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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Democracy in the United States is facing multiple challenges these days, and those opposed to the authoritarianism of Trump’s new world order are scrambling for tools to fight back.
One old trick: If you can’t win a vote, make sure it doesn’t happen.
So that’s why Texas Democrats fled Austin on August 3rd. If they’re not in the state capital, they can’t be compelled to vote and, with enough of them missing, there won’t be enough members present to vote on a new congressional map, obscenely gerrymandered for the Pusillanimous President’s pleasure to flip five blue districts to red.
And pad the shrinking Republican majority in Washington.
Over four dozen Democrats high-tailed it out of Dodge.
Abbott has now gone to the Texas Supreme Court demanding 13 be evicted from offices. He plans to personally appoint toe-the-line toady replacements contrary to the will of the affected constituents, grossly escalating the danger to democratic rule in the Lone Star State.
Making it the one-star state. Abbott or Trump, is there much of a difference?
But from cities across the country, the accused legislators are speaking out against their persecution.
John Bucy, deputy whip of the Texas House Democratic Caucus who sits on the House Committee on Elections and has been a key voice opposing legislation that undermined the freedom to vote had this to say: “This is what it looks like when a President, a Governor, and an entire political party work together to cheat in an attempt to steal an election.”
Jolanda Jones of Houston told reporters: “My grandmother says this: ‘If you allow yourself to be a rug, people will step on you.’ We ain’t fleeing. We’re fighting.”
Earlier Abbott requested the court to expel Gene Wu, the House Democratic leader, but Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General queried the governor’s authority to do so.
But on Friday Paxton himself asked the Texas Supreme Court to remove 13 of the dozens of disappeared Democrats from their seats on the grounds that they “made incriminating public statements regarding their refusal to return, essentially confirming in their own words the very grounds for this legal action.”
“Quorum breaks” have been a practice in Texas since the 1870s and no-one has ever been expelled as a direct result of leaving the chamber.
Democrats last fled four years ago for over five weeks to block voting restrictions they believed would disproportionately affect minority voters. They tried the same tactic twice in 2003 to stop Republican efforts to redraw voting maps.
Each time this Republican majority succeeded in passing the legislation but not after drawing public attention to their concerns.
This time it is national news, highlighting the subservience of GOP legislators to the whims of the out-of-control Machiavelli squatting in the White House.
The proposed redistricting means Democrats would be waging campaigns against opponents with name-value recognition and the increasingly vituperative and powerful Republican political machine behind them.
Republican lawmakers in Missouri, Florida, Indiana, New Hampshire and Ohio are also bent on dicing up districts at the expense of Democrats.
In April 2023, Tennessee state Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled by the Republican-controlled House for leading protesters in demanding tighter gun laws after an emotionally disturbed individual legally purchased seven firearms and killed six people, including three nine‑year‑olds, at Nashville’s Covenant School. Thousands of outraged Tennesseans marched on the Capitol.
The Tennessee legislators faced backlash for ousting two young Black members - in a state where 20% of Black residents are prohibited from voting – while keeping a 60-year-old white female lawmaker who joined the Justins in leading the gun control demands.
Tens of thousands of residents in Nashville and Memphis were left without representation. The Justins were expeditiously returned to office by their incensed constituents.
Lack of representation is also a crucial issue in Austin today but with the redistricting, will constituents have a say come November?
In another state where people of color are in the majority, almost two out of every three lawmakers are white, less than a quarter are women, and the majority are over 50. These discrepancies are super-sized among the majority Republicans
Of the 50-plus Democrats who broke quorum as well as the 13 targeted by Paxton, a majority are non-Caucasian, and a majority are women. Texas State Legislature truly is “pale, male, and stale” so if Abbott prevails in removing them such action would disproportionately impact the underrepresented lion's share of Texans.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom responded by supporting the proposed California Changes to Congressional Redistricting Amendment for this November’s ballot to counterbalance the Texas legislation by gerrymandering five more Democratic seats from the Golden State. With setting congressional district boundaries reverting to the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission at the 2030 census.
New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul said the Texas situation left Democrats no choice: “We must do the same.”
While Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, whose constant feuding with the Führer in the White House is frequent fodder for the press, announced that “all bets are off.”
Ultimately multiple wrongs don’t make anything right but, meanwhile, the country must make its way through at least the next 18 months without allowing the Truth Social administration to further shred our tattered democracy.
And the danger is very real. To quote an article written seven years ago after the original rise of Trumpism by distinguished Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt:
“American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections.
“They try to weaken the institutional buffers of our democracy, including the courts, intelligence services, and ethics offices. American states, which were once praised by the great jurist Louis Brandeis as ‘laboratories of democracy’ are in danger of becoming laboratories of authoritarianism as those in power rewrite electoral rules, redraw constituencies, and even rescind voting rights to ensure that they do not lose.”
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
