Avalanche superstar Cale Makar, not one to pass up a strategic advantage, would never be so bold as to suggest that the other team be required to play with broken sticks.

Caitlin Clark, her polished exterior barely concealing the fierce competitor within, would not think of proposing that the basket at the opponent’s end of the court be an inch smaller in diameter than the hoop into which she drains three-pointers.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, a canny sort, would not dare be so presumptuous as to request a schedule change allowing his team to play the woeful Rockies every other week.

Each of these three, and every accomplished athlete for that matter, has a competitive fire and an intense will to win. Successful politicians come with those same traits.

But there is one huge difference between such top-flight athletes and top-tier politicians. Those from the arena of sports accompany their drive with a baseline code of honor and elemental fairness. Such an ethic seems ever more absent these days in the political world.

Which brings us to the issue du jour, that being the scheme that started in Texas and is now gaining traction in other states to redistrict congressional seats in the middle of the decade. Just when you think political standards cannot fall lower and political operatives cannot grow more brazen, along comes a ploy that leaves you shaking your head in disbelief and dismay.

By law, states redesign or reapportion congressional districts early every decade to account for the latest decennial census. As a function of that data, some states gain seats while other states emerge with fewer. Every state redraws its electoral district lines to equalize population between districts.

In most states, this is an intense political battle with the legislature running the show and the majority party leaving no stone unturned to secure an advantage. In a few outlier states, authority has been removed from the legislature, usually by popular initiative, and instead placed in some independent commission.

Colorado is proudly among the ranks of such outliers.

But back to the plot. With the 2026 election coming up and control of the U.S. House in the balance, Donald Trump’s political fixers saw an opportunity to tilt the Texas congressional map even farther in the GOP’s favor and add as many as five seats to Republican ranks.

Ever compliant, ever obedient, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was all too happy to call a special session to enact an even more lopsided map. Lacking any new census data to inform the process, there is not even the patina of a rationale for all this beyond naked gamesmanship.

Democratic legislators, lacking the votes to stop the skullduggery, departed the state en masse to deny the legislative quorum required for action.

Whatever you make of the Democrats’ tactic, it is hard to argue with the idea of getting out of Texas in August.

Like most cancers, this one is spreading. Missouri and Ohio, both Republican strongholds, are expected to follow suit. GOP governors in Florida and Indiana are considering it.

As if to confirm the inescapable law of physics that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, Democratic leaders in deeply blue California and New York are threatening to respond with their own new, gerrymandered maps. Maryland may join the parade.

Were it possible, there is little doubt that Colorado, firmly under Democratic control in both the legislative and executive chambers, would try to get in on the mischief. Former Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo, now running to reclaim her old seat, has urged such a gambit, proving again that not even reputed centrists can resist the siren call of total partisanship.

Fortunately, Colorado voters in 2018 took care of the temptation by passing Constitutional Amendments Y and Z, each with over 70 percent approval. These amendments vested redistricting power in independent, non-partisan commissions.

This episode, or rather the series of episodes, is an outgrowth of the unbridled rise in polarized passions, which has bred a conviction on the part of partisans of both stripes that every election is existential.

I understand the multiple stresses on our democracy. Such issues are often the subject of this column. I also get that “politics ain’t beanbag,” as succinctly put by the late 1800s writer Finley Peter Dunne.

The sense of the ends justifying any means is the ultimate expression of cynicism and fatalism. For those who practice such a code, nothing is off-limits; no tradition is sacrosanct; no constraint is recognized; no thought is given to long-term consequences.

If the obituary is to be someday written for our diseased democracy, these shenanigans hatched in Texas and exported widely will be more than a footnote—shame on everyone involved.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for ColoradoPolitics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann