Here’s something you don’t see every day: a Democrat who is honest enough, and courageous enough, to call out his own party not only for its dirty dealing, but for its outrageous hypocrisy in pretending that the dirty dealing is all on the other side of the political fence. Is Democratic strategist Julian Epstein planning to retire from politics and spend the rest of his life sunning himself in the South Pacific? Is he planning some other kind of disappearance from the scene? He might be well advised to do so because leftists are notoriously inhospitable to those of their number who dare to break ranks.
Epstein’s singular act of courage, or political swan song, depending on your point of view, has come amid his fellow Democrats’ towering rage over Republican efforts to revise the state congressional map of Texas. Democrat “lawmakers” have fled the state and are doing everything they possibly can to stave off the redistricting, and are claiming that the Republicans are resorting to the sleazy old tactic of gerrymandering to reduce their political strength.
Fox News reported Saturday that the fugitive solons are “getting the rock-star treatment as they visit blue states, where several governors have vowed to gerrymander Republicans out of their own Congressional delegations in retaliation for the Texas effort.”
Yet the Democrats’ self-righteous claims would have more legs if it weren’t for the fact that the Democrats have owned gerrymandering for decades, if not longer, and have used it cheerfully and without hesitation or apology to limit the electoral power of Republicans all across the country. And so Julian Epstein, alone among the Democrats, has now had quite enough of the Dems’ hypocrisy and moral posturing.
Epstein said Saturday, according to Fox, that in regard to gerrymandering, his party is “not immune from criticism, as many blue states have already gerrymandered in a way that limits Republican congressional representation.” Epstein said: “No, I think they don’t have the moral authority, and there’s a lot of pearl-clutching going on.”
Ain’t that the truth. Now, one would expect that as a longtime Democrat strategist, Epstein has seen Democrat politicians engage in flagrant hypocrisy and abundant pearl-clutching innumerable times, and so the question remains as to why he is speaking up about it now when he has never said anything before, but hey, better late than never.
Fox points out that “several blue states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Mexico, have no Republicans in their House delegations. And many feature oddly-drawn districts, seemingly crafted to limit GOP representation.” And so Epstein adds: “The Democrats don’t have clean hands here. You look at states like Massachusetts, New Jersey[…] Illinois, California, and Democrats have effectively gerrymandered Republicans out of existence.”
Not only was the GOP gerrymandered out of existence, but the influx of migrants (both legal and illegal) into those states created a ready and reliable voter base; hence the left’s push for giving non-citizens the right to vote. It’s all as corrupt as anything has ever been in American politics, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t get worse. Epstein “cautioned that the nationwide redistricting battle could create a ‘race to the bottom,’ and that leaving Republicans and Democrats in states led by the opposite parties could lead to people feeling left out of the democratic process.” Gee, ya think? Epstein offered the example of one pesthole of leftist corruptocrats, New Jersey, “in which Trump garnered 46% of the vote in 2024, but Republicans only have three out of the 12 congressional seats.”
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Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison, a Republican, agreed with Epstein, charging the Democrats with “total hypocrisy and faux outrage. The dirty little secret is Democrats have no problem whatsoever with states redrawing their congressional maps to maximize partisan political advantage. They’re just furious that Republican states are starting to redraw their maps.” Yep. That’s about the size of it, right there.
Harrison added: “It’s because Democrat state after Democrat state, for a decade, has been gerrymandering the hell out of their congressional maps. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Delaware, all of these states have zero. If you’re a Republican in those Democrat states, you don’t have any voice in Congress. And [there are] many, many more that have given you just one seat, Oregon, I think Maine and Maryland.”
In California, meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Hair Gel), who is never far away when hypocrisy and self-righteousness are the game, is calling a special election to fight Texas’ redistricting efforts. This is silly, since California’s Republican Party has already been gerrymandered into near-oblivion, but apparently, now Newsom is going to administer the coup de grâce. That’s the left for you: always intolerant and ready to crush dissent.
