Published 7:16 am Thursday, May 14, 2026 The redistricting arms race now roiling American politics was not merely predictable, but inevitable. It began the moment President Donald Trump picked up the phone last year to demand that Missouri, Texas and other red states gerrymander their congressional districts mid-decade to give Republicans an advantage in the upcoming midterms. Some Democratic-held states have responded in kind. The result is that in much of America this November, voters won’t be allowed to choose their politicians; the politicians are instead choosing their voters. It’s an untenable situation that will only get worse unless and until Congress steps in with legislation to impose uniform redistricting standards, putting the process outside the political whims of any president or party. Gerrymandering — twisting congressional boundaries to favor one party or the other — is a rotten old bipartisan tradition that, before now, always occurred after the release of new census figures every 10 years.…