Time for Democrats to get serious about their political future

Gee, what's happened to the "silly season" of U.S. politics?

- Clarence Page

That's what many of us in the daily journalism trade used to call the periods, usually in late summer or near holidays, when news media put an unusually intense focus on lighthearted or frivolous stories due to a shortage of more serious news.

We currently have no such shortage. Even late-breaking investigations and speculation surrounding the suicide of President Trump's late friend, Jeffrey Epstein, have had to compete with a ferocious partisan war within some states over redistricting.

Consider Texas, where Republicans in the state legislature are attempting, at President Donald Trump's urging, to redraw congressional districts in order to flip five more districts to Republican majorities. Democratic legislators have fled the state to deny the legislature a quorum, in hopes of preventing Republicans from carrying out their plan.

Some have taken refuge in Illinois, leading Texas Republicans to call for their arrest by the FBI. Illinois' Gov. J.B. Pritzker has vowed to protect them.

"Donald Trump is trying to steal five seats from the people — frankly, of the country, not just the people of Texas — and disenfranchise people," Pritzker said on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." "We're talking about violating the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution."