Montana Viewpoint: Texas herd law

Jim Elliott

There are 18 items to be covered in the current special session of the Texas Legislature. One of them is by request of President Trump who asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott if Texas couldn’t come up with an additional five Republican districts to help out the tiny Republican majority in Congress. (Recall that in 2020 Trump asked Georgia Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to find him an additional 11,000 votes which would be the amount needed for him to win Georgia.)

Governor Abbott was happy to oblige, and a bill was introduced to redraw Texas’ Congressional district map to eliminate five Democratic districts and replace them with Republican districts.

In an attempt to stymie the move, 50 Democratic legislators left Austin for as long as it takes to run out the clock on the legislative session, leaving the Legislature shy of the needed quorum of two-thirds of the body needed to conduct business. Governor Abbott called out the Texas Rangers to corral the mavericks, hog-tie them and bring them back.

In response Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker offered to put the Democratic dogies up in his luxurious Hyatt Hotel in Chicago, where two rumors of bomb threats caused the hotel to be evacuated twice.

Going Pritzker one better, California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom (ex-husband ((2001-2006)) of Donald Trump, Jr’s ex-fiancée ((2021-2024)), Kimberly Guilfoyle) is offering to redistrict five California Republican Members of Congress out of office.

What in hell is going on here?

Not democracy.

This is a raw grab for political power which has little to do with democracy and everything to do with diminishing the power of the individual voter. If the purpose of representative democracy is to give voice to the concerns and beliefs of individual Americans, this is not the way to make that happen.

Now, more than ever in our nation, the “concerns and beliefs” are manufactured at the political party level and injected into the minds of the voters. Rather than voters getting information from reliable and accurate sources the political parties, through their selective media, are dictating what they want the American voter to believe so they will vote “right”.

There is a core group of political influencers, both within the party systems and the media, who are looking for predetermined outcomes that support the parties’ need for power.

This goes for both major parties. The Democrats build fragile coalitions of minority and disenfranchised groups for their support but are more concerned about the support of the wealthy and “educated” voter for victory. While the policy of the Democratic Party may be in the best interests of the working American, Democrats treat the people it wants to help in a paternalistic fashion, saying, “we know what is best for you.”

The Republicans are a little less subtle in their deception, using scapegoating and fostering anger so that they can build an America where there are no restrictions on making millions, and no taxes for the rich.

In the American electorate there are many ways to think about complex issues. In American political parties there is only one accepted way which is the way the issue is defined in the party platform by the party leaders.

There is a way out of this: outlaw the political parties. Or, just shy of that, hand the redistricting process over to non-partisan committees. How could they do any worse?