OPINION AND COMMENTARY
This morning, news broke that Texas Democratic legislators staying in Chicago had to move hotels because of a bomb threat.
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott is asking the Texas Supreme Court to remove them from office. His next goal is to criminally charge each of them for whatever crime he can find.
The Attorney General has filed suit to declare all of these duly-elected legislator’s offices vacant. In other words, to have the Texas courts overrule the will of the people who elected them.
The President of the United States, and Texas’ own Senators, are calling for the FBI to arrest them and charge them with bribery.
In retaliation, California and New York are threatening to do away with their nonpartisan redistricting commissions and gerrymander their own districts to create more Democratic seats in Congress.
If that happens, other Republican states are likely to join Texas.
What is the End Game?
All of this begs the question, what is the end game? It does not seem like anyone has thought about that.
If Trump and the governor succeed in squeezing five more Republican seats into the House from Texas, and they retain the gavel in 2026, what does that do to the legitimacy of Congress?
Is it the equivalent of a legislative coup? Will the Blue States recognize a Congress like that as legitimate? And what happens then?
If the Democrats prevail and retake the House with newly gerrymandered seats, will Trump allow the speaker to seat them? The willingness of Republicans — including our own Congressman and both Senators — to participate in, permit, absolve and lend legitimacy to an attempted coup has been established.
That is their record, and they have no choice but to stand by it.
They have all done so repeatedly.
You can tell people a coup and a riot is not a coup and a riot all you want, but that does not change the facts or history. Claims of restoring the country are really a cover for its destruction.
Being from Texas we all know the proverb about pissing on my boot and calling it rain.
If the Congress votes not to seat a new Democratic majority, or the President prevents them from taking office, what happens then?
The Imperial Presidency
This is no longer about Texas politics.
This is about constitutional government, and whether we will still have one when all of this is done.
That may be the ultimate goal — a permanently inept, and subservient Congress, unable to serve as a check on the power of the presidency. It worked for Augustus Caesar, why not Donald Trump?
I do not blame Trump. He is doing what all Presidents have done – expanding Presidential power at all costs.
This is the presidency the founders created; no guardrails and no limitations except what is self-imposed.
Trump has no boundaries: not with the truth, not with women and not with the constitution.
This fight is not about ideology — conservative, liberal or libertarian — it is about power. It is the same struggle that brought us the first Civil War.
The slaveholding powers, that had dominated the country since before its founding, realized a new society was coming and were afraid they were going to be permanently removed from power. So, they started a war that tore the country apart.
Cold Civil War
Welcome to the American Civil War Part II – the sequel.
Only this time it’s a cold war, not a hot one.
It is essentially the same war we’ve been fighting since 1861, only we aren’t killing people and destroying cities — yet.
The white supremacist, male dominated power structure has held sway for so long they cannot imagine what might replace it.
They certainly can’t fathom that the future might even be better than the past.
Rather than adjust to the present and participate in the future, the Radical Right prefers to burn it down. The parallels are strikingly similar.
To hold on to political power and relevancy, Trump’s Radical Right, including the entire leadership structure of Texas, are willing to risk destruction of the country, and what’s left of Constitutional Government.
Only this time, it is not Fort Sumter that is being bombarded, it is the U.S. Capitol itself. The chosen artillery is redistricting in Texas.
In the 1860s the white supremacist power never came close to taking the U.S. Capitol. But after an unsuccessful violent coup on January 6, 2020, it looks like they may finally do it in 2026.
Everyone Loses
Now that the Cold Civil War of redistricting has started, no one knows how it will end. No matter who wins, the country and its constitutional system of government will be the losers.
The last time there was a Civil War the only lasting outcome was the increased power of the federal government over the states and the lives of individuals. That may happen again.
Smaller government is no longer a “Conservative” cause, if that word even means anything anymore.
The Radical Right is not conservative by any stretch of the imagination.
They do not want to make the government smaller, they want it bigger — and with more power — so they can make the country what they want it to be.
There is no pretense of representing the people; they just want to rule over them.
They have a radical, expansive vision of government. It is one that seeks to dominate and control every action of every state, city, county, school district and person. It is this Radical Right, not the Republican Party that rules Texas, and has for over thirty years.
Only Texas Republicans Can Save the Country
The Democratic Party in Texas has been stripped of all meaningful power in this State during that time. No other opposition party has formed to seriously oppose this Radical Right.
This Radical Right destroyed the Grand Old Party.
Now it is only a ghost of its former self. Perhaps this Radical Right government is what Texas wants. I doubt it.
But it is going to take either a revolt by Texas Republicans to overthrow this foreign power, or an opposition coalition to put an end to this madness.
It is ironic that only Texas Republicans have the ability to save the United States of America now.
The only question is will they?
