Prop 50 ~ Swallow the Salty Hypocrisy

I’ll be the first to admit it: I’ve flip flopped on California’s Proposition 50. Not because I suddenly found religion in partisan politics or fell under the orange glow of Trump’s tan. No, it’s because Prop 50 shines a bright, unfiltered light on something most people don’t like to acknowledge. It’s not about fairness. It’s about power. Always has been. Always will be.

The Gerrymandering Game ... Trump Didn’t Invent This

If you listen to the prevailing narrative, you’d think Donald Trump personally sharpened the first redistricting pencil, drew crooked lines on a map, and shouted “Gerrymander!” from the rooftop of Mar-a-Lago. But let’s pump the brakes on that one. Trump may have made it louder, but he didn’t make it new. Gerrymandering has been attempted at least five times in this century alone on both sides of the aisle (Levitt, 2019).

Democrats, Republicans, and anyone else with the keys to the kingdom have tried their hand at it. This is not about one man. It’s about a long standing political strategy. One side cries foul when the other does it, then turns around and does the exact same thing when the wind shifts in their favor. It’s a beautiful hypocrisy, really. A mirror image of “they started it” played out with million-dollar consultants and legal teams.

So when I hear that Prop 50 is about defending California from Trump’s so-called authoritarian power, I can’t help but laugh. Because here’s the kicker: Maryland and Illinois, both solidly blue states, are doing the exact same thing. And now New York, the only other state with a supposedly nonpartisan redistricting system is trying to upend its own plan too. Gerrymandering isn’t about protecting democracy; it’s about ensuring your team wins (McGann et al., 2016).

Democracy or Mob Rule?

There’s a romantic notion about democracy that gets peddled in every civics textbook and campaign ad: “The voice of the people.” Cue the bald eagle, amber waves of grain, and fireworks over the Golden Gate Bridge. But what happens when “the people” really just means “the majority”? What happens to those of us not sitting in the biggest echo chamber?

James Madison once warned about this in Federalist No. 10, arguing that “democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention” (Madison, 1787). John Adams echoed it when he said, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide” (Adams, 1814). Winston Churchill, ever the realist, threw in his two cents too: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried” (Churchill, 1947).

Mob rule isn’t a bug in the system. It is the system. Democracy works when you’re in the mob. When you’re not? Well, tough luck, friend.

Why I Was Against Prop 50 (At First)

When this measure first hit the headlines, I was dead set against it. Not because I’m MAGA. Not because I love Trump. But because California, for a brief shining moment, was a beacon of hope in congressional redistricting. We were the first state to appoint an independent, nonpartisan commission to draw district lines. We set the gold standard. We actually had one of the highest fairness ratings in the nation (McGhee et al., 2014).

This system allowed agricultural and more conservative leaning rural areas to have a seat at the table a voice that mattered. Farmers. Small-town communities. People who sell avocados rather than brunch on them.

Under the old system, they actually got a fair shot. Prop 50 bulldozes that.

With the new zones, those agricultural districts are being folded into urban strongholds where votes are drawn from dense liberal populations. Their voices will be drowned out. Wiped away. Erased. And that’s not hyperbole. That’s how math works when your county has 40,000 people and theirs has 4 million.

For me, that felt criminal. A blitzkrieg on representation. Imagine building your life, your farm, your business around local governance that reflects your reality, only to have someone in Sacramento say, “We’re just gonna move the lines. Don’t worry. It’s democratic.”

The Lightbulb Moment Welcome to Democracy, Honey

And then it hit me like a falling PG&E power line. This is democracy. This is exactly how it works. Those with the numbers, and the power, make the rules. You can dress it up in all the star spangled rhetoric you want, but at its core, democracy is about majority rule. Period.

It’s not about fairness. It’s not about listening to everyone. It’s about whoever has the most votes getting to dictate what happens next. Today, it’s liberal California. Elsewhere, it is someone else. Everyone justifies their own gerrymander as “defending democracy.” You say the other guys are bad for doing it, and then convince yourself it’s righteous when you do it.

That’s the bitter little pill I had to swallow. Democracy isn’t moral. It’s mechanical.

Pavlov’s Bell and No Kings

I’ll give credit where it’s due, the local turnout for the “No Kings” event was impressive. It’s great that a bunch of like-minded folks can get together and celebrate their shared dislike for Trump. Yay! The energy was strong, the signs were clever, and everyone seemed to be riding the same political wave.

But here’s the thing: this is the same chorus we’ve been hearing for years. “At least we’re not Trump.” That’s the rallying cry. And that, ironically, is exactly how we got here, not by looking for bipartisan solutions, but by digging deeper into our partisan foxholes. When “not being the other guy” is your platform, you’re not building anything new; you aren't changing minds, you’re just reinforcing the divide.

