Greg Abbott Gonna Teach Texas Democrats A Lesson About Trying To Fight Back
Texas vs. voting rights, part one thousand.
Nothing says “most voters hate us and we know it” like the right wing’s frantic moves to disenfranchise anyone who doesn’t fit the demographic profile of the average Fox News viewer.
It’s a favorite pastime in Texas, right up there with smoking brisket, and conservatives have been working at voter suppression via gerrymandering since at least 1901. Texas has been white supremacists’ voter suppression lab, always on the cutting edge of making voting as difficult as possible. Last year Attorney General Ken Paxton even arrested old ladies for trying to register voters!
PREVIOUSLY!
And now America’s mesquite BBQ vote suppressors are back at it again. This time with feeling, because they’re hated more than ever. Texas’s “kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out” policies mean women are dying of sepsis, children are dying in floods after officials refused to update disaster warning systems, FEMA money has been delayed, and Texas is leading the nation in rural hospital closures. The schools are bad, and worsening. Latino festivals are being canceled due to fear of ICE raids. And with Republicans controlling all of the branches of government in the state, voters have no one else to blame!
But rather than address any of those issues, Saturday morning Republican legislators instead rushed through a redistricting map that would take five seats currently held by Democrats in the House, including those held by Reps. Jasmine Crockett and Marc Veasey, and effectively hand them to Republicans, increasing the likelihood that Republicans will hold the US House of Representatives through the midterm elections in 2026.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the Supreme Court signaled that it plans to take up key parts of (whatever is left of) the Voting Rights Act next June, and asked for briefing on whether the race-based redistricting sometimes required by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is no longer constitutional. Possibly, could it be? Please tell us how! That’s the strongest of signs that SCOTUS plans to let states like Louisiana and Texas get away with redistricting if they claim it is for "political" reasons instead of race-based ones. And if “political” redistricting happens to disenfranchise minority voters, well, tough shit. So Texas Republicans are feeling mighty big in their britches!
In response to the Texas legislature’s attempted power grab, Democrat lawmakers fled the state Sunday for Illinois and a handful of other places, to avoid giving Republicans a quorum to pass their midterm-rigging bill.
And Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut joined Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona for a rally in Phoenix, for the launch of the MoveOn Political Action nationwide Won't Back Down Tour.
Also on Sunday, Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott said he’s going to hunt those Democrats down and ARREST them for FELONIES if they don’t return to vote, and issued a pissy letter telling Texas House Democrats that they are TRUANT, and if they’re not back by 3 p.m. today that he’ll begin the process of having them removed from office and replaced with appointees of his own choosing (!). And the Democrat reps are like, we double-dog dare you, assholes. Go for it.
Or more precisely, “Come and take it.”
Rep. Ramon Romero:
This has happened before. In 2003 Texas Republicans achieved majorities in both houses of the legislature for the first time, and immediately passed new maps. Democrat lawmakers left and hid out in New Mexico for more than five weeks. Eventually one returned, and the maps were passed.
Then again in 2021 state Republicans pulled the same thing, and Democrat lawmakers walked out. In response, the Republican speaker of the Texas House issued civil arrest warrants, which the Texas Supreme Court upheld, ruling that the legislature had the authority to “physically compel the attendance of absent members to achieve a quorum.” No one was arrested, and eventually after three weeks, three Democrats returned, and again, the maps were passed.
Now the Texas Democrats are in Illinois, where Governor JB Pritzker is standing in solidarity and has vowed to give them sanctuary.
Meanwhile some blue state Democratic governors are looking into redrawing their own maps to add more seats, too. The mapping race game of musical chairs could sure get wacky!
PREVIOUSLY!
How long can a quorum of representatives stay on the run? We shall see, I guess, but sounds like any way they play it, five duly elected representatives in Texas are about to lose their jobs.
Fuck these people. Fuck ‘em. That is all.
[New York Times archive link / Texas Tribune]
Every Democrat needs to realize we are in a war and act accordingly. No more wishy washy bullshit.
The GOP pulls a knife, you pull a gun. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the (rhetorical) morgue.
OT (Sort of) Nice Times News - it's the first Monday of the month, which means it's care package day (the day I put together a bag of home-made, ready to cook meals for Mr Cakes' friend and his little boy).
The hot weather has made the type of batch cooking needed for this kind of care package difficult as we're not really eating many stews, casseroles, etc that are suited to overpreparing and freezing leftovers. Despite this, I had the slow cooker going last night, so there are 4 portions of beef stew, 3 portions of cottage pie (leftovers from yesterday's dinner), and a couple of chicken pies. There's also a freshly baked loaf of bread, and a bag of herby dumpling that can be frozen popped on top of the stew before it's cooked in the oven.
I'm covered in flour and am definitel overheating, but I'm feeling happy that I've managed to do something to help another person today. A little bit of extra work from me will go towards keeping a family who are barely able to make ends meet fed for a couple of weeks. I'm only helping to supplement what they get from the food bank, but it's healthy, filling food that he can just put in the oven and reheat while he takes care of his son, his poorly wife, and the house.