They have turned into ethical golems with only greed for power and money left to sustain them, and that is a very poor diet, indeed. Republican legislators have been fighting Democrats as if their very lives depended upon it. Financed by major ultra-conservative organizations, state Republican leaders in most states have reached into the sludgy bottom of their swamp and pulled out their latest tool, voter theft.
The problem is that greed if uncontested will not only kill the Republican Party, it will kill the nation. Even after the chair of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Texas, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R-TX), offered a reward of $1 million if anyone could show evidence of voter fraud. There were no takers.
Already, Texas has some of the harshed voting bills in the country. The new. Senate Bill 7 was set to change elections in a number of ways, according to CBS News:Â
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- eliminate drive-thru voting
- empower partisan poll watchers and
- impose new requirements in order to cast a ballot by mail in Texas
There has been no significant national legislation passed with the exception of the coronavirus bailout money since 2009’s Affordable Care Act aka ACA aka Obamacare. Senate Majority Leader has called himself the Grim Reaper and sits at the Senate door to kill new bills with his scythe, the filibuster.
Ever since Donald Trump lost and started his Big Lie that the election was rigged against him, 14 states or more have already put in place more restrictive voting laws. Thus far, our country’s states have filed 400 bills this year to restrict voting.
Saturday, President Joe Biden called election changes among this and like states:
‘[They are] an assault on democracy that we’ve seen far too often this year, often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans.’
So, right before their midnight deadline Democratic Texas legislators, simply walked out of their Congress, denying the majority Republicans a quorum. State Democratic House Leader Representative Chris Turner (D-TX) had sent a text to all in his caucus telling them to abandon the chamber. According to NPR:
‘The sudden revolt torpedoed the sweeping measure.’
Afterward, Turner said:
‘We killed that bill.’
Republican State Representative Briscoe Cain (R-TX) originally took the bill to the House and said:
‘I am disappointed that some members decided to break quorum,We all know what that meant. I understand why they were dong it, but we all took an oath to Texans that we would be here to do our jobs.’
Democratic State Representative Carl Sherman said:
‘We’ve said for so many years that we want more people to participate in our democracy. And it just seems that’s not the case.’
Lead Republican negotiators State Senator Bryan Hughes and Cain released a joint statement saying the bills were historical:
‘[The bill is] one of the most comprehensive and sensible election reform bills in Texas’ history. Even as the national media minimizes the importance of election integrity, the Texas Legislature has not bent to headlines or corporate virtue signaling.’
After the Democrat’s walkout, Republican Governor Greg Abbott immediately said he would go for a special session to address the bill again.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued in the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election. And he lost.
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