New York Times Columnist David Brooks Compares Trump-Backed Redistricting Efforts to Using ‘Mustard Gas’ on Democracy

New York Times columnist David Brooks compared redistricting efforts backed by President Donald Trump to using chemical weapons on civilians.

Brooks and Jonathan Capehart joined PBS this week to discuss the ongoing debate around redistricting as well as Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Redistricting efforts in Texas have caused multiple Democratic lawmakers to flee the state in protest.

Brooks compared redistricting congressional lines in Texas to Germany using “mustard gas” on civilians in World War I. He then made that the case for why Democrats like California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) should not be responding in the same fashion.

The columnist argued:

Let’s do a little ethical experiment here. In World War I, the Germans used mustard gas on civilians, and it helps them. Do you then decide, OK, we’re going to use mustard gas in civilians? What Trump ordered Abbott to do in Texas is mustard gas on our democracy. Some people would feel, okay, that was terrible, we have to fight back, it’s horrible, but we’re gonna fight back because that’s war. Gavin Newsom is leaping into this with both legs. And to me, there’s a moral stain that will accompany anybody who does this. Because basically they are destroying our democracy. You don’t let politicians pick voters, you let voters pick politicians. And the people who oppose gerrymandering, they’re the ones defending democracy.

Redistricting spats, Brooks predicted, will lead to a “race to the bottom” as each side fully embraces gerrymandering.

He said:

What’s gonna happen is that we’re gonna have a race to the bottom, where it’s in the middle of — and I fully grant you that Trump started it, so I’m not saying it’s totally morally equivalent — but there’s a moral stain, and what’s going to happen is people are gonna say, it’s those politicians. And loss of faith in the system, loss of faith in democracy, and literally less democracy. Because if you are a Texas voter or a California voter, if New York does it or Missouri does it, all the states that are going to do this, you are literally disenfranchising people because you can pick the district so carefully that the voters don’t matter so much.

Watch above via PBS.