Democrat members of the Texas House of Representatives fled the state on Tuesday, abandoning their legislative responsibilities like the Iraqi army scrambling away from the “Mother of all Battles.” They did so in a flourish of elitism, flying away maskless on private aircraft, the celebratory beer discretely but not effectively tucked out of sight, declaring that they, and they alone, not the people of Texas who elected the legislature, know what’s best for the Lone Star State and its citizens. A more perfect picture of Leftist disdain for democracy could not be imagined. Facing defeat, these spoiled adult children took their legislative dishes and dolly, and left in a pout. Maybe the beer helped.
They aren’t heroes. They are feckless and terrified cowards reenacting the Redcoats’ first encounter with the Ojibwa in the French and Indian War. The race-hustling crowd in the White House and Congress might tell you these whiny losers are fighting the good fight against “Jim Crow 2.0,” but like the label itself, the praise is a lie, invented to further inflame race relations in our country. The bootlicking legacy media, which seems to have found its place as the stenographic pool for the Democrat party, might utter a unified “Amen,” but that only cements their role as the Left’s useful idiot in the struggle for the country.
To understand what the “Big Lie” really is here, one should read the Texas bill in both SR 7 and HR1 versions. The substantive changes include: no 24 hour voting, although polls must be open for at least 9 hours between 6 am and 9 pm. No voting from an auto except in case of disability. Both of these are necessitated by Houston’s very tortured reading of the Texas constitution in 2020. The bill merely clarifies what the constitution already says.
Vote counts in large counties must be livestreamed, and machines for tabulation must have a means to disable wireless connectivity. Partisan poll watchers are allowed inside polling places and must be allowed to effectively observe the count. It will be against the law to deny access to polling places or the count to credentialed poll watchers. For those who complain about “potential voter intimidation:” this is already illegal under both Texas and Federal law. You’ll have to do better than that…
Those who assist voters with casting their vote and who drive more than 3 people at once (unless family members) to the polls must identify themselves, and any partisan affiliation. The House bill also prohibits officials from providing unsolicited ballots to any and sundry.
Texas does require ID to vote – mostly photo, but that can be waived with provision of other documents. It also permits early voting and – with an excuse (“I won’t be here” will suffice) – absentee voting, although the latter requires proof of eligibility, exactly as with voting in person.
For fun, let’s compare Texas’ “Jim Crow 2.0” with, say, Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware. Delaware has never had early voting; it will be offered for the first time next year. Texas has had it since the 1980s. Delaware requires “proof of identity” to vote and a Social Security Number for absentee ballot applications. Absentee voting is permitted only in certain narrow circumstances; no-excuse absentee voting is forbidden. There are only four ballot dropboxes in state, compared with Texas’ hundreds. Like Texas, Delaware prohibits same-day or automatic registration. Based on the foregoing perhaps Merrick Garland should send his Civil Rights Division to Dover, rather than Austin.
Remember, Joe Biden has represented Delaware in Congress since dinosaurs ruled the Earth. He found absolutely nothing wrong with the state’s voting procedures for decades because, well – they got him elected. That he now calls less-restrictive voting laws in other states “Jim Crow” is a travesty – but understandable: the man and his party need an issue, any issue – no matter how far-fetched. And the more divisive, the better.
One demands lax ID controls for voting because one wants to commit election fraud. There’s no other good reason for it. No, Kamela: people in the hinterland are not insurmountably challenged by a lack of Kinko’s to photocopy an ID; to insist they are is an insult to every rural American. Nor is an ID difficult to get or expensive in Texas. To say otherwise is a lie known to every Texan who has one.
One demands universal mail-in ballots sent to a voter roll unscrutinized for a decade, with bundles of who-knows-how-many ballots from who-knows-where dropped in unsecure boxes by who-knows-whom because one intends to cheat. Or because one firmly believes that being dead is no reason to be deprived of one’s right to the franchise. Either indicates bad intent.
One demands an election month instead of an election day and insists that absentee ballots received after election day be counted as valid because one needs multiple opportunities to cheat to achieve the result one wants.
One prohibits poll watchers from being able to actually observe the voting process and the count because one is cheating and doesn’t want it to be seen by someone who might blow the whistle. As an election observer for the OECD and the OAS I’ve seen this done multiple times in multiple places, and that’s always been the motive. To think we’re immune from the count-rigging tricks common to banana republics in every latitude is hopelessly naive – or blindly partisan. Neither is any good.
It was to preserve the right to cheat that the Texas legislators abandoned their jobs and the public trust; nothing else. They saw an opportunity for fundraising and fame based on a lie, and like Boss Tweed’s New York Harbor Commissioner of old, they “took it.” Just as they are taking a handsome per diem payment from the people of Texas to hide out in Washington after skeedaddling.
In this, as in so many other aspects, they echo their fellow-partisans of old and follow the same hysterical, corrupt, fraud-ridden politics. To complete the picture each and every Democrat involved in this travesty, from the most junior Texas state legislator to the Speaker of the House and Majority Leader of the Senate to the President himself, struts and postures as a liberator while taking public money to thwart the public will while sneering “What are you going to do about it?”
Well?
