The GOP war on democracy is working. Just look at Ohio.

The GOP war on democracy is working. Just look at Ohio.

Paul Waldman — Read time: 4 minutes

Members of the Ohio state Senate hear testimony on a map of state congressional districts in 2021. (AP Photo/Julie Carr Smyth)

You have likely heard about the ruthless redistricting plan designed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that was just rubber-stamped by the state’s legislature. Not only will it give Republicans as much as a 20 to 8 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation, but it also seems to violate the Florida constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act.

But have you heard about what is happening in Ohio? That’s where Republicans are carrying out a scheme that may be even brazen in its contempt for the law, democracy and the U.S. system of government.

The Ohio tale reveals how brutally effective the Republican strategy for undermining democracy has truly been. It shows that the combination of disregard for the law and control of key levers of power up and down the system is what makes the GOP strategy possible.

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The latest blow came on Wednesday when a federal appeals court panel issued a ruling that essentially validated the congressional redistricting games Republicans in Ohio have been playing. They defied the will of the voters to enact a gerrymandering scheme and are now defying the state Supreme Court’s attempt to force them to redraw maps in compliance with the law.

The appeals court panel vote was 2 to 1, with two Trump appointees carrying the day.

To understand how bad this is, start with the fact that Ohio Republicans have waged all-out war on democracy for some time. Though voters overwhelmingly approved two ballot initiatives curbing partisan gerrymandering, the Republican-run legislature found loopholes allowing it to lock in its supermajorities, no matter what the voters want.

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Which brings us to congressional redistricting. Those initiatives make partisan gerrymandering illegal, but they contain a somewhat convoluted process for drawing district lines. The work of drawing lines is given to a redistricting commission now dominated by Republicans.

That commission has been in a back and forth with the state Supreme Court: four times the commission has produced absurdly gerrymandered pro-GOP congressional maps, and four times the court has ruled they violated the state constitution, ordering them to produce non-gerrymandered maps.

Each of those times, the GOP-dominated commission has simply come back with another gerrymandered map. The latest has 11 Republican districts, just two Democratic districts, and two more competitive districts. Meanwhile, the primary elections approach.

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It’s as if you told your teenager to clean their messy room, and they moved one dirty sock from the left side of the floor to the right side, then said, “There, I did it.” And then you said “No, clean the room.” And they did the same thing, four times.

It’s hard to overstate how offensive Ohio Republicans’ actions are to any notion of functional democracy. They started by subverting the will of the voters and ended by acting as if orders of the state Supreme Court can be cast aside if Republicans don’t like them.

One of the most critical foundations of stable government is that everyone must respect the basic lines of authority. If the courts tell you to do something, you do it. You can appeal, lobby for a change in the law or try to win the next election. You don’t get to say, “I don’t like your ruling. So go to hell.”

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But that’s what Republicans have all but said. And now those Trump federal judges have effectively replied, “Well done, Republicans — you sure are clever!”

Those judges wrote that they are “optimistic” that the commission and the Ohio Supreme Court can “find a solution.” That’s laughable, since the GOP-run commission has no interest in finding a solution. Indeed, the appeals court said that if the commission and the Ohio Supreme Court don’t come to an agreement, it will order the state to use one of the gerrymandered Republican maps.

It’s important to see the big picture: Ohio Republicans defy the voters and defy the state Supreme Court, while running out the clock so eventually it will become too late to change things before the election. Then a federal court stacked with Trump appointees validates their strategy. And the U.S. Supreme Court, which will apparently tolerate nearly any manipulation of voting rules that helps the Republican Party, is there as the ultimate backstop.

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We’re seeing something similar in Florida, where the state constitution bars districts from favoring either party. But the state Supreme Court is now dominated by conservatives — three of the seven justices were appointed by DeSantis — and the governor probably hopes they’ll find a way to render those constitutional provisions meaningless and validate his map.

What all this demonstrates is a galling GOP twist on “checks and balances,” the idea that different governmental institutions restrain each other. Today, Republicans have seized control of enough of those institutions to wield unfettered power and subvert democracy almost whenever they like. The ability of one part of the system to reach into another part becomes not a check but a weapon.

At the top sits the U.S. Supreme Court and its supermajority of six conservatives, whose reach is almost limitless. And Republicans know that whatever happens, that court will be there to make sure that their power is protected from the threat of democracy.