John Roberts’ Supreme Court has effectively legalized partisan gerrymandering.
The gutting of the Voting Rights Act could entrench one-party white rule across much of the South.
Reforming the courts and adopting proportional representation may be the only path to real democracy.
David Daley — author of the national best-seller Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count — traces how the right turned gerrymandering from a political tactic into a permanent governing strategy. What he describes isn’t politics as usual but the slow construction of a parallel constitution, one that rewrites who counts and who doesn’t. The collapse of federal oversight under Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has turned the map itself into a weapon, with state courts and dark-money operatives redrawing democracy by design.
Daley argues that the only real fix now is structural: rebuild the courts, reimagine representation, and reclaim the rules. The fight ahead, he warns, won’t be won in a single election—it will require the same generational patience and persistence that built this crisis in the first place.
Tune in to this urgent conversation with David Daley and Sam Osterhout.
