The Texas House voted Wednesday to move forward with a new congressional map – as Democrats continued to seek ways to resist.
The vote for the map on a second reading was 88-52. The vote on a third and final reading was also 88-52.
If you gotta cheat to win then Americans don’t want you
They know, they don’t care, that’s why they cheat. They think they’re above democracy and have to subjugate the minority for their own good. Note: “their” in that last sentence can refer to either party, the majority or the cheaters.
of course it was 88
Yup.
Fucking cheaters couldn’t win anything fairly if they tried.
Why did the Dems come back?
Worthless stunts don’t fucking help.
I hear this a lot, and part of me understands the sentiment. But it’s important to keep in mind that these are state level politicians, not national. Representing their districts is a part time job. Most of them have jobs like attorney, doctor, business owner employing other people, etc. To stay absent would mean not only leaving these responsibilities, but it’s also leaving their spouses and kids. On top of that the state government started imposing $500/day fines. Then they sued and froze the accounts of Beto O’Rourke’s fundraiser to help them meet their expenses (that was just overturned by a judge this afternoon).
When it became clear that other states were willing to redraw their maps to cancel out Texas’s naked power grab, it changed the calculus. They achieved the objective of drawing attention to the issue and they got other states to commit to action so that even if Texas redraws the map, it won’t matter on a national level. They’ve already paid significant personal cost. How much should they be expected to pay? Should their families/clients/patients/employees also suffer?
I don’t know that there’s a right answer. Maybe this is the sort of tough call that defines real rebellions from performative ones. I do think that it’s easy to criticize from a distance because for most of us the principles and ideas are abstract. But for them the costs are already being felt in concrete ways.
Speaking in a more meta-context, this is exactly it in the political world. In playing politics, you gotta play the political game. There are plenty of things to criticize the dems for, but man do most people in semi-recent history tend to oversimplify things. It’s just not as simple as throwing a filibuster at ‘the other side’ every now and then, you’ve gotta consider political capital, optics, legal maneuvers, precedence, etc. If you run up on the congressional floor and decide to filibuster all on your own with no support, you’re just a jackass wasting everyone’s time, likely harming your own cause in the process. Politics isn’t speeches back and forth with some money thrown around, it’s about building and wisely wielding social power. That includes knowing how to build solidarity with others in other constituencies.
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I will always appreciate the nuanced take on things. No matter the subject. So often people are so vapidly polarized on seemingly every topic under the sun, so it’s refreshing to see this. Thank you.
Are these not desperate times?
Nothing that exists, does so without first passing through the framework of nuance.
Excellent reply
If you’re not willing to sacrifice your freedom so that many more may have it, it’s just a performance rebellion. They get credit when they start being behind bars for their convictions. The rest of us aren’t getting that luxury. We’ve already seen that concessions don’t get us anything in return. Every inch you give them is another inch they’ve taken.
Chairforce One really showing up to critique texas state dems. These aren’t US senators. This is the minor party in state house where as far as I know they haven’t held majority in decades.
The stunt worked about as well as it could. they got media coverage and Newsom displayed a counterplan.
I for sure ain’t paying their fees. I doubt some billionaire did either.
Chairforce One
Lolol. That’s a new one for me. Yoink!
Maybe if you stopped sucking Dem dick so hard we could actually get something done besides a one week delay. Thanks for all your help, it’s done so much. Cus you’ve been out there fighting and raising awareness, not just jerking yourself off in an echo chamber online, right?
I’m not claiming I did anything, which is the correct response when you’ve done nothing. Not acting like I’m fucking V for Vendetta when I caved at the first sign of resistance.
Find me in 5 years so I can laugh harder at you. We’ll see where the Dems are then.
Thank you major general of the chair force for your salient movie to reality comparison. I’ll report back in 5 years so you can jack yourself off about how right you were, that’s whats important here.
They get credit when they start being behind bars for their convictions.
What are you doing?
This is a Tu Quoque argument and is a type of ad hominem attack. It does nothing to counter his argument that the Democrats are useless and tries to redirect the discussion into an attack on him instead.
It’s a fallacy.
Not acting like I’m rebelling when I’m not actually doing anything. Wanna try again? Remind me how that vote went again? They’re rebellion amounted to… what exactly? Oh yeah, a week delay.
So yeah, you get credit for the things you do. They did next to nothing. They aren’t rebellion leaders. That title belongs to someone else, not them.
The math is simple: when presented with obstacles that would hurt them personally, they surrendered. They were all talk until there were consequences and then backed down. That’s not any definition of rebellion leader I’ve ever heard.
Sorry you may have forgotten to include what you are specifically doing to help move the needle. That’s probably the most important bit here to show how you are leading by example
Again, I’m not claiming anything for myself. I’m saying you get a title when you earn it and they haven’t.
But go ahead and be an obtuse dickwad. WHaT aRe YoU dOInG?!? Hurr durr
Correct, you’re as useless as you claim others to be.
Only an obtuse dickwad would cry about others while doing absolutely nothing themselves
Thet brought attention to the issue. In opposition, sometimes that’s all you can do.
At least they stood up to do something more than thoughts and prayers.
Well it was gerrymandering, not a mass shooting at an elementary school.
Because it was all for show.
Prepare to be crushed by California you cheating scum.
In this timeline?? Really? After all that has already happened this year, somehow we are still going to hope that California actually follows thru, the federal or supreme somehow don’t mess it all up? I don’t believe anymore. Reality has turned into a sick Murphy’s law nightmare.
Newsom only wants to match Texas by adding 5 blue seats, it’s pure theatre.
If he was serious he’d squeeze California for all the seats he could get, but he’s just keeping the field level with what it is right now. The problem is, the way it is now is already heavily right leading nationwide.
California needs to cancel out more than just Texas.That is why other states are doing this?
I hope they do, but even if they do, that is still only a net zero gain and California has to put theirs to a public vote. Texas will get sued for the redistricting being blatantly along racial lines but it will have to play out in the courts which is a crapshoot at this point. Its still a net loss in the end imo. They should have kept the quorum break up imo. Yes, I know they were being penalized but there was enough external support infrastructure to get them through that.
In this universe where we cannot have nice things, the CA changes will be overturned by their own Supreme Court.
Because this is the worst of all possible worlds.
ETA: I was wrong, the CA Supreme Court has shown that a far worse fate is in store for us.
I hope I’m wrong. But the history of the Democratic party tells me they will either half ass it or completely fail at it.
At this point I see them as a party that pretends to be resisting than actually resisting. They are either purposely distracting or completely incompetent.
I really really hope I’m wrong. We need actual legislation and not just tweets. So I’ll continue to give them the trust they deserve until they prove otherwise. I am rooting for them though. I really am.
Texas sucks 71 billion from the federal government, guess how much California gives to the federal government
From what I can tell, TX and CA both pay in more to the fedgov than they take out. The Southeast takes out a lot more than it pays in though.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/donor-states
We’ll see. Newsom is a centrist and centrists are allergic to keeping their promises.
Only one way out of this, and quite frankly Congressional Districts won’t matter for that.