The Muckrake Political Podcast - Virginia Slims the Vote
Aired: 2026-04-24
Duration: 08:12


=== Redistricting Reform Stalls (07:43) ===

[00:00:03]  That guy didn't want to open, Nick.
[00:00:05]  I know, but it's probably because of what it is that you're opening.
[00:00:08]  Yeah, that's probably that.
[00:00:09]  Hey, everybody, welcome to the Weekender Edition of the Muckrake Podcast.
[00:00:11]  I'm Jerry J. Sexton here with Nick Houseman.
[00:00:13]  The boys are still in town.
[00:00:15]  The boys are still in town.
[00:00:17]  How are you doing, Nick?
[00:00:19]  I'm good.
[00:00:19]  I'm good.
[00:00:20]  Always great to be back with the boys.
[00:00:22]  Yeah, that's where you want to be.
[00:00:24]  You want to be with the boys.
[00:00:26]  Of summer.
[00:00:28]  I mean, let's not get to summer yet.
[00:00:30]  Oh, my God.
[00:00:31]  Almost.
[00:00:32]  Almost the boys of summer.
[00:00:33]  Yeah.
[00:00:33]  I don't.
[00:00:34]  I, I, I, now I'm, I just suddenly got a full physical memory of being extremely hot and uncomfortable.
[00:00:40]  Oh, no.
[00:00:42]  I like being hot.
[00:00:43]  I like hot better than cold.
[00:00:45]  Oh, spoken like a true Chicago boy.
[00:00:47]  Just completely shed the entire Midwest.
[00:00:50]  I love it.
[00:00:51]  I had the heat on, by the way.
[00:00:52]  It's 72 degrees outside.
[00:00:54]  I had the heat on.
[00:00:55]  Man, I just felt the collective listenership shaking their heads.
[00:00:58]  Hey, everybody.
[00:01:00]  Uh, we're, we're about to do the weekender.
[00:01:02]  We've got a full slate of things to talk about.
[00:01:04]  A reminder.
[00:01:05]  You'll listen to the entire episode.
[00:01:06]  Head over to patreon.comslash mockcraig podcast, become a patron, support the show, keep us editorially independent, and keep this operation going.
[00:01:13]  You also get the weekenders, special shows, all of that good stuff.
[00:01:16]  Patreon.comslash mockcraig podcast.
[00:01:18]  Nick, we start with a little bit of electoral news.
[00:01:23]  The people went to the polls this week in the state of Virginia, and voters voted with a clear majority to green light redistricting, which could give the Democratic Party up to four extra seats in Congress starting in the upcoming election.
[00:01:38]  Weirdly enough, Uh, Nick, and this is strange.
[00:01:40]  Donald Trump, um, this is totally out of character, claimed that the election was quote unquote rigged.
[00:01:47]  We then had a county circuit court judge named Jack Hurley who barred the passage.
[00:01:52]  Uh, and the attorney general is going to appeal this, try and keep it from happening.
[00:01:57]  Um, I think it was one of those bright spots for a moment that people kind of said, Hey, there's a victory, the Democrats are playing hardball, and we see what I think we're going to see going forward.
[00:02:08]  It's weird.
[00:02:09]  It's weird.
[00:02:10]  That they'd be able to get the actual election done.
[00:02:12]  And then out of the blue, this judge comes in and tries to sort of have a stay of it, and they have to now appeal.
[00:02:19]  So, you know, at least they're trying to do it democratically, right?
[00:02:25]  Because obviously the contrast would be what they've done in all the Republican states are just pushing through legislation without any kind of weighing in from the electorate.
[00:02:33]  So I don't know.
[00:02:36]  It feels like they're going to end up having this hold, but I don't know how great I feel about all these mid-decade.
[00:02:44]  Redistricting.
[00:02:45]  What do you think?
[00:02:46]  Well, I'm of two minds on this thing.
[00:02:48]  And again, I understand that my job oftentimes is to rain on people's parades.
[00:02:53]  I'm sorry.
[00:02:54]  I'm just trying to keep people's eye on the ball.
[00:02:56]  When it comes to redistricting and gerrymandering, I think it's a problem.
[00:03:01]  I think it's a symptom.
[00:03:02]  I've said that over and over again when we were talking about redistricting in California.
[00:03:06]  I would much rather have a reform movement in this country that goes through all the districts and makes them more democratic, small d democratic, and reflects an actual Fair system.
[00:03:18]  That's my first thing.
[00:03:19]  Redistricting doesn't even have to be, I think, the main focus here.
[00:03:22]  What I see is something that I hope people are going to notice more and more of, basically because of the experience we've all had now for years, which is you are not going to make inroads towards reform.
[00:03:37]  You're not going to make inroads towards more democracy because the institutions are so co opted at this point and so corrupted at this point that even, let's say, the Democratic Party.
