Why do we even bother voting anymore?

Now, before you say “that’s defeatist,” I’ve voted in the Commonwealth, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and now Texas, and my vote has never mattered. We haven’t had competitive Congressional elections in decades at this point. It’s just rich people running ads that are intended to scare people into believing people even poorer than them are somehow the most powerful cabal in the country.

And now the mask is off. Legislators have been choosing their voters for ages – it’s as American as apple pie (which I’ve not eaten in decades) – but there was at least some pretense that we’re not changing the rules midstream. That’s a good way to lose a horse and drown.

Virginia has entered the national mid-cycle redistricting battle, with Democratic state lawmakers intent on redrawing the state’s congressional maps to deliver two or three additional Democrats to Washington.

Virginia currently has a 6-5 split in its delegation, favoring Democrats by one member. Don Scott, the Democratic Virginia house speaker, sent a letter on Thursday to members alerting them to a reconvening of a special session to consider legislation. The letter does not explicitly state that redistricting is on the agenda, but national organizations said they had been informed that this is the case.

The state becomes the second, after California, to attempt to redistrict to benefit Democrats in response to Republicans’ efforts to gain seats in Congress in states including Texas, North Carolina and Missouri. Texas’s redistricting moved five additional seats into likely Republican wins. Missouri added one likely Republican seat, as did North Carolina earlier this week.