With your hands on your head or the trigger of your gun?
By 
The status quo that has been created by the Roberts Court and Republicans using constitutional hardball to compensate for overwhelming disgust with their president and policy agenda is extremely bad. But it is what it is — you have to play the game by the current rules rather than just wishing that things were different. The almost always behond-the-curve Democratic Party of New York finally seems to understand what the shot is:
New York Democrats doubled down on their push to join the national battles over redistricting Tuesday, with Rep. Joe Morelle paying a visit to the Capitol as Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ ambassador to state leaders.
“The voters now understand that this is in some ways an existential threat to the republic,” Morelle said after meeting with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
New York Democrats have had plans since last summer to take the first vote on a state constitutional amendment before the Legislature adjourns in June, which would allow for a 2027 referendum that opens the door to new lines in time for 2028.
The focus on that amendment has heightened as that initial vote looms — and particularly in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act that will allow Republican states to start eliminating Democratic-held districts with Black majorities.
Democrats in Albany and other state Capitols are taking a more aggressive approach in the wake of that decision. The amendment introduced last July would have allowed for some pre-2028 tweaks to the redistricting process. But there’s now increased chatter about also stripping the state’s anti-gerrymandering rules and changing the way the 2032 process will work.
“The world has changed dramatically since that bill was introduced,” Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris said.
Hochul — who has no official role in the passage of an amendment — has openly embraced a full-fledged gerrymander since August, a stance she reiterated before meeting with Morelle.
“I don’t feel like I should be handcuffed in a fight for our democracy,” the governor said. “I’ll not be handicapped in that fight.”
I will also say that very few politicians have exceeded my ex ante expectations under Trump 2.0 than Hochul. It’s like a light went off when she decided to re-embrace the smashingly successful congestion pricing program.