Capitulation: Redistricting, Democracy, Values

Let’s just say it like it is: the Democratic Party has lost its spine.

The below article was written before the Senate’s vote yesterday. I was holding it due to a very good election day result and thought to myself… hey maybe this is the opportunity for Dems to read the room and show some backbone. I was wrong.

The people of Ohio, and America as a whole, deserve better.

Even if it costs us seats. Even if it weakens the party’s short-term power base. The truth is, if Democrats actually found principles, stood on those principles, and fought for them with consistency and conviction, people would respect them again. What we have now is a party that preaches values but collapses the second it feels political pressure.

Gerrymandering: The Blueprint of Capitulation

Case in point is the Ohio’s redistricting disaster.

We fought for a constitutional amendment that said we wanted fair districts. The people of Ohio made that clear. Yet, when it came time to draw maps, our so-called leaders caved. They agreed to lines that were obviously not in the spirit of the amendment. They told us, “This is the best we can do.”

That wasn’t leadership. That was cowardice.

We were told to swallow it to “take our medicine” because apparently, capitulation is now considered strategy. And just when we thought that embarrassment was a one-off, State Senator Nickie Antonio helped usher in the next round of gerrymandered maps — the ones that will define our congressional races until 2031.

Think about that. We will live under unfair, undemocratic maps for another six years because Democrats once again said, “This is the best we can do.”

These maps could cost Ohio two more congressional seats by population loss and partisan manipulation combined. And the same people who rubber-stamped them are now out here pretending that compromise is courage.

It’s not. It’s weakness wrapped in excuses.

The Party of “We Tried”

This is what’s killing the Democratic Party…the loser mentality that says, “We’ll take what we can get,” instead of fighting for what’s right.

Every cycle it’s the same story.
We’re told the stakes are too high to demand accountability.
We’re told we have to accept half-measures because “the other side is worse.”

Meanwhile, Republicans gerrymander the hell out of their maps, bulldoze opposition, and lock down power for a decade. And what do Democrats do? Sign off on it — and then call it “the best we can do.”

Sorry, no. That’s not fighting for democracy. That’s negotiating its funeral.

Nickie Antonio just proved what’s been obvious for years — that too many Democrats don’t stand for anything anymore. They’d rather keep their seats than keep their integrity.

They’ll tell you how much they believe in something, then shrug and say, “Well, sorry, this was all we could get.”
It’s political gaslighting — and voters are done with it.

From Capitulation to Collapse

This failure isn’t isolated to Ohio. It’s the same story everywhere.

The minimum wage is still stuck where it was years ago — something Democrats claim to support but never seem to pass.
Unions, once a cornerstone of our party, are drifting right because we stopped showing up for them.
Abortion rights were lost at the federal level and shoved back to the states, and the Democratic response was mostly outrage on TV, not policy on the ground.
And democracy itself, the one thing we supposedly exist to defend, has been undermined over and over again by our own side’s willingness to “compromise” away its meaning.

Every time we’re told, “We have to make this deal to stop Trump,” it’s another justification for subverting democracy in the name of saving it. Gerrymandering? Sure, let’s allow something unconstitutional, because it’s “strategic.” Voter disillusionment? Just tell them it’s for the greater good.

Meanwhile, voters are standing there like Oliver Twist:
“Please, sir, may I have some more?”

Kamala Harris and the Pre-Packaged “Democratic” Nomination

So the Democrats talk big about democracy, fair elections, open primaries, the voice of the people. But then they go and do something that contradicts that very premise: they put in Kamala Harris for the presidency without a primary challenge, as though her nomination were a foregone conclusion.

Think about it for a moment, a party that claims to believe in the rule of the people doesn’t require the people to choose their leader, it hands them one. The democratic ideals sound good in speeches, but the behavior says something very different: If you want to champion democracy, you must role model democracy! Instead we see: “We’ve decided our nominee; now you vote for her.”

This isn’t democracy. It’s oligarchy by another name. The people aren’t choosing so much as confirming. And the message it sends to voters is corrosive: your voice matters unless the party has already made the call.

What’s worse: when you foreclose a real primary, you eliminate the process of debate, contestation, accountability. You skip the step where ideas are challenged, refined, and chosen by the voters. That’s exactly what voters deserve and that is how you get the right candidate for the moment.

When We Fight, We Win — But When Do We Fight?

There was a slogan during the 2022 elections: “When we fight, we win.”
But tell me — when was the last time you saw this party actually fight?

Not talk about fighting. Not fundraise on fighting. Fight.
Because I can’t remember.

Instead, the moment the pressure hits, the knives come out, not for the opposition, but for anyone inside the party with guts. The candidate who says, “I’ll actually get this done,” becomes the enemy. The establishment turns inward, protecting its control, its comfort, its little ecosystem of mediocrity.

It’s embarrassing.
It’s weak.
And it’s killing us.

The Path Forward: Get a Backbone

If the Democratic Party wants to save itself, it needs a full-blown spine transplant.

That means voters need to throw out the entire leadership class that keeps making excuses from the DNC down to the statehouse. We need people with real backbone, people who know that losing a seat for the right reason is better than keeping one for the wrong reason.

We need Democrats who understand that principle is power, and that conviction earns respect. Even from those who disagree.

So yeah, maybe we lose a few seats along the way.
Maybe we take a short-term hit.
But at least then we’ll be fighting for something again.

Because right now?
We’re not the party of progress.
We’re the party of capitulation.