“Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address (1860)
When Abraham Lincoln issued this prophetic warning, he was talking about the secessionist threats of southern Democrats who would soon tear the nation apart and spark a bloody civil war. But his words are equally haunting today as Democrats are once again demanding that the rule of law take a back seat to their partisan ambitions. This “rule or ruin” radicalism has been on full display over the past several days in Virginia.
On May 8, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Democrats had violated the State Constitution in the process of putting a redistricting referendum before voters that narrowly passed on April 21. What has transpired since then must be regarded as one of the most shocking and outrageous assaults on judicial independence and the separation of powers in American history.
The Virginia referendum, which was on an amendment to the Virginia Constitution, would have allowed Democrats to abolish the nonpartisan redistricting commission which voters had approved in 2020 and implement new U.S. House maps for the 2026 midterms. Democrats’ new map would have almost certainly returned a 10-1 Democrat advantage, whereas the current map is 6-5 Democrat.
But the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Democrats in the state legislature had not followed the Virginia Constitution in passing the amendment. Under Virginia law, proposed amendments must pass the legislature, then there must be a general election, and then the amendment must pass the legislature again before it goes to voters.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member