Salon magazine, if you’re not familiar, is a progressive publication.  Progressives, as you doubtless know, would rather go to an NRA meeting (the horror!) then hit the drive-thru at Chick-fil-A (oh hell no!) than admit something’s wrong, but they just did it, and to their credit, they were honest and accurate.

Check out this recent Salon headline:

Democrats can’t win the gerrymander war

They have to win elections instead….

Now marvel at their continued honesty:

Democrats simply control too few states, and they’ve pretty much maxed out the maps in the states where they hold trifecta power.

And it’s only going to get worse (emphasis mine):

When the next congressional reapportionment happens after the 2030 census, red states stand to make huge gains. Florida and Texas, according to early estimates, could add an additional four seats each, perhaps five in Texas. The Brennan Center suggests that Idaho, Utah, Arizona and North Carolina would each gain a seat.

More important still, those red-state gains have to come from somewhere, and that’s largely from current blue states. California could lose four seats and New York might lose two, while Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Oregon, Illinois and Wisconsin could each lose one.

Hahaha.  It’s finally starting to catch up with them.  Their gerrymandering game has run out of runway.  And it’s not just options they’re losing.  And not just people in general they’ve noticed they’re losing.  It’s people of color.

[Republicans] have proven highly adept at turning population gains — even those driven almost entirely by communities of color — to their advantage….

They just don’t know what to do about losing so many of our black and brown brothers and sisters.  To be sure, it’s not a majority, but Trump and MAGA have begun to persuade enough to our side to hurt them — enough to throw elections our way — and that’s what has them worried.

And let’s be real about how cynical their posture is: progressive angst over this has nothing to do with the fact that they’re increasingly out of touch with a constituency they profess to champion.  Pshaw. Their angst is simply that they have realized they need people of color more than people of color need them.  It’s really that simple.  And glorious.

Notable too, is that Salon used some derivation of the word “persuade” twice in the article.  The way they do it is like it’s something that smells foul, or like some old, ancient evil that’s popped up from a fissure in the ground, rather than what it was and is:  simple politics.  Addition and not subtraction.

Here (emphasis mine):

Politics and persuasion — on a shrinking map, and in difficult electoral environments like Iowa and Arizona — is the only option.

And here:

[Democrats had better] start with persuading voters in states where the Democratic brand has become toxic to consider them afresh. And it had better start now.

Progressives are coming to the realization for the first time in a generation or two that votes must be earned, not scammed.  We can and should continue working hard to earn votes, but we can also enjoy hapless spectacle on the other side.

Tee hee hee.