Indiana Still Wants Him

Yesterday was another tough one for American democracy.

At least five of seven Indiana State Senators, who had the courage to defy Donald Trump over his demand that they gerrymander the state to his liking, lost their primaries to Trump yes men.

This is bad on at least two levels, but possibly not so bad in one respect.

It’s bad because it pretty much completes the shredding of the fair maps movement. A few years ago the Supreme Court ruled that it wouldn’t stop partisan gerrymandering. Then last year Trump demanded that Texas redistrict to create about five more GOP-friendly districts in time for this fall’s elections. So, California responded by adding five Democratic districts and a handful of other states rigged their maps as well. All of which came to a wash until Florida redrew its maps, probably giving Trump’s party a bit of an advantage, though also probably not enough to overcome a blue wave in November.

Nonetheless, it’s hard to imagine any state returning to a fair process after the 2030 census. Like so many things, Trump has turned this into a knife fight. He’ll be gone by then, but the destruction this guy has left in his wake will endure.

Last night’s defeats in Indiana were also bad because they showed how strong Trump remains within his party. The results sent a message that he still owns the party. I had thought that these senators, deeply conservative in every other way and running at a time when Trump’s own supporters are questioning what he’s doing in Iran (and feeling the fallout at the gas pump because of it), would prevail. If they had won, Trump’s grip on the GOP might have started to unravel. Didn’t happen.

But that last point may have a silver lining. The bad ship Donald J. Trump is sinking. But rather than scramble to bail water, his party is determined to go down with him. These results only strengthen the growing notion that the Democrats will have an outstanding election in the fall, taking both the House and Senate as well as a ton of state legislatures and governor’s offices.

I don’t need to remind our readers of my misgivings about my own party, but anything is better than two more years of this guy unfettered.