What is gerrymandering? And why are Texas Democrats suddenly screaming about it while ironically fleeing to Illinois, the most gerrymandered state in the nation? Glenn Beck breaks down gerrymandering and why he believes the Texas Democrats don't really care about "justice."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: All right. I want to play a couple of sound bites that came out yesterday.

First of all, let me start here with cut seven. This is a state representative from Texas, Ron Reynolds. He went on CNN.

And said, he wasn't worried about anything that the State of Texas was -- was claiming to do to him, because they were fleeing the state. Because they're on the right side of history. Here's cut seven.

VOICE: I'm not worried about Governor Abbott's threats of going to jail, or a $500 fine, because we're standing on the right side of history, making our own trouble, to fight, to preserve, and protect our democracy. We're on the right side of history. We're not beholden to the MAGA extremists, that are trying to disenfranchise black and brown communities. We're doing everything we can, to protect Texans. And so we're not going to cower to Governor Abbott's attempts to put us into jail. This is worth our democracy. This is not just about Texas. As Dr. King said, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. This is about protecting our democracy.

Because if they can do it in Texas, they can do it anywhere else. So we're going to stand strong.

We're not going to back down. And we're going to keep pressing forward. To protect every single Texan. So they won't be disenfranchised.

We won't go back to the days of Jim Crow. We will stand up to racial gerrymandering.

GLENN: Okay. This is -- this is crazy.

There's so much there.

I mean, first of all, be really careful when you say you're on the right side of history.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I question all the time. And I think this is really healthy. Am I on the right side of history?

I don't know. I don't know what the answer. History will tell me the answer. Am I on the right side?

Am I -- am I fighting for the things that are right, correct, eternally true, and righteous?

I don't know. I mean, there is so many things that I go back and forth on, that I just don't know.

And I think that's really important to question yourself. So anybody, when they are firm on, you're on the right side of history. And we know. We don't question. We're on the right side of history.

Really? Because you were the ones with ESG. Forcing people to follow these rules like, you know, there's no difference between a man and a woman.

You know, men in women's sports.

Men can have a baby.

Really?

That's not working out well.

You know, that you're on the side that Dr. Martin Luther King was wrong.

That -- that the color of the skin does matter. That was your position. And you said, you were on the right side of history.

I don't think you're on the right side of history won that one. You know, it seems to be falling apart on you. Because now you're quoting Dr. Martin Luther King.

I thought we didn't -- we didn't agree with Dr. Martin Luther King.

I mean, that was your position, two years ago!

So when you're -- when you listen to anybody who says, they're on the right side of history. Be very, very careful.

You know, the one thing that I'm absolutely certain of. 100 percent certain of, is I'm not certain of anything.

The more I learn, the less certain I become, on certain things.

Right side of history, I don't know. I'm going to do my best. And let God sort it out, at the end.

I don't know. And then they say, if they can do this in Texas. If the Republicans can do this in Texas, they can do it anywhere.

They have been doing it everywhere, since 1812!

If you knew the history of gerrymandering, it comes from elder -- or Gerry Elbridge. Right? Gerry Elbridge, I think. Or Elbridge Gerry, that's it. Elbridge Gerry. He was a founding father. 1812, he is the governor, I think of Massachusetts. They start to draw these squiggly lines for the Congressional map. It's later, in the 1840s, called gerrymandering.

But that's how it started. They've been doing it forever. And the worst place, well, I'll get to that here in just a second.

So let me play the second clip here. And that is, on the Don Lemon show. Who knew he still had a show?

Another Texas state rep. Yolanda Jones said this, cut six.

VOICE: Then immigration happened, and everybody thought they accepted this. They don't accept this. They are showing us who they are.

We should believe them. And we better have the courage to stand up. Otherwise, we will follow for anything.

And in this country, we will be defeated, deported. I mean, we will lose all of our rights. And if you think it can't happen. It can. And I will liken this to the Holocaust.

People are like, well, how did the Holocaust happen?

How is anybody in the position to kill all these people?

Well, good people become silent.

Or good people didn't realize, that what happens to them, can very still happen to me and somebody I love.

And so even if you made it, you have an obligation to help people who can't. Because God forbid, they end up targeting you, and your family.

VOICE: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

GLENN: Okay. I agree with everything she said, except what she's applying it to!

How is this the Jerry -- I mean, I think it's a little insulting to those who had relatives stuffed into ovens! To say, that gerrymandering is like the Holocaust!

But maybe that's just me!

But you know what this is all about?

This is all about when a group of people in the government, no longer believe in its own people!

When 57 elected Democrats from Texas, they didn't just walk out on their duties, they walked out on the people.

They fled the state to avoid voting on redistricting maps, they say, are unfair.

They say, they're standing up for democracy. But where did they run?

This tells you a lot in the story. Illinois. New York. Massachusetts.

The states, whose maps are textbook examples of political gerrymandering!

They ran to Massachusetts, where it was -- it was Elbridge Gerry, that gerrymandering is named after, he was the governor of Massachusetts!

They fled to the belly of the beast, while crying wolf back home. So the first thing you need to know, this is not about justice. This is about power. And they are betting that you are too distracted and your friends are too distracted or discouraged to notice.

So let me be clear on what is actually happening here.

GLENN: Okay. So the Department of Justice in Texas. This is what's really happening. They decided that the Texas congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act. Not because it eliminates minority representation. But because it doesn't create coalition districts where different racial groups are lumped together to form artificial minorities.

So what they're saying, in bureaucratic doublespeak is, Texas has to draw maps, that elect Democrats. That's the game.

This is not about race. It's about arithmetic. If a Republican map spreads voters to thin its race, but if a Democratic map does the same to Republicans, it's equity!

