 It feels like the governors of Texas and Florida are trying to compete to see who can be the most destructive force to democracy in modern American history. And whenever you think that one of them has a leg up on the other, the other person says, hold my beer and they outdo themselves. So when it comes to voter suppression, we already know what Texas did last year. But now Ron DeSantis drew up his own congressional map, which I mean, the governor is not supposed to be doing this. But regardless, he did this and expectedly he decided to disenfranchise black voters in Florida in a way that's so shameless, it's almost cartoonishly evil. But nonetheless, here we are. And this was approved by Florida's legislature. So as Sam Levine of the Guardian explains, Florida Republicans approved a new congressional map that severely curtail black voting power in the state on Thursday, taking a final vote as black lawmakers staged a sit-in on the floor of the legislature. The new plan, which was drawn by Governor Ron DeSantis, gives Republicans a significant boost in the state and is one of the most aggressively gerrymandered maps passed in recent months. Republicans would be expected to win 20 of the state's 28 congressional districts, a four seat increase from the 16 they hold now. It also eliminates two of the four districts where black voters have been able to elect the candidate of their choice. A focal point of the new maps has been the way it eliminates the fifth congressional district which stretches from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. 46% of that district is currently black and it is represented by Al Lawson, a black Democrat. DeSantis is openly called for getting rid of that district, saying it is unusually shaped and was unlawfully drawn based on race. After vetoing a proposal that would have allowed black voters in Jacksonville to continue to elect the candidate of their choice, DeSantis' map breaks up the district into four pieces in which black voters comprise a much smaller share of the population. DeSantis and lawyers from his office have said the law allows them to dismantle the district. Voting rights experts have said the plan brazenly disregards laws designed to protect the interests of minority voters. Republicans would be favored to win all of those districts. So this is one of the most shameless power grabs in the country. And he's doing it right out in the open, right in front of everyone's faces. And obviously this is going to be challenged because of how shameless it is. But what's astonishing is that the GOP, they're not even trying to hide the fact now that they're just openly trying to stop black people from voting. And we know why they do this. It's an electoral strategy because they have no policies to offer to black and brown people. The problem is that they can't get them to vote for them. So what do you do if you can't win over this crowd because you're unwilling to offer them policies? Well, you just try to dilute their voting power and stop them from voting. Could they potentially win over these voters by offering them something? Sure, it's possible, but they don't want to try and see if they try to win over black people. Then their white voters who are racist and homophobic and socially regressive would be mad and think that they've gone woke. So this is the easiest electoral strategy for them to pursue. And they've done this time and again, and they deny it while still doing it in the open, which is almost impressive with how bold they are. They'll enact these voter ID laws that disproportionately affect black and brown communities. They will reduce the number of polling stations in particular locations that are predominantly black and brown. And then they'll claim voter suppression. What voter suppression? We're concerned with voter integrity, Lamau. It's a joke at this point. It's a joke at this point. Meanwhile, this is taking place and Democrats in Congress are, I guess, sitting around twirling their thumbs. Is there a single Democrat that's even mentioned voting rights within the last month? I mean, Biden said that he was going to fight. And when was the last time we've heard him mention voting rights publicly? I mean, maybe he said it in a tweet, but they're allowing this to happen. Like you are in control of the White House, the Senate and the House. There's no reason why you are not fighting tooth and nail to pass something, anything. This is democracy that we're talking about. And we're basically reaching the point of no return to where the Democratic Party is letting Republicans do so much damage that the harm that they're causing now is almost irreparable. I mean, it's certainly irreparable the damage that they're allowing to happen to the planet, just broadly speaking, not just run to sentence, but generally speaking. But now if they allow Republicans to basically seize power like this and we're not even talking voting rights seriously, I just, there's no hope. Now, I want to be clear that state Democrats in Florida, they tried to fight this. They did everything that they could. NBC News reporter Mark Caputo writes, Florida House Democrats opposed to the GOP led Legislature's rubber stamping of Governor DeSantis's congressional map that diminishes a Democratic minority heavy seat, stopped the session with a sit-in and a prayer in. So they tried, they fought, they protested, but at the end of the day, they didn't have the votes. So it's incumbent on Democrats to do everything in their power. And I know the excuses. Kirsten Sonoma, Joe Manchin. Okay, you've tried the carrot approach, tried the stick approach. Try anything. Try to offer them pork with some, like literally you can take pork specifically for Arizona and West Virginia and put that in the voting rights legislation just to goad Sonoma and Manchin into voting for it. And even though that's like a problem, it's preferable to just not letting voting rights pass federally because this is going on. It's astonishing to me that nothing is being done about this federally. It's shocking. Well, it's not, I shouldn't say it's shocking, right? But it's shocking how they're not even trying to address this performatively, right? I mean, it needs to be addressed substantively with legislation, but they're not even paying lip service to the idea that they're fighting for voting rights. Now, when it comes to constitutional rights, that's not the only thing under attack in Florida because Ron DeSantis is also targeting freedom of expression. And he's not just targeting anyone's freedom of expression. He is specifically going out the freedom of expression in a way that's so nefarious that it makes Texas's law where they try to punish parents with trans children