July 21, 2021

Special to BuzzFlash by Spenser Seddon

This week’s BuzzFlash “Wings of Justice” Award goes to the Texas House Democrats – specifically, the 51 elected Democratic representatives from the Texas House who last week took the bold step of leaving their state in order to prevent passage of restrictive voting rights legislation pushed by the Texas GOP. Flying together to Washington D.C., the Texas House Democrats broke the quorum that’d be necessary for the state legislative body to pass and enact a set of new Republican-drafted laws which would make it harder for Texans to vote. In our present moment of political turbulence, with so much at stake and in view of often frustrating and ineffectual conduct from some Democrats at the national level, it’s encouraging and inspiring to see these Democratic Texans taking a stand.

Making the collective decision as legislators to break quorum is difficult and rare, and it’s how and why the Texas House Democrats have undertaken the effort that seems especially worthy of the American public’s due consideration and respect. By fleeing the state and subverting the special session in Texas, the 51 Democrats risk arrest, fines, and subjection to other means to “compel” their return, per the state constitution and threats from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. No one takes this lightly, and that’s the point: these Texas Democrats are clearly illustrating the importance and urgency of voting rights issues and legislation with their willingness to take this rare action and “go nuclear,” as it were. Moreover, by shrewdly opting to go to Washington D.C., the Texas House Democrats are able to make productive use of their time and optics – juxtaposing their daring efforts and sacrifice with the tepid posturing and self-serving obstruction of the likes of, say, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – all while handily avoiding the reach of the Texas GOP and state police. The Texas Dems have stayed busy visiting and working with federal legislators ever since arriving in D.C., pointing out the crucial need for Democratic action at the national level to implement progressive voting rights laws and standards.

In the last week, Americans have been vocal in their praise and support of the Texas Democrats, feeling energized by the legislators’ upstanding example – for good reason, and not a moment too soon. After months of repetition of the “Big Lie” from Trump Republicans, coordinated conservative attacks on voting access in courts and legislatures nationwide, and now the recent passage in numerous states of restrictive GOP election legislation predicated on Trump’s lies, the time for substantive federal legislative action from Congressional Democrats is right now. To that end, Texas House Dems seizing headlines and forcing the issue by breaking quorum is a smart move, if also a calculated risk.

The Texans’ act of civil disobedience involves a destabilizing element of political dysfunction – the kind of thing that makes global markets nervous – but it does so as a last resort, to emphasize the urgency of our situation. There’s a moral impulse and purpose behind the Dems’ action here that ought to be just as compelling to the public. It’s an effort to realize and protect fundamental American principles of fair, democratic self-governance and representation – notions which the GOP seems keen to overlook, which the broader public seems to understand. And let’s be sure to observe, too, that the Texas Dems are making their stand by using a mechanism of parliamentary procedure – and not, say, by staging a violent armed rebellion at the state house in Austin. At this already-destabilized juncture, regardless of efforts at neutral press coverage or ostensible bipartisan collaboration, it seems apparent that it’s only Democrats and the Left that actually care about preserving our democracy, and our chance to rise to the occasion - not to mention to act out of concern for political self-preservation - won’t last for long.

Knowing that Texas is “living on borrowed time,” as some Texas House Democrats have noted, and that some form of restrictive state-level elections policy will likely eventually prevail at the hands of Gov. Abbott and the Texas GOP majority, it’s critical to understand that the need to enact voting rights legislation at the federal level is immediate, absolute, and frankly, something of a last hope. Republicans have cast their lot with Trump on a cynical and repressive authoritarian tack, and it’s apparent that they ultimately only care about power – acquired and held by any means necessary, without any pretense of concern for democracy, or the truth, or the wellbeing of the fuller American public.

How, then, to show up and fight back? How to defend our democracy without reducing it to scorched earth? The Texas House Democrats are doing something radical to that end, here and now, as a way of facing (and making) an uncertain future down the road. They’re getting creative and getting to work without too much regard for convention or propriety, and it’s heartening to see. We’re grateful for their boldness, their resolve, their effort to electrify the present political moment and compel Democrats to vital action. As the Texas House Dems have made clear, we need progressive federal-level legislation on elections and voting rights – namely, the “For the People” Act and the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act” – pushed and passed as soon as possible if we are to preserve our democracy in principle and in practice. Congressional Democrats need to understand that urgency of our current moment and act accordingly.

Spenser Seddon is a writer, editor, and marketing & communications professional based in Seattle.

BuzzFlash is once again honoring upstanding & outstanding people with our Wings of Justice recognition! Read the full collection of recent honorees here, and peruse selections archived from our original website here.

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