Texas Republicans are trying to pass a measure to make it easier for people to vote and harder for anyone to cheat. Democrat lawmakers have decided to fight it by leaving the state and heading to Washington, DC.
You may recall Democrats using this same tactic in Wisconsin under Governor Scott Walker back in 2011.
The media is doing its part, describing Republican efforts as “voting restrictions.”
Jane C. Timm writes at NBC News:
Texas Democrats flee state in effort to block GOP-backed voting restrictionsIn an extraordinary effort to block Republicans from enacting new voting restrictions, Texas Democrats bolted — again.A large group of Democratic members of the state House of Representatives arrived at Dulles International Airport Monday evening after fleeing the state in a pair of charter jets. At least 51 members were on the flights, a source familiar with the plans told NBC News. At least seven others were en route, as well.The unusual move, akin to what Democrats did in 2003, will paralyze the chamber, stopping business until the lawmakers return to town or the session ends.The lawmakers plan to spend more than three weeks in Washington, D.C., running out the clock on the session, which began Thursday, and advocating for federal voting legislation.
Democrats are already fundraising off this stunt. Beto O’Rourke is pushing the effort on Twitter:
Democrats are also milking the situation for photo-ops:
Take a look at the sickening way Jen Psaki framed this issue:
Some people are asking, isn’t this a form of the filibuster?
Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a reporter at KVUE News that these representatives will be arrested when they return to Texas:
Does this mean there’s now no way for Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3, the election and voting reform bills, to be passed during this special session? And is there anything you as governor can do to get the Democrats back to Texas?“Sure. Let me answer those questions in sequence first. There still remains plenty of time to pass not just the bills that you mentioned, but there’s a lot of other bills on there that I know for a fact that your viewers right now, they care a whole lot about, such as property taxes. Property taxes are sky high in the Austin area and we have a bill to reduce those property taxes. I know that your viewers care a whole lot about the children who are going through foster care. We have additional funding to provide for foster care as well as for our retired teachers. And as you know, we need more law enforcement to keep our streets safe. We have funding for law enforcement in high-crime areas such as the Austin area. All of those issues are important not just to your viewers but, for a fact, they’re important to constituents of Rep. [Vikki] Goodwin, Rep. [James] Talarico, Rep. Weiner. And so if they do not return to work, they are risking losing their jobs as state representatives for not showing up.”Answering your second question, yes, there is something the governor can do. First of all, I’ll tell you what the House of Representatives can do. What the speaker can do is issue a call to have these members arrested. In addition to that, however, I can and I will continue to call a special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year. And so if these people want to be hanging out wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year. As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done. Everybody who has a job must show up to do that job, just like your viewers on watching right now. State representatives have that same responsibility.”
Katrina Trinko of the Daily Signal makes an excellent point about this. Democrats have spent the last four years shrieking about the importance of “our democracy.” How exactly is this democracy?
Leftists’ Applause for Texas Democrats’ Flight Shows Hypocrisy on DemocracyIf democracy dies, does any leftist care?You’d think so: After all, we’ve had years of hand-wringing about the erosion of democracy in our nation, from The Washington Post’s “Democracy dies in darkness” motto to The New Yorker magazine fretting in a headline that “American Democracy Isn’t Dead Yet, but It’s Getting There.” No doubt, you’d think, the last thing liberals would want to see is state legislators thwarting the will of the people.But you’d be wrong.Instead of being eviscerated, the dozens of Texas Democrats fleeing the Lone Star State to prevent a vote in the state Legislature on proposed election reforms are being hailed as heroes.
Trinko is right. Even Kamala Harris is cheering them on:
This approach didn’t work out too well for Democrats in the 2010 midterms. Here’s hoping they pay a similar price in 2022.
Featured image via YouTube.
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