“Democrats are intensely partisan, and they prove that partisanship by screwing Republicans whenever they are in power. Republicans are intensely nonpartisan, and they prove that nonpartisanship by screwing Republicans whenever they are in power. So it doesn’t matter who is in power, Republicans get screwed.”
I first began developing this rule when I saw how the Democrats handled the redistricting process. We all know that Democrats have been attacking Republicans for gerrymandering districts since 2010. Of course, they gerrymandered legislative and Congressional districts at every opportunity since they started controlling most of the state legislative chambers in the 1940s. Between 1954 and 1994, Democrats maintained control of Congress throughout that time by gerrymandering Congressional districts throughout the country. When I was first elected, Democrats controlled all three centers of political power, that is, the two houses of the Legislatures, and the Governors, in 30 states. Republicans only had that tripartite power in 3 states, the rest were divided. Those states where Democrats everything, they used gerrymandering to hold onto that power through gerrymandering from 1966 through 2001, even as they began losing the majority vote in the 60s, 70s 80s and 90s. Prior to 2010, appealing to the courts about the unfairness of the gerrymandering process was met by all judges, Republican and Democrat alike, with deaf ears, as those courts claimed that intervention into gerrymandering would be wading into “political thicket.” Since Republicans gained power, state and federal judges have been invalidating those maps all across the country as “unfair.” No more arguments about any “political thicket.”
At the state judicial level, Democrat judges had no problems with gerrymandering in favor of Democrats. Republican judges thought they should be fair. Case in point: In 1971, then Governor Ronald Reagan vetoed the Democrat controlled Legislature’s gerrymandered legislative and Congressional districts, handing the job of drawing districts to the California Supreme Court, then controlled by Democrats, who just adopted the Democrat’s gerrymandered districts with very few changes to make sure the Democrats maintained control of the California Legislature. In 1991, Governor Pete Wilson vetoed the legislative and Congressional districts drawn by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, once again putting the decision in the hands of the then Republican controlled California Supreme Court. That court decided to make the districts “fair,” to be “nonpartisan.” Republicans did, under these “fair” districts, obtain a majority in one house of the Legislature in 1994, and then lost that majority, and since have never gotten it back in any house of the Legislature.
Republicans in the 2000s pushed to create a “nonpartisan” redistricting commission in California to get fair districts. The problem? The commission was staffed by people chosen by a Democrat Secretary of State, and the Republicans on the commission, based on conversations I had with them, were concerned about fairness, and the Democrats on the commission were committed to gerrymandering for Democrats. We all know how that has worked since the results of the redistricting in 2011 and 2021. Republicans got screwed in both.
It’s not just redistricting. Whenever the press claims that a Republican has done something wrong, Republicans lead the charge to get rid of them. Just compare what happened to Chuck Quackenbush, a former Republican insurance commissioner, who was subjected to numerous legislative committee investigations to Democrat Secretary of State, Kevin Shelley, who was subjected to none. What Quackenbush did was questionnable, but not illegal. However, the Republicans on the Quackenbush committees led the charge against Quackenbush, which led to his resignation. Kevin Shelley, on the other hand, committed acts of giving HAVA (Help Americans Vote Act) federal money to partisan Democrat groups, who then used that money to register Democrats. When Republicans called for investigations, Democrats ignored them. The Republican got screwed, and the Democrats protected Shelley until he resigned in disgrace.
I can cite any number of instances, but one last one here in California. In the 1996 election, Congressman Bob Dornan lost his election to Congress to Loretta Sanchez by a few hundred votes. Dornan went to then Republican Secretary of State, Bill Jones, saying it was the election result was caused by fraud. Jones did not want to appear too partisan, so he refused to investigate. Ultimately, the person Dornan said committed the fraud was sentenced to prison time for using government funds to finance that fraud.
Republicans got screwed by Republicans who wanted to appear nonpartisan and pro-good government. Democrats screwed Republicans to help Democrats. That happened when you compared the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Democrats protested the 2016 outcome, and Republicans said and did nothing. In 2020, Republicans protested and they were sentenced to prison. The Democrats who burned down cities in 2020 had nothing happen to them, and Republicans said nothing. Republicans who walked around the Capitol building were attacked by other Republicans and sentenced to prison.
The only good news on this front is that Donald Trump seems to be breaking that mold. When Republicans that joined with Democrats to attack his proposed Cabinet appointments, he showed those Republicans there was a political price to continue that fight, a fight they never made against any Biden appointees. For the first time in my memory, Republicans dropped their challenge to his appointments, and are now falling into line to support those appointees.
To make it clear, I am not saying Republicans should actively support their bad guys, but they don’t need to carry the heavy load in the investigations to give the charges a patina of nonpartisanship. Democrats don’t. Just ask Senator Bob Menendez and Congressman George Santos.