We tell ourselves we’re resisting tyranny. But in reality, we’re feeding the same partisan machine that keeps the wheel spinning. Maryland and Illinois draw lines to protect Democrats. California just joined the club with Prop 50. And now New York is adding its name to the roster too. Hip hip hooray.

The Missed Opportunity

What really burns me isn’t just the redistricting. It’s what this state could have done with its supermajority. California had the political power not long ago to do something transformative like finally fixing health care in this state. Instead, nothing. Zip. Nada. But don’t worry, the majority party politicians all still cashed their checks from PG&E, and our utility rates are climbing for the next eight years (Borenstein, 2021).

When the rubber hits the road, it’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about maintaining the machine.

Five Years of Madness

And here’s the cherry on top: this change only lasts five years. Five years of rearranging the chessboard, kicking rural counties in the shins, and pretending it’s all for the greater good.

My heart genuinely goes out to the folks in those areas. The ones who’ve been told their voice matters only to find out it’s just background noise in a louder song.

After those five years? Who knows. Maybe another party will take power and redraw it again (Not Likely). Maybe they’ll “fix democracy” with a different gerrymander. The pendulum will keep swinging, knocking us all in the teeth.

Voting Isn’t a Moral High Ground

I hear a lot of people say, “Vote like your freedom depends on it.” But let’s be honest: this isn’t a vote for freedom. It’s not a vote for fairness. It’s a vote for your team. Your tribe. Your mob. And in the process, you’re excluding someone else who isn’t in your circle.

And here’s the ugly truth: there isn’t a moral high ground anymore. Governor Newsom recently said we have to “fight fire with fire.” Well, forgive me for pointing out the obvious, he’s not standing on clean marble while the GOP wallows in the muck. He’s already waist-deep across from them in the same political cesspool, hurling his own buckets of mud.

And we continue to divide our nation. Do you really think anybody new suddenly hates Trump because of these moves? Nope. All it does is embolden those who already support him. He cries foul in the media and in private he laughs.

So do the rest of the power brokers, on both sides. Because divided, we are easier to control. They get to keep their seats, their power, and their talking points. And we the people are left pointing fingers at each other instead of fixing what’s broken.

United we stand. Divided we fall. And right now, we’re doing one hell of a swan dive into division.

I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I am an American. I want to find common ground between people with different perspectives and actually build something from that foundation, a better life for all of us. I’ll support any politician who genuinely tries to do that. But right now? I’m a Ronin looking for home.

That’s the real story of Prop 50. It’s not some noble stand against Trump’s shadow. It’s just another partisan move in a long line of partisan moves.

What the Founders Feared

Our Founding Fathers weren’t exactly perfect people, understatement of the century, but they were wary of pure democracy. In their eyes, democracy was dangerous. They feared what they’d seen in Europe: populist surges that quickly turned to mob rule.

That’s why voting was originally restricted to educated men with property. They weren’t being “woke” or “fair”, they were trying to prevent exactly what we see now: chaos by numbers.

Now, 250 years later, we’ve taken their rickety train and fully launched it off the tracks.

The Flip-Flop

So yes. I’ve flipped on Prop 50. I was against it for its hypocrisy. Now I’m almost amused by it. Because it’s just democracy doing what democracy does. It doesn’t need to be logical. It doesn’t need to be fair. It just needs 50 percent plus one.

And when the shoe’s on the other foot, the people cheering today will be crying foul tomorrow. That’s the cycle.

Do I like it? No. Do I respect the irony? Oh, absolutely.

So when you cast your vote, don’t pat yourself on the back for defending democracy. Just admit what it really is: joining your mob. Excluding someone else’s. Wielding power while you have it. Because that’s the game.

Final Thought

Democracy isn’t a moral compass. It’s a numbers game. And Prop 50 isn’t a shield against Trumpian tyranny. It’s a political maneuver, plain and simple. One that’s already been tried on both sides. One that will be tried again.

Flip-flopping on 50 didn’t make me cynical. It just made me honest.

I am still selling my vote for the best dinner possible.

References

• Adams, J. (1814). Letter to John Taylor.

• Borenstein, S. (2021). “California Electricity Rates and PG&E Influence.” Energy Institute at Haas.

• Churchill, W. (1947). Speech to the House of Commons.

• Levitt, J. (2019). Gerrymandering and the Law: Redistricting in the 21st Century. Brennan Center for Justice.

• Madison, J. (1787). Federalist No. 10.

• McGann, A., Smith, C., Latner, M., & Keena, A. (2016). Gerrymandering in America: The House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, and the Future of Popular Sovereignty. Cambridge University Press.

• McGhee, E., et al. (2014). “Measuring Partisan Fairness in Redistricting.” Public Policy Institute of California.

• “What Went Wrong with New York’s Redistricting.” Brennan Center, June 7 2022.

• “New York Democrats Play Fast and Loose With Redistricting.” City Journal, Aug 4 2025.