On the national side of things, the GOP is flailing and failing to enforce their anti democratic agenda, mostly because they’re so unpopular that they’re in the minority. And so more and more, it is up to safely gerrymandered GOP supermajorities in deep red states to try building the scaffold from the ground up.
In Montana today, the GOP state legislature barred state representative Zoey Zeoffer, the only transgender representative, and a fellow freakin‘ Republicansfrom the floor for the rest of the legislative session for the grievous sin of speaking up on the floor for her constituents. They literally pulled the microphone and cord from her desk.
And a couple of weeks ago, the Tennessee state legislature attempted to expel three Democratic lawmakers, and succeeding with two black lawmakers for violating The decorum of the floor of the House. Fortunately the legislative session only has three days left to go.
If you’re looking for common denominators, here are two of them. First, all three are under the age of 30. And second, all of them are accused of misbehaving in a legislature where the GOP majority can sanction them. But there’s a potential problem with this anti democratic nonsense.
And that problem is that despite their best efforts, it’s still a democracy. And with all of that GOP chest thumping and nut licking, once again the GOP didn’t learn. from. history. The Democrats have a secret small d democratic weapon at their disposal any time they want to use it.
It’s called a quorum. A quorum is actually a very simple thing. Basically, in most legislative bodies, in order to gavel a session into being, it requires a presence of 50% +1 of the total body, as well as a minimum of one member of each party. Easiest thing in the world, in fact almost automatic. Except when one party doesn’t want it to be.
In 2011 then Wisconsin GOP Governor Scott Scooter Walker was poised to pass a disastrous budget reform bill. The protests in Wisconsin were massive, often topping 100,000 people surrounding the Capitol. But what did Walker care? He had the numbers, it was a done deal.
Until it wasn’t. The ight the bill was called for a vote in the Senate, the Democrats requested a 15 minute recess, which was granted. During that recess, every Democratic Senator hopped into their cars, and drove across the border into Illinois to safe haven. Which stalled the vote, since the Senate no longer had a quorum to gavel in for business.
Scooter was furious! In a fit of pique he had Wisconsin state police officers posted outside of the Senators homes, to arrest them and forcibly bring them back to the Capitol for a quorum. But the Senators were in Illinois, and Wisconsin state police had no authority to effect arrests in Illinois. The standoff lasted for weeks while the Democrats negotiated concessions before voluntarily returning. They were national Democratic heroes.
In 2021, Texas was poised to pass a massive new bill of severe voting restrictions. In fact Governor Greg Abbott called a special session just to get the job done. With an 80-41 advantage, there was no way Abbott could lose.
Until he did. On the eve of the vote in the House, the entire Democratic caucus fled Texas on planes and buses to converge on Washington DC to highlight their plight. And in doing so, once again denied the Texas House GOP of their quorum they needed in order to gavel the session to order.
Once again the Texas Democrats were national rock stars. They prowled the halls of congress, petitioning legislatures for help. Several of them appeared at a specially called House committee hearing. They blew town on July 12th, and managed to run out the time on the special legislative session.
And then they went home. And spineless Greg Abbott just called another special session to get the job done. And on August 19th, five weeks after the Democrats boogied, the bill finally passed the Texas House.
But the Texas Democrats had already accomplished everything they wanted to do. They spent five long weeks drawing daily national attention to the overreach of the Texas GOP. And they made Abbott and the GOP legislature look like a bunch of incompetent morons. Game. Set. Match.
In the last three general election cycles, the average age of a member of congress in the US House hqs dropped by something like 14 years. And those ain’t GOP tards we’re talking about here. It’s the Democrats that are electing the next generation to come in and clean up this mess. And I’m betting that we’re seeing a similar dynamic playing out in statehouses across the country.
And these kids are as smart as whips, and natural street fighters. Must be all those video games. I’m betting that at least some of them in GOP controlled states are already combing through the rules to look for every single edge they can pull to make life miserable for the GOP usurpers. And they’ll find them. But for the next few years, look for the word quorum to pop up a lot in red state legislative politics. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
It appears that those sissy Montana republiCLOWNS are terrified. They had to bring in a load of mentally ill, heavily armed thugs to protect them while “law making”.
The best thing about Montana is when the sh1t hits the fan, Montana and those shit hole states where they put the missile fields goes first.
Gee, why would I want to financially support a group that cowers to “googles” demands? Who the f3ck is Google anyway?
I don’t understand your reference to “googles” and “Google.” I have read Mr. Murphy’s column three times, and I have seen no reference either to Google or to doing an online search, whether with Google or with another search engine.
If Google or another search engine is mentioned in the column, please tell me where to find it, Ptg. If this column does not mention Google, please tell me what your comment about Google is referring to. Thank you in advance for your help.
It looks like the Repubs in state legislatures that have a majority are trying the dirty trick of denying any member that doesn’t agree with them no access to speak on the floor or present any bill. They frustrate them to the point where their only option is to be disruptive…and then that allows Rs to claim they’ve broken the “rules” and can now be censured or even lose their seat. It’s a ugly trick that makes it clear they shouldn’t be in charge of any government body or office and I hope it bites them all in the arse like it did in Tenn.