What started as a call from President Trump to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has become an arms race to win control of the House of Representatives. But the most troubling aspect isn’t the gerrymandering itself, but how willingly our leaders are abandoning the institutions they claim to defend.

Pay attention to how our leaders are presenting this institutional destruction. Texas Republicans openly acknowledged their plan was designed to “perform better for Republican congressional candidates” and justified it as a response to “Democratic gerrymandering elsewhere.” California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom declared “We have got to fight fire with fire. Don’t mess with the great Golden State.”

This is the language of leaders who are celebrating playing voters against one another and taking a

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