Texas Democrats in the state legislature denied its speaker a legislative quorum Monday by leaving the state, forestalling plans proposed by the White House to redistrict Texas’s congressional lines to more greatly favor Republicans.
Democrats hold 62 of the 150 seats in the legislature’s lower chamber, so as long as at least 51 members remain out of Austin, the Texas legislature cannot move forward with any votes, including a plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps to give Republicans five more seats in Congress.
In an extraordinary escalation, the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, said he he had ordered the Texas department of public safety to “locate, arrest and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”
This is semi regular.
The Texas democrats are living their best lives right now. It’s great for fund raising later. And the other party gets extra press during this mild speed bump.
Win win
It’s wild that they’re actually doing something semi-useful.
I’m not that charitable; I started to see the Texas democrats more as public relations and grifters more than anything else.
Back in the 1990s the Texas democrats were different. They used to have meetings while hog hunting and honestly make the modern GOP look feminine, and rainbow coalition. Not that feminine is bad. I only mentioned it to show it was a different group of people than now.
That party died, its power structures were transferred to the GOP, and everyone with political sense, who had ambition , converted or retired or went elsewhere.
But like a franchise, a new group of people took over the brand, and these people were timid, not wanting to cause actual conflict. And for all intents and purposes, became some kind of captured opposition.
Nobody with real power wanted anything to do with them. And the Texas democratic candidates are a weird collection of helpless idealists, trust fund babies doing it as a hobby, blue blood families keeping appearances, and professional fund raisers who make bank as underdogs.
They’re definitely the compliant type. It’s always struck me how little outrage there is when the power grid fails during a winter storm and people die, and then a month later it’s reported that people’s electric bills were spiked, and not a peep from Democrats other than the usual claims that they’re powerless.
It’s frustrating