I am so goddamn tired of this "both sides" garbage when it comes to Republicans' insane reaction to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling against GOP gerrymandering and the new congressional map they approved.
First, the new, court-approved map is fair, and it follows the nonpartisan criteria the court laid down: new districts should be both compact and limit the number of cities and counties split between districts.
This redrawn map contain 10 districts won by Donald Trump in 2016 versus 8 carried by Hillary Clinton. Given that Trump carried Pennsylvania by just a 48.2 to 47.5 margin, that’s a much more equitable distribution than the invalidated map’s 12-to-6 split.
Some say that if the parties' roles were reversed, Dems would be howling at a "partisan court" for overturning the will of an elected legislature. Sure, they'd howl.
But unlike Republicans, Ds wouldn't be threatening to impeach judges just because they disagree with a ruling.
But unlike Republicans, Ds wouldn't be threatening to impeach judges just because they disagree with a ruling.
How do I know that Democrats wouldn't be resorting to extreme measures like threatening impeachment just because they disagree with a ruling?
Because that's a thing Republicans do. They've been doing it for years. Democrats have not.
Because that's a thing Republicans do. They've been doing it for years. Democrats have not.
I've been doing this state politics thing for a while. And I've seen Republicans try to pull all kinds of insane power-grabs over courts and agencies outside of their control when they don't get their way.
Here are a few of the insane things Republicans have done (and Democrats have not).
First, there was the Arizona stuff. The Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) proposed maps Republicans didn't like, so the GOP governor fired the independent chair of the commission to block the maps.
But the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated the chair because Republicans didn't have any legit reason to fire her.
The maps that Republicans were so mad about (because they failed to give sufficient advantage to Republicans in the state) passed. So the GOP decided to try to get rid of the agency they'd tried and failed to control.
Arizona Republicans tried to get the Independent Redistricting Commission itself declared unconstitutional. SCOTUS smacked them down.
Oh, and now (7 years later) Arizona Republicans are attacking the IRC again. GOP lawmakers are pushing a proposal to remake the commission and effectively place it and the maps it draws under control of the legislature. 
But enough about Arizona. Let's talk about the crazy garbage Republicans pulled when they got mad about a state Supreme Court ruling on education funding in Kansas.
The GOP-controlled legislature responded with a pair of retaliatory laws:
The first stripped the state Supreme Court of administrative power over lower courts;
The second stripped the state’s entire court system of funding if a court struck down any part of the previous law.
The first stripped the state Supreme Court of administrative power over lower courts;
The second stripped the state’s entire court system of funding if a court struck down any part of the previous law.
The Kansas Supreme Court found this first obviously dubious law unconstitutional, which triggered the second law, which literally defunded the state's ENTIRE COURT SYSTEM.
This didn't stand too long, though; it’s hard to run for re-election after you’ve destroyed the judicial system and your state’s become a lawless hellscape. So the Kansas legislature blinked and restored court funding a few weeks later.
But the Kansas GOP wasn't just going to let it go; they looked for other ways to mess with the courts, everything from making judicial impeachment easier to giving the gov and the legislature complete power over judicial selection to establishing the election of judges. 
These GOP efforts to mess with the Kansas judicial system stalled in 2016, but there’s no reason to think Republicans are giving up. Already this year, they’ve denied the state judicial branch’s request for a budget increase.
Oh but I'm not done. Because Republican lawmakers are basically never done messing with government branches and agencies they can't control that do stuff they don't like.
North Carolina! Ever the Republican playground for GOP lawmakers behaving badly.
GOP lawmakers responded to NC voters electing a Dem governor by fundamentally altering the state’s election oversight boards, forcing the governor’s cabinet appointees to submit to state Senate approval, and slashing the number of gubernatorial appointees by over two-thirds. 
NC's state courts smacked most of this power grab right down. So GOP lawmakers smacked back at the court system.
The legislature transformed the state’s previously nonpartisan judicial elections into partisan races. When 3 GOP judges on the Court of Appeals hit mandatory retirement age, they reduced the court's size from 15 to 12, just to prevent the Dem gov from appointing replacements. 
Now NC Rs want to redraw state judicial districts for the 1st time in 50 years, and they’ve proposed a gerrymandered map designed to elect GOP judges to 70% of court seats, and they're considering having the legislature appoint appellate judges (instead of holding elections).
But lol I'm not done. Let's mosey up to Wisconsin and talk about what Republican lawmakers there have been messing with.
In 2015, the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature disbanded the state’s nonpartisan elections and ethics oversight agency, the Government Accountability Board (GAB).
The GAB, which had been hailed as “a national model for ethics and elections," pissed Republicans off by investigating their possible campaign violations in the 8 years since its bipartisan creation. So, a la AZ, the GOP decided to get rid of what they couldn't control. 
In 2016, Republicans officially dissolved the GAB and split it into a separate ethics commission and an elections oversight commission; members are selected by legislative leaders or the governor—the very same partisan officeholders the commissioners are supposed to oversee. 
So these are just some of the most egregious attacks Republicans have leveled at the judiciary and other independent agencies and branches of government.
The GOP’s contempt for courts and other government branches and agencies they lack power over burns intensely. There's nothing matching this on the other side of the aisle.
So spare me your "both sides" malarkey. If the PA situation were reversed, Democrats would not be trying to undermine the rule of law by threatening to impeach duly elected judges just because they're mad about a ruling.
And we know this because, as Republicans have demonstrated multiple times over the past decade, THIS 👏 IS 👏 WHAT 👏 THEY 👏 DO.
~fin~
