National Democrats are so furious that Virginia's Supreme Court struck down their gerrymandered congressional map that they're openly plotting to impeach and replace every single justice on the court. Not one justice. Not two. The entire court. Because apparently "threats to democracy" only count when Republicans do it.
Remember when Democrats spent four years screaming about "court packing"? Remember when they told us it was the gravest threat to the republic since the Civil War? Good times.
Here's the backstory. Virginia's Supreme Court ruled against a Democrat-drawn redistricting map, and the ruling landed just ahead of a May 12, 2026 deadline for election map changes, with primary elections scheduled for August 4. Democrats had voters ratify the map, the court struck it down anyway, and now the party is in full meltdown mode.
As Hot Air's David Strom reported, national Democrats held a private call to discuss their options. And the options they discussed weren't exactly what you'd call "respecting democratic institutions." According to The New York Times, "the most dramatic idea they discussed" involved "an unusual gambit to replace the entire state Supreme Court."
An unusual gambit. That's the Times doing its best to make "burn down the judiciary because we lost" sound like a reasonable policy discussion.
The call included some heavy hitters. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was involved. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger is in the mix. Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and House Speaker Don Scott are apparently on board with the idea. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia tried to justify the whole thing by saying, "We have Republican states ignoring their constitutions." So their defense for tearing apart Virginia's judiciary is... whataboutism.
That's it. That's the argument. "Other people are bad, so we get to be worse."
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie threw gasoline on the fire with this gem: "Democrats must meet the moment. Or move over for people who will." Meet the moment. That's progressive-speak for "do something radical and destructive and call it courage."
Let's be clear about what they're proposing. They don't want to appeal the ruling through proper legal channels. They don't want to redraw the map and try again. They want to remove every justice who ruled against them and install new ones who will rubber-stamp whatever Democrats put in front of them.
That's not court reform. That's a coup with better branding.
Virginia's Commissioner of the Department of Elections, Steven Koski, is stuck managing actual election logistics while the state's elected Democrats fantasize about a judicial purge. Somewhere in Richmond, career election administrators are staring at their calendars wondering if they'll even have valid maps to work with.
This is the same party that impeached Donald Trump for "undermining democratic institutions." The same party that called January 6th an "insurrection against the rule of law." The same party that lectures us daily about "norms" and "guardrails" and "the sacred independence of the judiciary."
But one redistricting ruling goes against them and suddenly the entire Supreme Court of Virginia needs to be dragged out and replaced like a set of worn tires.
We used to have to go to Venezuela to see this kind of thing. Now it's on a conference call with the House Minority Leader.