Gee, what’s happened to the “silly season” of U.S. politics? 

That’s what many of us in the daily journalism trade used to call the periods, usually in late summer or near holidays, when news media put an unusually intense focus on lighthearted or frivolous stories due to a shortage of more serious news. 

We currently have no such shortage. Even late-breaking investigations and speculation surrounding the suicide of President Donald Trump’s late friend Jeffrey Epstein have had to compete with a ferocious partisan war within some of the states over redistricting. 

Consider Texas, where Republicans in the state legislature are attempting, at Trump’s urging, to redraw congressional districts in order to flip five more districts to Republican majorities. Democratic legislators have fled the state to deny the legislature a quorum, in hopes of preventing Republicans from carrying out their plan. 

Some have taken refuge in Illinois, leading Texas Republicans to call for their arrest by the FBI. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has vowed to protect them. 

”Donald Trump is trying to steal five seats from the people — frankly, of the country, not just the people of Texas — and disenfranchise people,” Pritzker said on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” “We’re talking about violating the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.” 

Pritzker also declined to turn away from the possibility of a mid-decade congressional remap in his own state. He told Colbert: “It’s possible. I’ve said everything is on the table. We’ve gotta fight fire with fire.” 

Are we starting to see the hardball attitude that many frustrated Democrats have been urging their national party to adopt? 

Still smarting from the debacle of Joe Biden’s 2024 candidacy and the subsequent defeat of the Kamala Harris/ Tim Walz ticket, Dems appear increasingly ready to face a real threat to their ability to regain power in 2026 and beyond. 

For their part, Republicans are not trying to hide their determination to gerrymander their way out of a midterm backlash in November 2026. Vice President JD Vance visited Indiana to urge lawmakers to redraw their congressional map. It’s already a reliably Republican-voting state, but it appears the GOP wants to leave nothing to chance. 

I find it to be no small irony that these battle lines are forming on the 60th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Some of us are old enough to remember the feeling that a new page in American history had been turned when that law was enacted. We believed that it would finally end the denial and dilution of Black voting power. 

That dream, once won, now must be defended once again. Frankly, it’s been a never-ending chore. The last time House Democrats held the majority, they introduced a sweeping package of good-government reforms, including a centerpiece legislation to end partisan gerrymandering. 

“The people should choose their politicians,” then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in 2021 before the House passed the For the People Act, which would later die in the Senate. “Politicians should not be choosing their voters.” 

Of course, choosing their voters is precisely what Trump and Republican legislatures intend to do. Trump’s team has pushed Republicans to redraw maps “wherever redistricting is an option.” 

Democrats can’t afford to respond with anything less. Indeed, some Democrats, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, are switching from their past lofty positions in favor of bipartisan redistricting commissions to embracing the idea of fighting fire with fire. 

Pelosi, who remains a member of the U.S. House, said that while Democrats favor nationwide independent commissions to draw congressional district maps, they “cannot and will not unilaterally disarm.” 

Recent polling trends show eroding support for Trump’s actions and policies, which can aptly summed up as “reverse Robin Hood” with a police-state sideshow. This is especially the case among independents but is noticeable even among Republicans, many of whom no doubt realize their president is off the chain. 

A big opportunity is opening for challengers who can show voters sanity, humanity and the backbone to stand up to the schoolyard bully in the Oval Office. And Democrats have shown before that they can rise from the slough of despond to win an electoral mandate. 

This normally silly season has turned sinister, and the stakes to Democrats are existential. Their first step in winning back voters is showing they’re willing to fight. 

The writer is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune