The facade of "good governance" collapsed this year.

We watched the machinery of the state turn against the voting public in real-time. While you were distracted by the usual headlines, the political class engaged in a synchronized weaponization of legislative maps designed to predetermine the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections before a single ballot is cast.

This was not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It was the maturation of the Uniparty.

This is a collusive duopoly employing state power to insulate incumbents from market competition. They treat you as a managed resource rather than a sovereign body. I want to break down exactly what happened in 2025, how they sold you the lie of "fairness," and why California's Proposition 50 was the final nail in the coffin of representative democracy.

The Incumbent Protection Racket

In a free market, competition drives efficiency. When firms compete, you get better service. In politics, the major parties operate as a cartel. Their goal is not to win ideas but to erect barriers to entry.

The 2025 redistricting cycle was an exercise in market allocation. The two major competitors effectively agreed to carve up the territory to create "safe seats." They packed opposition voters into a few overwhelming districts and cracked the rest to dilute their influence. This isn't just about "winning." In more ways than not, it is about reducing the "cost" of governance.

If an incumbent lives in a safe district, they do not need to build coalitions. They do not need to demonstrate fiscal responsibility. They only need to satisfy the narrow ideological base that controls the primary.

This is the Incumbent Protection Racket. They rigged the game so they can't lose.

The Aggressors: The Republican Offensive

The cycle began with the "Aggressors." Republican-controlled legislatures in Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio shattered the norm that redistricting only happens once a decade.

Texas was the laboratory. Governor Greg Abbott called a special session explicitly to dismantle the few remaining competitive districts in the state. They cracked the "Texas Triangle," the suburbs of Dallas and Houston, to dilute the power of urban voters. They knew the federal courts, following the Rucho decision, would not intervene in a partisan power grab.

North Carolina followed suit. They executed a "county trade" to protect their own. They moved Republican coastal counties into a swing district to protect a Democrat incumbent just enough to pack Democratic votes, while securing their own margins elsewhere. The result was a shift from a competitive 7-7 split to an 11-3 Republican lock.

They destroyed the concept of the competitive election.

The Validators: The California Betrayal

If Republicans were the aggressors, Democrats were the "Validators."

For years, California Democrats preached the sanctity of "fair maps" and independent commissions. We were told the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) was the gold standard. But the moment that commission became an obstacle to power, they burned it down.

Proposition 50 was sold to you as the "Election Rigging Response Act." The narrative was simple: "Why should California play fair while Texas cheats?" They called it unilateral disarmament.

This is intellectually bankrupt. It equates the state with the party. It assumes a "Democratic seat" belongs to the Democratic Party rather than to the voters.

They used "Gotcha" politics to manipulate you. They told you that destroying your own independent institutions was the only way to stop Donald Trump. And they spent a fortune to sell that lie. The "Yes on 50" campaign raised over $120 million, with massive contributions from George Soros and Tom Steyer.

The result? The suspension of the CRC until 2030. The new map targets Republican strongholds in Orange County and the Central Valley not to help you, but to flip five seats for the national party.

They disenfranchised millions of California voters and destroyed the credibility of reform just to settle a score with Texas.

The Death of Competition

The ultimate victim here is the competitive election.

In 2024, about 10% of House seats were competitive. After this cycle, that number will plummet. Safe seats mean unresponsive representatives.

This is also a targeted strike against third parties. The Uniparty hates the Libertarian and Green parties. Constant mid-decade redistricting makes it impossible for us to organize petition drives or build name recognition. By eliminating swing districts, they strengthen the "spoiler" narrative. They tell you that you must vote for the lesser of two evils because the margins are too tight, or that your vote doesn't matter because the district is too safe.

This is a manufactured psychological trap.

The Only Way Out

The "Uniparty" thesis is no longer a theory. It is an observable reality. Republicans in Ohio override anti-gerrymandering laws to protect their power. Democrats in New York and California do the exact same thing to protect theirs.

They have successfully "cartelized" American politics.

We can't trust the state to regulate itself. Independent commissions are paper barriers that will be torn up by a sufficiently motivated and manipulated majority.

The only path forward is to reject their premise entirely. We need radical decentralization. We need to break the winner-take-all system that incentivizes this tyranny.

But first, we need to force them to answer for it. They drew these maps to ensure they never have to debate an outsider. They drew these lines to silence people like me.

I am running for Governor to be the glitch in their system. I want to stand on that debate stage and ask them why they think they own your vote. I want to ask them why they think "fairness" is a tactic rather than a principle.

Help me break their map.