That's -- that's not -- that's not the law. That's manipulation. And our Founders talked about this. In Federalist Papers number ten, James Madison warned us of the dangers of factions. Organized groups that put their own interests above the public good, and that's what we're experiencing everywhere.

He said, let me quote: The instability, injustice, and confusion, introduced into the public councils, have been the mortal diseases which popular governments have everywhere perished, end quote.

That's what this is. This is a faction. A political machine. So drunk on power. That it can't even pretend to be consistent, anywhere.

They invoke democracy. And then they run away from their duty to vote. They wear shirts that say, let the people vote. While ignoring votes in New York, that ignore an independent redistricting commission.

This is the rot Madison warned us about. Faction over function. Power over principle.

So let's look at Illinois for a second.

In Illinois, they didn't try to just gerrymander there.

They eradicated the Republicans.

They drew a map, so surgical. So cynical.

That analysts have now said, this is the worst gerrymander in the country!

It's in Illinois.

Republicans, now. I want you to hear this.

Republicans now hold three out of 17 seats.

Okay.

Well, the voters spoke.

Well, did they?

They won over 40 percent of the vote.

40 percent of the vote!

But they only hold three out of 17 seats.

That's not representative.

That's gerrymandering!

And now, Texas Democrats, they're running for cover.

They're hiding behind the very injustice they claim to oppose.

They also don't recognize, that by millions, because of their policies. Millions of people have moved in to Texas.

Since the census.

There is no real representation of -- of the people. Because millions of people have moved in.

So what do we do?

Well, this is something I think you're going to hear me talk about a lot lately. Is look to the future. And rebuild.

First thing we have to do is expose the hypocrisy on this.

Not with shouting. But with actual facts.

You have to use your voice.

You have to first teach what gerrymandering is.

It's legal. Okay. I don't like it.

I wish -- I will do a beach blackboard today.

You know, I don't have a blackboard anywhere near my house. But I do have a beach near my house. And I was out explaining this to somebody the other day. And I just took a stick, and I wrote it out on the beach. And I'm going to do this today. Because there is a way to fix this.

But you have to share the map. You have to show the math. Because the truth still matters. We have to defend the Constitution. The tenth amendment. State sovereignty. It's not a throwaway line. Texas has the right to draw the maps without DC micromanagement. Okay? They can draw the maps the way they want to draw the maps. The same thing with Illinois. They can draw the maps the way they want.

It's not fair. I don't like it. But it is the law!

Then we have to call for local reforms. We have to have independent redistricting commissions, that actually mean something.

Not performative democracy.

But actual checks and balances. I don't know if you can get there.

But the more local we make this, the better!

See, you know, gerrymandering makes us more extreme.

Because they'll run a line of constituents through a neighborhood. One side of the street, because this group on this side of the street, votes for Democrats. And on the other side of the street, it's Republicans. They literally will run that line, through to gather up all of the Democrats on the street, and forget the Republicans.

So that means that that Congress person no longer has to moderate at all.

They don't -- they don't -- the more extreme they become, the better off!

Because they're only talking to their side.

When you gerrymander, which we have forever. Our Founders warned against it.

Because you're creating these factions. You're creating distance between each other, and you have to equip your neighbors on this.

If they don't understand this, walk them through it. Print the maps. Compare the numbers. Build an informed electorate.

That's what -- that's our job. That's our job. Nobody will do this for us. Don't look to the Republicans to do it. They will spin it their own way.

And the other way, is refuse to retreat.

If 57 lawmakers can run away from their posts, make sure everybody knows, you're not going to run away from yours. We stay. We vote.

We hold the line.

You know, this -- this whole thing. Everything we do today, everything. Everything in the news you see, this isn't about Epstein.

This isn't about redistricting. This isn't about immigrants. This is about the restoration of trust! Trust! All of it. Can you trust the people who are redesigning the maps?

No.

Why?

Because it's in their best interest to gerrymander.

Well, I'm only doing it because they're doing it.

Okay. Then maybe you do that, bit let's work towards stopping this. Let's -- let's work towards a system where we don't gerrymander. Okay? But that's only going to be solved at the state level, where it belongs. You know, America can't survive a political class that lies with one face, and governs with another. But it can survive if her people, the remnant of those who really understand America and understand our history. If we rise with open eyes, with strong backs. And hearts grounded in principle, when we realize, we're not powerless. We're not pawns.

We're the ones with power.

That's when everything will change.

And I will tell you, I think I said this earlier today.

I'm not sure where the storm is.

I know the storm is on the beach.

I know it's on shore.

I just don't know what part of the storm is on shore. I don't know if we're hitting the worst part of it yet.

I don't think so.

But I know it's onshore now.

We have to batten down the hatches, and then start, you know, piling supplies up. And I'm not talking about boards to board up the windows.

I'm talking about building up our supplies to rebuild. Because this storm is going to pass us.

And I don't know what the devastation is going to be like on the other side.

But, you know, just like Mercury One does.

We -- we put supplies, just outside of the storm's pattern.

Because we know, we've got to get them as close as we can, to where the storm is supposed to hit.

Without it being hit itself, so once the storm passes, we can push in, and we can rebuild fast.

When this storm is over, we're going to have trouble, if we're standing here with no supplies, nothing prepared.

To rebuild quickly.

Because that's when people will realize, there's nobody coming.

There is nobody going to rebuild.

There's no help.

If we're not there to help, that's when things get really nuts!

So I -- I just -- I'm very excited for next year.

And you'll understand a little more, you know, in the coming days and weeks of -- of why I'm not talking about it yet.

But I can't wait to get started. Because I just know what we have to do.

And that is something that I don't feel like I understood for a very long time. You know. I knew I was supposed to warn. But I always felt there was something more to do.

I think my mission has changed. I've been given a new calling.

And it's to rebuild!

Rebuild and rebuild right now.