 When it comes to the Republican Party's ongoing assault on our democracy, we might not be seeing much movement in Congress. However, thankfully, Biden's Department of Justice is actually going after Republicans who are functionally trying to rig elections in their favor by doing voter suppression and explicitly partisan gerrymandering. So as David Nakamura and Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post explain, the Justice Department has sued Texas for the second time in a month over voting related concerns, this time alleging that Republican state lawmakers discriminated against Latinos and other minorities when they approved new congressional and state legislative districts that increased the power of white voters. Attorney General Merritt Garland's announcement on Monday marked the Biden administration's first major legal action on redistricting. It comes at a time when the U.S. House is narrowly controlled by Democrats. Many GOP-controlled state legislatures are tightening voting restrictions and both parties are trying to draw maps to their own advantage ahead of the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election. While the Supreme Court has declined to put limits on partisan gerrymandering, it is illegal to draw lines that are unfair to racial and ethnic minorities. The 2020 census showed that the Texas population had grown dramatically over the past decade by nearly 4 million people. Most of that growth was among minority populations with white Texans accounted for only about 5% of the increase. The growth means that the number of Texas seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will rise from 36 to 38. Texas is the only state to gain two seats. Rather than reflect the surging Latino voting strength in the state, the Justice Department argues the new districts would unfairly and illegally dilute their representation. So they're pretty brazen about this. This is a very explicit attempt to disenfranchise Latino voters who would disproportionately vote in favor of Democrats as opposed to Republicans. Now looking at a map, it really becomes even more clear how brazen they are. So compare the current map to the new map and as you can see here, safe Republican seats have nearly doubled in Texas. But if district lines were drawn fairly, they would not have that many safe seats. They would lose safe seats given the demographic changes in that state. So the fact that this happens in the United States and it has always happened and it's getting worse, I mean, it should worry people. This is an erosion of democracy. This is a watering down of representation. It's brazen and it's not like Democrats don't also do partisan gerrymandering, but the solution is to just not do partisan gerrymandering. There's a bill in Congress right now that the Democrats have not passed because they are refusing to get rid of the filibuster. That's called before the people act that would outsource the redrawing of district lines to independent nonpartisan commissions. So they're not trying to draw lines based on which party is going to be successful. They're trying to draw lines on how to best represent a particular district. That's the way that it should be. And Republicans do not support this. So overall, even if both parties engage in gerrymandering, Democrats are the only one to give them credit words to who's trying to take action or at least they're signaling their support for action. But whether or not they're going to abolish the filibuster and actually get it done is a different story. Now, aside from partisan gerrymandering, the DOJ has also targeted other states that have cracked down on voting rights, namely Georgia. So in June, the Justice Department sued Georgia over new statewide voting measures that federal authorities allege purposefully discriminate against African-Americans. And last month, the Department sued Texas over a separate law that federal officials say would disenfranchise eligible voters, including older Americans and people with disabilities by banning 24-hour and drive-thru voting and giving partisan poll watchers more access. So it is important that the DOJ is taking action. But having said that, though, I want people to understand that this shouldn't be the only avenue that Democrats pursue in trying to protect voting rights and further enhance democracy. They have to pass the For the People Act. They have to pass any voting rights reform. But who knows if they're actually going to get that done given the limited amount of time left? I mean, 2022 is right around the corner. And going into this next year, they're going to be shifting gears. They're no longer going to be hyper-fixated on legislating. And instead, they're going to be thinking about their own electoral prospects. So we're going to see a shift in priorities. And you can't just change priorities and focus on the election without getting really important things done, like the For the People Act of voting rights reform. But I would argue that most Democrats will do that. But who knows? I hope that they prove me wrong. You have to fix this issue because the harder or the longer that you wait to fix these issues that are plaguing our democracy, the harder it gets to actually fix them. The momentum is rolling in the opposite direction currently. And we see a full-on assault on democracy by Republicans and Democrats. Most elected Democrats just aren't taking this seriously enough. I can't necessarily say that about the House. But Senate Democrats, I mean, if they truly cared, they would be calling on their colleagues to abolish the filibuster. But we've come to a point where Democrats have chosen the filibuster over democracy itself. And that may sound hyperbolic, but it's true. You're not going to have time again. In the event Democrats lose in 2022, I mean, these districts will be redrawn for a decade. So you're likely not going to have full control of government for a very, very long time, most likely. So things that you don't get done now, I think it's logical to expect them to not be accomplished within 10 years. So now is the time to act. Now is the time to not just do voting rights reform and gerrymandering, but pass a minimum wage increase. Do things that enhance democracy and make it so that we're not constantly going backwards, constantly worrying about Republicans stealing elections. But they are just not serious enough about this, and it's because Democrats just don't have the desire to fight. They could be taking meaningful action right now when it comes to improving people's lives. Hell, who knows where Build Back Better stands? Will we even see the investment in climate change that was promised? We don't know. But what we do know is that the time to act is running out and it's good that the DOJ is taking action. But this can't be the only route that you pursue. You've got to do more. You've got to protect the vote. You've got to expand voting rights and get rid of barriers to voting. Voting should be easier, not difficult, but increasingly that is unfortunately the case because of Republicans. So, you know, they're going to win by cheating. And if you know this and you're not doing anything about it, I can't help but think that you're complicit here.