David Brooks:

I understand the argument.

But let’s do a little ethical experiment here. You’re in World War I. The Germans use mustard gas on civilians, and it helps them. Do you then decide, OK, we’re going to use mustard gas on civilians. The — what Trump ordered Abbott to do in Texas is mustard gas on our democracy.

Some people would feel, OK, that was terrible. We have to fight that. It’s horrible. It’s horrible. But we’re going to fight back. It’s just — that’s war.

Gavin Newsom is leaping into this with both legs. And, to me, there’s a moral stain that will accompany anybody who does this, because basically they are destroying our democracy. You don’t let politicians pick voters. You let voters pick politicians. And the people who oppose gerrymandering are — they’re the ones defending democracy.

And so what’s going to happen is that we’re going to have a race to the bottom we’re in the middle of. And I fully grant you that Trump started it. So I’m not saying it’s totally morally equivalent. But there’s a moral stain. And what’s going to happen is, people are going to say, it’s those politicians.

And loss of faith in the system, loss of faith in democracy, and legit — literally less democracy, because, if you are a Texas voter or a California voter, or if New York does it or if Missouri does it, whoever — all the states that are going to do this, you are literally disenfranchising people, because you can pick the district so carefully that the voters don’t matter so much.