The question is, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? And the answer is because we can, because we have the power. You know, it's in some of the details are like, you know, the plot of a political novel. And in fact, actually, my colleague Larry Wright wrote a terrific political novel just a couple years ago about the Texas State House called Mr. Texas.

I highly recommend it.

But, you know, this isn't fiction.

It's a world of raw power politics in which you see how the escalation cycle begins.

Texas does one thing.

Blue states respond.

And all of a sudden, we're at a kind of a level

of political war. And I'm very struck, because I'm sure you are stuff with the language of war

being used by Texas Republicans, being used by New York's governor today. And this is a form of

unraveling in and of itself. But it's raw power politics. It's all

because the Republicans do not have a workable majority in the U.S. House of Representatives right now.

They're afraid of an election, a midterm election coming. And if history is any guide,

throwing them out of the majority in the

house, that would be almost a crippling blow for Trump's second two years of his second and final

term in office. And, you know, what he's saying is, I don't want a level playing field in

26. I want to do what I can to tilt the playing field in Texas. And I just,

I think it's a new level of conflict that we haven't seen even in Trump's first term.

You described this as a war. You said, bring it on. You've talked about doing something

extraordinary, which is potentially paving the way for redistricting in New York, essentially to allow Democrats to take seats that aren't currently Democratic-leaning seats the way that Republicans are doing in Texas.

Tell me about whether you think it's going to get there and whether you think if the war is going

to be fought in those terms, who ends up winning?

Rachel, if we refuse to fight for our democracy, then we're doomed to lose it.

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