White district, as the Tennessee Legislature did last week.
An even bigger question is whether the Republican redistricting effort has or has not been too clever by half, as argued by commentator Jonathan Martin in the video. His article may be found at https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/05/11/trump-gop-redistricting-warning-00913677
A contrasting voice—and one very much worth listening to—is that of Mara Gay, a biracial woman, distinguished journalist, and member of the New York Times Editorial Board.
I commend this video to your thoughtful attention.
Facing MAGA 