somehow seem less cruel. And that's because it is. So Brian Tyler Cohen writes the Florida Department of Health just issued guidelines telling doctors to medically detransition all transgender youth and ban them from social transition treatment, including name, pronoun and clothing changes. Here is the memo from the Florida Department of Health saying that social gender transition should not be an option for youth, including name, pronoun and clothing changes. So they are literally restricting every conceivable element of gender expression. And they're quite literally dictating what types of clothing your child is allowed to wear. Talk about nanny state and what are Democrats doing? It's not just Florida to be clear. We're using them as an example. But there has been almost 250 bills introduced in state legislatures across the country that are anti LGBTQ and they disproportionately are anti trans bills. And what are Democrats doing nationally? Fuck all. That's what they're doing. They're doing nothing in Missouri. They're debating a bill to ban transitions up to the age of 25. So we're actually talking about adults. They're saying no, you can't transition. Gender expression falls under the First Amendment. It is freedom of speech, but these free speech warriors are going after one of the most basic ways that we express ourselves. Nope, you can't have your kid wear that dress. You can't have your son grow out his hair. Sorry, that's not okay. What do you even say to that? We are devolving so quickly as a country. This is tyrannical. This is not what should happen in a democratic society. In a democratic society, civil rights and civil liberties should be protected and each generation should contribute to that project of expanding civil rights and civil liberties. But just within the past couple of years, we've gone backwards at such an alarming rate that I don't know how long it's going to take to undo this damage. And we're going backwards at a time when Democrats should be setting the agenda when they're in power, when they can write federal legislation and they have enough members of their own party in Congress to where they can pass that. It's just that they don't want to fight. They're letting this happen and they're sitting idly by doing nothing. They didn't even pass the Equality Act, which simply says you can't discriminate against people based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And if you're a business, you have to abide by this. Didn't even pass that. I mean the bare minimum expectation and they fumbled. Couldn't even get voting rights done. I mean, holy shit. See, I expect this type of repulsive authoritarian behavior from Republicans. And as Ron DeSantis does this, the more ghoulish and cruel that he gets, the more popular he becomes in the state of Florida, because Republicans love this. They love that he's cruel, that he's cracking down on trans people, that he's limiting black people from voting. They love or diluting their power to be specific. But I mean like, they love that he's doing this and this is to be expected. Republicans, they behave in a very predictable manner. But Democrats, now that they have power, it is incumbent on them to use this limited window of time to enact federal legislation that stops all of this. I mean, we might actually see Roe v. Wade undone by the Supreme Court in a matter of weeks at this point and there's zero legislation codifying Roe v. Wade. It's maddening. It is maddening. We have this party, the Republican Party, which is essentially an organized death cult and you have the only opposition in the country just sitting back and doing nothing. It's, what do you even say? The situation feels hopeless. Our country is being ripped apart at the seams by Republicans. They are destroying this country and Democrats aren't even trying to fight. They're not even pretending as if they're fighting. They're barely even paying us lip service. Perhaps you could find a few nice tweets talking about why voter suppression is bad. But the question is what are they going to do about it? And by now it's evident Democrats aren't going to do a goddamn thing about that. So the country will continue to be destroyed by Republicans and there's no electorally viable party that's actually going to fight against them because Democrats have made it very clear. No, we're not going to fight. Not even going to push back rhetorically against this whole grooming thing that Republicans have been doing. Not going to even do the bare minimum. Sorry. Should have voted harder. You should have given us a 60 Senate majority. Should have given us 70 just to make sure that we have some wiggle room. It's just it's never going to be enough. They're not going to take responsibility and they will always blame voters for not coming out to do, you know, the bare minimum. But I don't want to just make this about Democrats not fighting and being too feckless because I mean, Republican voters, I mean, are you okay with this? Do you understand what he's doing? If you ban social transition and you try to legislate trans people out of existence, are you okay knowing that you voted for this legislation or this new regulation that will literally increase trans suicides? Are you okay with that on your conscience? Are you okay with women in Texas possibly dying due to complications from an unsafe illegal abortion after you voted to ban this? I mean, at this point, you also, I'm sorry, you have to put the burden on the people who keep electing these ghouls. You elect monsters. Don't be surprised when you get monstrous policies. But I mean, Republicans love this shit. They eat it up. They love the racism. They love the transphobia. They love it because they're monsters. And this is their only political identity. That's the totality of it. They don't have any core economic beliefs. They don't have a political philosophy that they abide by. It's just reactionary hate. It's just bullshit. And that's what gets them going. That's what gets their little tiny dicks hard. Seeing, you know, Republican governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott pass these bans on gender for men care for trans youth. It's just, it's all about punching down and it's sick. Like this country is so perverted, so fucked up that I feel ashamed to live in this country with how quickly we've backslid over the course of the last couple of years. It's just, God, like what are we doing? Is this really who we want to be folks? We live on this fucking rock, floating through space for a limited amount of time. Do we really want to spend all of that time making people's lives miserable? Is that really what we want to do? Jesus fucking Christ. Get it together, America. Goddamn.