Fifty-one of 67 Democrats in the Texas lege hopped on two chartered planes with a case of Miller Lite to fly to Washington, D.C. Their purpose was explicit, they were denying the Republican majority a quorum with which to enact new voting laws.
Texas Democrats fled the state on Monday in a last-ditch effort to prevent the passage of a restrictive new voting law by the Republican-controlled Legislature, heading to Washington to draw national attention to their cause.
The group left Austin in midafternoon on a pair of chartered flights that arrived at Dulles International Airport just before sunset. Fifty-one of the 67 State House Democrats flew on the planes, leaders of the delegation said, and several others arrived separately in Washington; that’s enough to prevent Texas Republicans from attaining a quorum, which is required to conduct state business.
Life hack: Never ever forget the frosty cold ones before you head to DC in a private plane. #txlege pic.twitter.com/S3NlUk54lw
— Enrique Marquez (@EnriqueOther) July 12, 2021
Was this a pointless show, as they will eventually return and then the quorum will exist, the law passed and the experience will be remembered as another failed attempt by a political minority to prevent the majority’s will?
There is no filibuster in Texas as there is in the United States Senate. Whether it would work if there was need not be addressed, as it doesn’t exist. Whether leaving on a jet plane is an alternative solution is unclear, but it’s likely to be more signalling than substance. And perhaps it will work as a signal that federal legislation is needed to prevent states from enacting regulations on voting that impacts the poor and minorities more than anticipated Republican voters.
Whether it does or not isn’t really material, and is a debate of details that nobody seems to find worthy of serious discussion. Laws being enacted in red states are voter suppression laws, even if they mirror laws in blue states, even if they are otherwise entirely reasonable. No, there was no epidemic of voter fraud requiring fixing. Yes, there have always been laws addressing voting to prevent that from happening. And yes, now that gaming the vote is on a lot of people’s minds, enacting laws to make sure there isn’t an epidemic of voter fraud in the future seems insightful. It’s all in the details, that few care much about.
Voting today is hugely easier than it has ever been. Early voting. Mail-in voting. Drop-boxes. It used to be simple, you went to your polling place on election day and pulled a lever. That was hard for many, but that was how we voted. Today, there are a wealth of options, and still people complain. Loudly.
But that doesn’t address the question of whether these laws are being proposed and enacted to adversely influence the ability to vote of minorities and the poor. If they are calculated to make voting harder for people legislators believe will vote for the other party, then it is voter suppression. Easy as it might be, you still can’t frame laws to suppress the other side’s voters.
In Texas, the Dems have been shut out of the process because they don’t control the legislature. Rather than sit there and lose, they cut and ran. Is that the right thing to do? If they can’t influence the law being passed, and are either vehemently against it or want to appear to be against it, what other options do they have?
And Dems in Washington and elsewhere are applauding this bold move by Texas Democrats who only have one case of beer on which to survive. Are these the same people outraged at the Senate Republicans for pulling the filibuster? Is it any different? Is stymieing the will of the majority good or bad based only on whose ox is gored?
Then again, if the Senate Republicans are right to employ the filibuster to prevent the Dems from enacting their “bold” initiatives, why are these Texas Dems not right as well in using the only tool they have to prevent the enactment of law they oppose? Why shouldn’t they fly like an Eagle if they, as the minority party, have no voice in the legislature? If anything, isn’t the burden of flying away more meaningful than the faux filibuster that the Senate now allows?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.