[00:03:49]  Were to win in November.
[00:03:50]  Let's say that a Democratic presidential nominee wins in 2028.
[00:03:54]  Let's say, and by the way, we've got information we'll get to here in a few minutes that show that you probably can't count on any of that anyway.
[00:04:02]  Even if that were to happen, we know what happens when legislation is put forward, right?
[00:04:07]  That is actually going to change things.
[00:04:09]  We talked on the last episode about the Supreme Court, the emergency docket with the EPA, with Obama, all of it.
[00:04:16]  The institutions are so corrupted and so co opted.
[00:04:19]  That they have a natural backstop at this point.
[00:04:22]  So it doesn't matter that Virginians went and voted for this thing.
[00:04:25]  You can have arguments about redistricting all you want.
[00:04:27]  The powers that be who have these institutions are going to step in and stop you from reforming things.
[00:04:34]  So I hope it's a dawning reality that you're not going to vote your way out of this mess.
[00:04:40]  You're going to have to change the institutions.
[00:04:43]  You're going to have to actually fight them as opposed to go to the ballot box, which is what we've all been told that we have to do.
[00:04:49]  Well, this now we have a thought experiment here because what is the purpose of all this redistricting?
[00:04:54]  Redistricting right now.
[00:04:56]  And I would think that the main motivation that the Democrats are doing to get control of Congress is simply to impeach Trump.
[00:05:02]  Would you think that's a fair statement?
[00:05:05]  How many Democrats have you heard promise to impeach Trump?
[00:05:08]  None.
[00:05:09]  That's shocking, isn't it?
[00:05:10]  If that's the main goal, it's weird that they wouldn't be saying it is, unless they're like, we can't talk about it.
[00:05:16]  We're all going to do it, wink, wink, and everything.
[00:05:17]  But I have to imagine that, at least from my point of view, yes, I want the Congress to take control so they can at least. try and gum up the works a little bit here, right?
[00:05:27]  And stop, you know, what basically we are in the middle of a monarchy, the way they're trying to treat this.
[00:05:33]  So that's probably the biggest thing, which again, kind of backstops what you're trying to say, which is this isn't about legislation, about improving conditions on the ground across the country.
[00:05:44]  This is simply about trying to grind to a halt an administration that needs to be grounded to a halt.
[00:05:51]  And so, yeah, it's troubling because it's not even the symptom, I suppose, of what we need to really deal with, which is We need people who want to affect change.
[00:05:59]  They can convince enough of their other colleagues in the Senate and in Congress to follow along.
[00:06:07]  Very tough to do.
[00:06:09]  I think it sounds like it's just the temptation is too great to either go with status quo and then profit off of that.
[00:06:17]  Well, and I mean, we talked about it on Tuesday.
[00:06:21]  There are moments where change can happen, but you're not going to get change with a group of people.
[00:06:27]  And the main.
[00:06:29]  Gravity of ideology behind the Democratic Party, even this redistricting thing, this is about as far as the Democrats will go, right?
[00:06:36]  This is about as aggressive as they will get.
[00:06:39]  Their main governing ideology is to protect not just the status quo, but decorum, right?
[00:06:46]  They are the party of decorum.
[00:06:48]  They are the ones who are still going to follow the rules that have been destroyed.
[00:06:52]  And yes, this is aggressive, but look what happens when you pass it, right?
[00:06:56]  And immediately, were you shocked when you heard that Donald Trump called this a rigged election?
[00:07:02]  Shocking.
[00:07:02]  I was not shocked.
[00:07:03]  No, not at all.
[00:07:04]  We know that that's what this is going to be.
[00:07:06]  Why?
[00:07:07]  Because before Donald Trump even got elected, I've been following this guy for way too long, Nick.
[00:07:13]  I was trying to tell people in 2012, when Obama beat Romney, he was calling on people to march to Washington and carry out a revolution because the election had been rigged.
[00:07:24]  This guy is never going to accept something that doesn't go his way.
[00:07:28]  And as a result, you now have an apparatus.
[00:07:31]  In the Republican Party that does not accept democracy, is completely and utterly antithetical to democracy, wants to dismantle it, they are going to use everything at their disposal, and that includes undermining democracy, which we'll get to in a minute.

=== Trump's Long Game (00:25) ===

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