On an Airbus plane, as the plane gets about thirty feet over the runway, the cockpit computer screams, “Retard. Retard.” It is a reminder to reduce power to idle. Republicans are now thirty feet over the runway, and the cockpit computer is describing screaming at them.
Michael Anton, in 2016, famously wrote a piece entitled “The Flight 93 Election,” in which he argued that the election required a desperate act to grab hold of government and save it from the left. Now, in 2026, Republicans have decided, thirty feet over the runway, to crash the plane. Ironically, it’s not to stop the Democrats, but to spite the White House political team.
In short, the President of the United States, Vice President of the United States, and the political team of the White House decided to try to beat Democrats in midterm elections by engaging in mid-decade redistricting. The White House team just assumed that Republican state legislatures of diverse states and constituent interests would just comply by serving as yes men to the President instead of their own voters. Not only have the legislatures not all complied, Democrats responded with their own mid-decade redistricting, even as some Democratic states also refused to play along.
So the White House started a fight without any plan of success other than bullying Republican state legislatures, much as the same White House thinks it can get its agenda through Congress by bullying Republicans there. And the White House team is getting the same results.
“Every battle is won before it is fought,” wrote Sun Tzu. “Leeroy Jenkins,” replied Donald Trump.
In Indiana, the State Senate Republicans killed a redistricting effort that would have picked up Republican seats. The Hoosiers didn’t want to engage in mid-decade redistricting even as Virginia prepares a map to wipe out the congressional GOP there.
Each state is different. But what the Trump Team missed was something very basic. The Indiana Republicans could have been persuaded to redistrict. But they felt like they were being rushed into it. Then they felt like they were being bullied into it. They were willing to be seen as partners. They were not willing to be seen as tokens.
Last night, Indiana’s Republican Senate, with a super majority, stood up to President Trump and killed redistricting. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a tweet from Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation.
I know three Indiana Senate Republicans who cited that tweet as solidifying their opposition to redistricting. Two of them were, for certain, amendable to the plan until today.
This morning, one of the three persuadable Republicans I know in the Indiana Senate sent me a link to that tweet with “F*ck him” as the only words with the link. A man on the fence made up his mind because of President Trump’s over-the-top threat.
The irony is that Donald Trump never actually made that clear. Heritage Action made it up. And that tweet made several wavering Indiana Republicans outraged and then defiant. Well done, Heritage Action. Well done.
