How Texas Democrats Might Save America
It’s about time Democrats started playing hardball, too
On Monday, June 12, enough Democrats from the Texas House of Representatives left the state to end the special legislative session called by Republican Governor Greg Abbott. The legislature must have enough members present, a quorum, to be in session and Democrats denied that quorum when they left the state for Washington D.C. Republicans were quick to denounce the Democrats as sore losers for denying them the ability to pass their bills, but it is, and has been for years, the Republicans who are the sore losers willing to rig the rules of the game if they don’t win.
In 2016, the Republican Governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, was defeated by Democrat Roy Cooper. After the election, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a series of bills designed to strip the incoming Democrat of powers that the Republican had enjoyed. As soon as Democrats won power, the GOP changed the rules to prevent them from exercising it. In 2018, the Republican Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, was defeated by Democrat Tony Evers. As in North Carolina, the Republicans in Wisconsin then held a special session to pass bills weakening the powers of the incoming Democrat. In both states, the Republicans had inflated majorities in the state legislature due to extreme gerrymandering.
Now, in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020 and the loss of the U.S. Senate, Republicans are trying to ram through their agenda at the state level. The agenda in Texas includes attacks on transgender children, restricting women’s reproductive rights, hindering civic educators’ ability to teach about racism, and of course making it harder to vote in the next election. Despite passing many horrible bills in the regular session, including permit-less carry of hand guns, Republicans were unable to pass their “election integrity” bill when Democrats left the chamber to break quorum. Greg Abbott, anxious to keep up with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, called a special session to ram voter suppression through despite a lack of support from voters.
Texas Republicans like Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the leader of the Texas Senate, have attacked Texas Democrats for their bold actions. Patrick has no room to talk when it comes to playing partisan hardball. In 2015, he lowered the threshold necessary to bring a bill to the floor of the Texas Senate from 2/3 to 3/5 to increase GOP power, and then lowered it again from 19 to 18 after Democrats flipped a state senate seat in 2020. Patrick does whatever is necessary to get the result he wants. Governor Abbott is also guilty of trying to change the rules to benefit his own party. After Democrats elected many judges in 2018, he created a commission to study whether judges should by appointed instead of elected by the people. Make no mistake, the GOP doesn’t care about rules, norms, traditions, or fair process. They care only about power and they will say and do anything to keep and expand their power. This was true even before Donald Trump, but it is now openly acknowledged and Republicans like Liz Cheney are even punished for allegiance to ideals that transcend partisan power.
The actions taken by Texas Democrats are not simply bold and heroic, but practical given the world that the GOP has created. Just look at the hardball Republicans are playing in Washington D.C. After Nancy Pelosi gave them everything they asked for regarding the January 6 Commission, they refused to vote for it and called it biased. After Mitch McConnell refused to give Barack Obama’s third Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, a confirmation hearing or vote 8 months before an election, he then rammed through the confirmation of Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, 8 days before an election. Whether it is gerrymandered state legislatures weakening the powers of incoming Democratic governors, or a Supreme Court stacked with judges appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote and confirmed by Senators who represent a minority of the country, Republicans are aggressively protecting and expanding their power through what scholars call “constitutional hardball.” It is time that Democrats learned the rules of the game and started playing too.
As Republican state legislatures across the country pass voter suppression laws on partisan, party-line votes, moderate Democrats in the U.S. Senate like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are insisting that voting rights legislation be bipartisan. What Texas Democrats must impress upon Senate Democrats is the truth that Republicans in the U.S. Senate are no different from the Republicans in state legislatures in their fealty to Donald Trump and his Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him due to voter fraud. Texas Democrats are right to go to Washington D.C. to force the issue. If Democrats in the U.S. Senate do not pass voting rights legislation, then the GOP’s authoritarian assault of representative government may become irreversible. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 tackled the issue of “tyranny of the majority” at the state level, but what is at stake right now is “tyranny of the minority” across the board. Some like to say, “as goes Texas, so goes the nation,” but Texas and every state in the Union needs the federal government to once again preserve the Republic from reactionary, discriminatory, and authoritarian forces. Americans in every state should be able to register and vote with ease. Texas Democrats know that “Y’all means all” and their courageous actions on behalf of all Americans might just save the Republic.
