In this case, the measure itself is temporary. That's in the text of what we voted on. For it to not be temporary, we'll need to vote on it again.

Also, it only affects Federal congressional districts, not State Senate or State Assembly districts, so there's less feedback: the US Congress has little say over how CA draws its maps.

The effects on normalization are another question that you're right to be concerned about, but I can argue that either way. It's clear who started this mid-cycle redistricting, and it's obviously not actually a response to Joe Biden doing the last census wrong. Credible threat of retaliation may reduce the tendency to break further norms, when compared to the available alternative of not pushing back.

> instead it’ll normalize a new era of political extremism

That ship sailed in the Clinton era when Republicans turned a breach of workplace ethics into a coup. Every time the Republicans held any sort of power in Washington, they would keep pushing the needle to the right. There's nothing new about any of this. We are where we are because of the path we've been on.

I agree with you! But that’s not where we are, and this is a valid response to the Texas Leg trying to disenfranchise Democratic voters everywhere and Texas’s Democratic voters in particular. The Leg had months to undo this when they saw the possible response from CA. They chose to assume Democrats couldn’t fight back after the first blow. They were wrong.

Ah, the bridge jumping argument. What about if someone takes a slug at you when you’ve done nothing wrong? Or challenges your HN comment? You respond.

No, Texas has no such law, and that’s a shame. If Texas had, it might have prevented this situation. California is being repeatedly threatened by the Trump Republican government. The threat was exacerbated by the Texas Legislature (not the voters, of course). California voters would never have approved Prop 50 without them.