What is gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is when politicians redraw district maps to favor their party.
They pack opponents into one district so their votes are wasted. They split opponents across multiple districts so they never win a majority.
This way, a state that is 50–50 between two parties can end up with one side holding 70 or 80 percent of the seats. It flips elections without flipping voters.
Why California is in the spotlight
Governor Gavin Newsom and national Democrats are pushing Proposition 50, a ballot measure to redraw California’s House districts. The goal is to counter Republican maps in Texas and flip half a dozen seats in next year’s midterms.
On the surface, it looks like partisan payback. Underneath, it exposes how money, not voters, drives the rules of American democracy.
Tech elites are buying democracy
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has given $2 million to support Newsom’s effort. Venture capitalist Ron Conway and Y Combinator’s Paul Graham are also in. These are not community activists. They are billionaires deciding political boundaries with their wallets.
On the other side, Republican donor Charles Munger Jr. has already poured $10 million into the opposition and is prepared to spend up to $30 million.
This is not a debate about fair maps. It is an arms race between oligarchs.
The hypocrisy problem
Democrats have spent more than a decade condemning Republican gerrymanders in places like North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Ohio. They launched lawsuits, campaigns, and a national committee led by Eric Holder to stop GOP map-rigging.
Now those same Democrats defend their own partisan maps as “saving democracy.” The tactic is identical. Only the branding has changed.
California’s proxy war
This is not really about Fresno, Riverside, or San Diego. California voters are pawns in a national chess match. The state’s lines are being redrawn to offset Texas’s gerrymander and shift control of Congress.
California is the battlefield. Washington is the prize.
No cap on money, no cap on corruption
California allows unlimited donations to ballot measures. That means one billionaire has more influence than tens of thousands of ordinary families.
This is sold as democracy. In practice, it looks like an oligarchy.
Trump as the glue
Both sides frame their fight around Donald Trump. Democrats say Prop 50 is a way to block his agenda and resist his immigration raids. Republicans, led by Kevin McCarthy, are raising $100 million to defeat the measure and argue that Democrats are copying Trump’s tactics.
Neither side is fighting for voters. They are fighting over Trump’s shadow.
Where the money goes
The millions are not spent on drawing lines. That costs little.
The real spending goes to:
TV ads in California’s multiple media markets, in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and more
Digital ads, mailers, polling, and canvassing
Legal battles and high-priced lawyers
Data consultants running voter simulations
The cash is about winning the propaganda war, not the map itself.
Final thought
As someone from China, the most shocking part is learning that U.S. districts are not fixed. They can be reshaped by whoever has power and money at the right time.
Billionaires pour millions to redraw lines instead of fixing streets, housing, or homelessness. If they invested that money into improving daily life, the public support they want would follow naturally. Instead, they buy the map.
That is not democracy. That is oligarchy.
