I'm Begging Texas Republicans To Stop Proving My Point

Texas Democrats who had fled the state to stop Republican legislators from further diluting the representation of black and brown people in the state returned to the state capitol this week and were placed under something akin to house arrest.

Republican officials in the Texas house assigned police officers to each and every Democratic house member who had escaped Texas for the safety of pro-democracy states in denying Republican the quorum necessary to jam through their new and ugly gerrymander meant to add another five GOP seats to the U.S. House of Representatives (they're doing this because they've seen the polling and it's the ugliest shit possible).

One Texas Democrat, Rep. Nicole Collier, outright refused to be escorted and tracked by a cop. In retaliation, Texas Republicans stopped her from leaving the house chamber. They kidnapped her, in essence. Collier was forced against her will to spend the night in the Texas house because Republicans told her she was not free to leave. Of all the authoritarian shit dripping down your social media timelines right now, this might be the most authoritarian. It should be intolerable to anyone who values freedom (in good faith).

"I've had enough, I've just had enough of these bullying tactics that they use against those who are part of the minority party," Collier told MSNBC. "They continue to bully us and run over us and this is just part of their exercise of power and authority over our ability to challenge them."

Collier said she would not be "subject to their control." While I don't know exactly where Texas Republicans got the idea of police escorts for their political rivals, I can't help but recall something I read recently in a book about the failures of post-Civil War Reconstruction: Southern plantation owners, let off the hook for their betrayal of the nation, assigned local cops to monitor formerly enslaved people to ensure they could not leave the property and seek paid employment elsewhere. If a freed black man or woman refused this arrangement, they were beaten or imprisoned. History rhymes, things of that nature.

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Bad Faith TimesDenny Carter

I wish I had not been correct in Monday's blog post about refusing to do traditional politics for as long as the Republican Party operates like an authoritarian menace on both the federal and state levels. I just don't see any other way for Democratic lawmakers to operate in this increasingly hostile environment, one that bears all the hallmarks of what's known as competitive authoritarianism.

Treating our current moment as a full-blown crisis has to advantages: It slows or stops Republicans from implementing an agenda that's meant to lock them into power for the long haul, and it signals to the public – including, I think, disengaged folks who see politics as someone else's hobby – that this is in fact a crisis and you should be freaking the fuck out. Think of the optics for a normie who otherwise doesn't give a shit about politics, and might not even know the zombie Confederacy has teamed up to conquer Washington, D.C. this month: Democratic legislators fleeing to safe areas of the country, refusing to do business with their fascist counterparts, telling the press they are ready and willing to hide away for months or years if necessary. This is drama. This is action. This gets the dopamine flowing, and functions as a signal to anyone who has a TV or phone that we have plunged into unprecedented territory.

I can say with terrible honesty today that I don't know what it will take for Democratic lawmakers to stop pretending like we have not crossed into authoritarianism. The party's members are being arrested by the president's secret police. They are being murdered by crazed right-wing radicals. They are being warned not to challenge the military occupation of the nation's capital. How Democrats' fight or flight mode has not kicked into high gear is beyond me. Stay and fight and run to safety – do something before you have no options left.

Follow Denny Carter on BlueSky at @dennycarter.bsky.social.