I have good news: Minority rights in a legislative body are good again.
After months of Democrats from across the country insisting that pure majoritarian rule is the only way to preserve “democracy,” they’ve suddenly decided cheap games to obstruct the passage of various bills are totally acceptable. Unlike the legitimate tool that is the filibuster in the Senate, though, Texas Democrats are literally getting on a plane and leaving the state, presumably forever if their gambit is to work.
Imagine having to share a plane with these insufferable people. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.
These are people ostensibly paid to govern. Instead, they are going to Washington D.C. to hide out in order to prevent Gov. Greg Abbott from calling the legislature into session to pass the various bills proposed. I can’t imagine this is going to go over well with many Texans.
As to why they are doing this, it’s largely being blamed on Texas’ voter security bill, which is just a run-of-the-mill list of general reforms setting standards for the voting system, many of which were blown up for the “emergency” of 2020. It’s not Jim Crow and it’s certainly not worth these people abandoning their constituents over. Yet, here we are, and notice none of them are wearing masks. Weird, right?
Abbott has already cut the pay of these do-nothings. Things get more complicated in September, though, when the pay of their staffers is also cut.
This is a game of chicken that these Texas Democrats can’t win. They’ve dug the hole so deep with their rhetoric and promises, drinking so much of the Kool-Aid that is national press adoration, that they’ve boxed themselves into a corner. That’s how you end up on a flight with no return date to Washington D.C. while your staffers stare at the unemployment line in two months. These elected officials and their subordinates presumably have families and children to see and provide for.
What that means is that eventually, these clowns will have to return home, and it’ll likely be a lot sooner than most think. When they do, these various bills will pass because Republicans have the majority to pass them under the rules as they exist. They can not just abandon their families forever. They can’t just forgo campaigning for their next elections. Their staffers can’t subsist without a paycheck.
In short, this is a sad, pathetic attempt to subvert the electoral system of representation in Texas. Not only will it not succeed, but this is also going to hurt Democrats in the long run in the Lone Star State. Whatever D.C. consultant told them this was a good idea is an idiot.