Imagine you're at a fancy, catered, birthday party, and the waiters are coming around with the cake.

The waiter for the table next to yours is drunk, and after putting a few pieces down at his own table, starts putting pieces down at your table.

Then your waiter arrives and you tell her that she should give some of those pieces to the other table because some people there didn't get any.

Then at your table, someone who already has a piece of cake says to the waiter, "Hell no! What that other waiter did has nothing to do with you. You do your job. Don't worry about other tables."

That's the argument we're having about redistricting.

The people who didn't get their cake are Democrats in Republican states whose legislators gerrymandered their states mid-decade without a census - which is extremely unusual.

The people who want two pieces of cake are Republicans in Virginia and other states who refuse to admit that they have extra representation in Congress because of what other states did.

The values that Republicans in Congress stand for will be supported by Republicans in Congress. More bombs; lower taxes for the rich; less regulation for polluters; defunding education; ignoring discrimination; terrorizing people who are or might be undocumented, fawning over and appeasing Donald Trump. It doesn't matter much if it's a Republican from Texas or a Republican from Virginia - If those are your values, you have outsized support for them in Congress because of what Republicans in other states did.

Those who value education, equal opportunity, clean air and water, justice, helping to fight disease and starvation, and not falling into autocracy, aren't getting their fair share of representation in Congress. Their right to have their say in Congress was taken away.

The referendum asks if we should do something abut that imbalance. I say “Yes.” I voted “Yes.” You need to get out there and vote "Yes".

Republicans didn't create the imbalance out of drunkenness. They did it because the Republican party is shrinking. Republicans who thought their party valued limited government, good diplomacy, and morality are realizing that the party only exists to support a wealthy core of hedonistic megalomaniacs - the kind of people who would start a war to distract us from documents about rich and powerful pedophiles - so they are leaving. Since Republicans can't win fair elections, the megalomaniacs have to rig them, and they're working to a day where they can keep their power without worrying about elections.

That's why they've gerrymandered their districts to cut Democratic votes out in Texas and North Carolina, and are planning to do so in other Republican states. If we let them cheat their way into power, elections won't even matter anymore.

To save Democracy, vote Yes.

Image: Cake adapted from image provided by user rayscaperesource at Open Clipart;