Theater kids are holding Texas hostage

The theater kids are at it again. The Texas Democratic party is engaged in yet another performative act of resistance – one perhaps less embarrassing than the likes of Representative Greg Casar’s iconic nine-hour “thirst strike,” but far more damaging to Texans in the moment.

The decision by more than 50 Texas representatives to flee the state for the climes of California, New York and Illinois rather than confront the realities of their political margins doesn’t just act as a grandstanding method of opposition to a redistricting policy that would stand to Republicans’ benefit – it also is holding up the legislative response to the recent flooding disaster, something of significant need to the damaged communities. 

The entire escapade seems only designed to slow things down and gin up donations from the Democratic base, while turning the political rhetoric about the normal battles of redistricting into the comfortable Democratic language of racial resentment. Speaking to Don Lemon, Democrat Texas State Representative Jolanda Jones likened their battle against the new districts to the Holocaust. No wonder we’re seeing such over-the-top drama, given that the whole escape to the borders is funded by the OG Texas Democrat “born to run” theater kid, Beto O’Rourke.

In response, Governor Greg Abbott has threatened the legislators with arrest, and President Trump suggested he may have to deploy the FBI to bring them back to the state – both posturing threats, in their own right. The most hypocritical aspect of this is that California, New York and Illinois are all some of the most gerrymandered states in the country: in California, Republicans won 40 percent in the last election but netted just nine seats. And Governor Gavin Newsom seems intent on making an initial idle threat of nuclear response into a reality, promising to meet the Lone Star state’s attempt to add five more GOP-favorable districts with five more Democrats from on the West Coast.

This type of escapade never really results in a positive outcome – gerrymandering is too explicitly partisan of an issue for anything otherwise. But in the meantime, it does give resistance people another thing to be mad enough to send in some cash – which is why it’s happening in the first place. Some theater works.