Thank You, Texas House Dems

Beto O’Rourke said it best:

Obviously, a lot of the rank and file in the Party are upset at State Reps Walle, Hernandez, and Coleman (and the others who returned previously) for showing up on the floor of the Texas House yesterday, thus, giving the House a quorum.

During these last 38 days of the Democratic exodus to DC, they lobbied President Biden, VP Harris, Leader Pelosi, and especially the hard-headed right-wing Senate Democrats who refuse to budge on voting rights and filibuster reform.

Throughout this time, they also visited, they zoomed, they even did the work of their respective districts with the help of their staffs at home. A couple even took a vacation outside of the country (the rank and file didn’t complain about them). And also, that trip-up with the beer selfie at the beginning certainly annoyed me. Then, there was the COVID-19 outbreak, which showed us that vaccinated people SHOULD NOT be posing for unmasked large group selfies. For the most part, though, it was productive.

For me, the best part was State Senator Carol Alvarado’s filibuster, which actually happened in Austin.

But a protest that costs thousands of dollars per day for 50+ people is unsustainable. And I knew that as soon as I got the first e-mail asking for hotel and food money from a State Rep.

The only failure: A Democratic Congress and a Democratic President did nothing in the form of passing and then signing the For The People Act or the John Lewis Act. The appearance of bipartisanship for the infrastructure bill was more important to those in power, rather than showing some guts and passing at the very least a strong voting rights bill.

Wheres the outrage?

As has been the case historically, “Hurry up and wait!” won the battle. But the things that must be pushed through, even without republicans: voting rights, immigration reform, medicare for all (health care expansion), and expanded federal investment in needed programs, etc., are still sitting in the inbox because of right wing Democrats.

Where’s the outrage?

Don’t get me wrong, returning to the Texas Capitol means a lot more than a bigoted voter suppression bill passing. Greg Abbott has a longer list, now, of bigoted, anti-woman, anti-trans, child abusive, awful items which will surely pass. But I won’t be petty and blame those who returned because the numbers were never there to stop it in the first place. The target should always be the Republicans and those Democrats who support Abbott’s bills.

Ultimately, Texas House Democrats were in DC to lobby against voter suppression and for voting rights. For many, the stoppage of the other special session items were automatically included as a reason for the exodus. But TX House Dems were in DC with one purpose because without voting rights, the rest doesn’t matter. Voter suppression in Texas will solidify Republican seats and the damage to our state will continue.

And DC Dems didn’t budge. People easily forget that it was Joe Biden’s administration who has gone so far as to say that we need to win by working harder to turnout the vote despite voter suppression.

Where is the outrage?

So, who has really given up the fight? Frankly, I’m more demoralized by the Democratic majority and Biden administration who had this amazing opportunity to ride the voting rights train because some rogue Dems from a red state stood up to a bigoted governor. And it didn’t happen.

I know I’m outraged.

I join in thanking Texas House Democrats for taking this fight as far as it could go. I just wish the Democratic Congressional majority and Biden White House which the entire country worked so hard to create (again) would do their job.

Kuff has more, including a mention about a voting rights bill Joe Manchin might support.

What is to come from returning to Austin? Probably a lot of hurt and even more anger toward a few. But, let’s face it, we’ve been heading down this Republican-led road since the 90s and Democrats have been mostly in denial about it thinking they could negotiate the bigotry down during each Lege session. Well, Republicans are no longer interested in doing that.