In a year saturated with one-upsmanship and political reshuffling, the Lone Star State became a magnet for pundits and critics of the political process as the country surges to the off-year November polls, in which no midterm or presidential election will take place.
As Texas Republicans utilized mid-decade redistricting to redraw voting districts and provide Trump with his latest wish of “…five more seats” in the congressional map, Democrats countered by vanishing from the Capitol entirely to block the voting process.
Upon returning, Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows mandated that they could not leave the Capitol building without signing a “permission slip,” upon which they would be accompanied by plainclothes law enforcement agents everywhere they went. In this way, they would be prevented from further “disappearing acts” to impede the voting process.
In a dramatic flourish, Democratic Representative Nicole Collier became the sole holdover by refusing to sign the permission slip, which in essence mandated she remain within the government edifice alone. If she had left the building, she would have been subject to arrest. And so she remained inside the Capitol by herself for two days in an act of defiance.
Our Weekly has reached out to Collier but did not receive comment. In an interview with NPR, Collier defended her refusal to sign the slip.
“…I’m not a criminal. I have not done anything wrong. I’ve exercised my constitutional right to deny a quorum. And what they have asked is for members to agree to be released into the custody of DPS. It’s not just an escort. It’s “in the custody,” as if we have committed some type of crime, to fulfill their political theater.”
Local political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson gave his assessment of these events.
“She sent a message that she would not be intimidated by the GOP and that she would continue the fight within the Texas chamber against racist redistricting.”
All this has been orchestrated in light of the increasing ethnic shift of the state’s population. Most metrics indicate that Black and Hispanic populations in Texas will increase from this year onward. Simply put, the GOP is manipulating the district boundaries of the white majority that was in place circa 2020.
Nonetheless, as the Republican Party maintains its control at the federal level, individual states on the left end of the spectrum are scrambling to counter what could become an extended period of dominance by conservative factions within the GOP. Both sides have resorted to tactics covered previously within the pages of Our Weekly.
Frequent contributor and California State University professor David Horne is more blunt.
“…there is a political war going on to capture and imprison American democracy (including the Voting Rights Act, etc.) and replace it with an oligarchic autocracy.”
In summary, this pejorative form of redistricting can, if properly executed, allow a given political faction to pick out voters loyal to its side rather than letting the voting citizenry choose a designated candidate, as the process is intended.
Collier suggests that this was merely a smoke screen for other issues, pointing out that “…these racist maps are the most segregated maps since the civil rights era.”
Horne contends these countermeasures to the tactics conceived by the “Trumpites” are necessary to ensure a level playing field politically.
“Civil rights will become a blissful memory under such a government, and continued Black progress will become null and void.”
As she slept at her desk within its chambers in a sleep mask, a hair bonnet, and a blanket for comfort, a photo was taken, making her a cause celebrity and generating headlines for this entanglement in Texas. She received additional support in the form of a telephone call from former Vice President Kamala Harris and gifts of books and other niceties from political allies. In the interim, Collier has filed lawsuits claiming that she was illegally detained.
“The government is without any legal authority to detain members when a quorum is not needed to conduct business,” the suit reads in part.
The legal definition of whether she was actually held under house arrest remains to be determined within the confines of another courtroom, at the expense of taxpayers. The bonds that she shares with political cohorts Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) were cemented by way of a press call in a women’s bathroom, along with other Democratic National Committee bigwigs, during the course of her confinement.
Both of these out-of-state political figures are well-known aficionados of the media and its capacity to sway public opinion.
Political analysts commend the measures taken by Newsom in California, rebutting criticism that he is stealing from the Trump playbook.
“If you want to try and pack the House with more Republicans, we’ll counter and check you by packing the House with more Democrats,” Hutchinson says.
“It was a strong and smart move.” Horne is in agreement. “Newsom’s latest political move is a brilliant chess strategy that should spark enough other states to block this attempted oligarchic takeover,” says Horne.
