(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . We Are In An Era Of Procedural Total War [1] ['View Profile', 'Greg Dworkin', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Bill In Portland Maine', 'Donald Van Duyse'] Date: 2026-05-11 The six Republicans on the Supreme Court acted as a super legislature and have repealed the Voting Rights Act by judicial fiat. They have accomplished for the GOP what they never could have achieved at the ballot box. I guess it’s just an amazing coincidence that basically every decision related to politics helps Republicans. “Step by step, across issues from admissions to voting rules, the GOP majority is operating much like the reactionary Supreme Court that dismantled Reconstruction and midwifed the birth of Jim Crow segregation in the late 19th century.” Ron Brownstein The Virginia Supreme Court compounded the damage when they threw out the Virginia voter approved gerrymandering plan by a 4–3 vote. The majority of the justices on the Virginia Supreme Court have been appointed by Republican governors. The ruling is no surprise when you take that into account. There is also the fact that the Virginia Supreme Court had a chance to halt the gerrymandering ballot initiative earlier this year. It didn’t. To subsequently throw out the referendum after it was approved by 1.6 million voters tell us that the law here was less important than the politics. “We have to understand the illicit SCOTUS-Trump redistricting strategy as a desperate act of a regime scared of voters, and scared of us, the Democratic Party. For right now we are successfully expanding the map, winning and overperforming in red states and red districts all across the country, and leading in enough Senate races that we could actually win back the Senate this November — something no one thought possible a year ago.” Simon Rosenberg “America’s conflicts today pit a pro-democracy party against one that is antidemocratic. The Democrats are the morally superior entity. But I worry that today’s conflicts also pit a party that will do anything to win against one that doesn’t fully understand that it’s in a zero-sum, existential fight over what kind of country the United States will be.” Perry Bacon of the The New Republic. The question becomes how do we counter Republican efforts to steal the 2026 election and future elections. It’s time for the Democrats to declare procedural total war on the Republicans. We must do whatever we can to regain power and maintain it once we win elections. The Republican celebration over their wins in these rigged court cases may prove premature. Over the next few years, these court decisions will most likely launch a redistricting arms race that ends up costing Republicans more seats than they gained. The Democrats need to make the maximum effort to carve out as many Democratic U.S. House and legislative seats as possible. No holds barred. As a starting point we must recognize that if nothing changes in 2026, the most realistic scenario is for the Republicans to net 4 to 5 seats from House redistricting. The Democrats are already on course to pick up anywhere from 20 to 40 House seats in November. Some Republicans behind the scenes are talking about losing 60 to 70 House seats in the worst case scenario. The partisan GOP gerrymanders in Florida and Texas may backfire on the Republicans since they are based upon the assumption that Latino support for the GOP will remain at 2024 levels, which was 46%. Since 2024, Latino support for the Republicans has collapsed. In the November 2025 elections, Latino support for the GOP fell to 33%. In a recent special state senate election in Texas, only 20% of Latinos pulled the lever for the GOP candidate. The Democrats are in a good position to win the gerrymandering fight if we go all out to write new maps in blue states. The Democrats could gain a maximum of 22 seats before the 2028 elections if we are aggressive. “We’re in the break glass in case of emergency moment for American democracy. Democrats can create 22 new blue US House seats by 2028 by redrawing maps in: — New York — Colorado — Maryland — Oregon — Wisconsin — Minnesota — Pennsylvania. Time to take action.” Max Flugrath. Which points to one big takeaway from these court rulings: state legislative elections— which all too frequently fly below the radar screen — just became a lot more important. The power of state legislatures is underestimated by many voters. These elections are frequently marked by low turnout and narrow wins. For example, my good friend Nebraska State Senator George Dungan won his 2022 race by 179 votes out of 11,377 total votes cast. We must do everything we can to maximize our involvement in state legislative elections this year since we are looking at a blue wave. In Nebraska, a progressive super PAC is investing heavily in key legislative races across the state. I would recommend to all of my readers to contribute your time and/or money to legislative races. Once we regain power, we must reform a corrupt and illegitimate GOP Supreme Court majority. We must add four seats to the court and require a super majority to overturn an act of Congress or a state legislature. Congress clearly has the statutory power to do both. Previous presidents like Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant and Carter signed into law bills that added seats to the Supreme Court and/or lower courts. Franklin Roosevelt made an unsuccessful attempt to add six seats to the Supreme Court in 1937. Court reform is a long time part of our tradition and history. We are actually close to reforming the electoral college. Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes — 270 of 538 — pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. Currently, the compact now has 222 electors. We can get to over 270 votes if we do well in the 2026 and 2028 legislative elections. We need to make Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia states. That would result in four more Democratic senators and six more Democratic House members. Democrats need to pass a voting rights bill to reverse the elimination of the Voting Rights Act by the six Republican justices. This will have to be done after the Supreme Court is reformed since the GOP controlled Supreme Court is hostile to voting rights and African-American voters. The nation’s labor laws must be reformed to make it easier for workers to organize and form up unions. The current system is rigged heavily against the workers. The Republicans have been waging a war against organized labor since 1981 to reduce worker pay and enhance GOP power at the polls. During the era of Democratic dominance in presidential politics between 1932 to 1964, unions turned out millions of Democratic voters. We need to do that again. All of these necessary reforms depend upon either abolishing or limiting the Senate filibuster rule. At any time 51 senators can waive the filibuster rule and pass legislation. The Republicans did that three times in 2025. Democrats need to do the same. Like there was in 1932, there is currently a major backlash against the Republican party and the financial elites that support the GOP. We must do everything we can to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in 2026 and 2028. There may never be another opportunity to do this in the future. Once we regain power, we must take steps to cement and perpetuate our power. That’s what the Republicans do. Every Republican in Congress is responsible for this disaster. You can’t vote out Trump in the midterms, but you can vote out the people who enable him. MAGA means Morons Are Governing America. You are not allowed to give up. Blue wave 2026! Sources: Step by step, across issues from admissions to voting rules, the GOP majority is operating much like the reactionary Supreme Court that dismantled Reconstruction and midwifed the birth of Jim Crow segregation in the late 19th century. https://t.co/YocOLoxrbF — Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) April 29, 2026 The VRA ruling reality check In today’s Playbook … – Breaking down the VRA decision into cold, hard House numbers. – Mike Johnson gets a…www.politico.com Democrats Are Expanding Our Maps And Competing In Hard To Win Places (New Video & Written Analysis) To defeat MAGA Democrats are going to have to build a party that can compete and win in red states and red places that…www.hopiumchronicles.com Indiana Primary Results Prove It: The GOP Is Still a Trump Cult A few state senators bucked Trump on mid-decade gerrymandering. He endorsed their opponents. And Trump’s candidates…newrepublic.com Trump Has No Clue What His Supreme Court Has Just Unleashed The Supreme Court decision on gerrymandering points in one direction only: Come 2028, Democrats have to declare a…newrepublic.com /media/52459619da3c0e436612636221f7b44e /media/2036a3e381e663b21047c77dcb3f6ea1 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/11/800036933/community/we-are-in-an-era-of-procedural-total-war/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/