大侠行天下日记 我见我闻我思 07/14

我见我思我闻

德州议会 政治混战

五十一位德州眾议员週一搭乘包机从德州首府奥斯丁飞往首都华盛顿，主要是对抗共和党要强行通过的最新投票案。

在州议会中佔有六十七席的民主党，希望他们的缺席无法在议会中达到三分之二的出席人数， 而使法案无法进行表决。

州长艾伯特已经下令要把他们逮捕强制回到议会， 并且坚持如果大会流会， 他将继续再度召集临时议会来讨论和通过新的投票法案，民主党人在基於少数而无法反制之情形下， 只有逃离议会，使议程无法进行， 他们坚定认為， 这项法案如果通过， 将会严重影响到人民行使投票权之权利。

这场政治大戱正代表了民主共和两党之对立日愈加深。

德州向来都是共和党之天下 ，美国参议员代表 、州议会、 州长都是共和党籍 ，上次总统大选因疫情关系， 大大放宽了投票方式， 以致使民主党投票数激增， 几乎造成翻盘， 德州共和党岂能再次容忍， 因此在此次参眾议院之特别会期中一定要严密把关， 来重挫民主党之锐气。

Texas Democrats Fight Against Election Law Reform

A charter plane with a load of Texas Democratic house members took off from Austin and landed in the nation’s capital. They are attempting to fight against the passage of one of the nation’s most stringent voting laws.

What the Democrats did by leaving the state was to rob Republicans in the Texas legislature of a quorum. Republicans pledged to do everything they could to find a legislative workaround for the lack of quorum, but if the Democratic members stay in Washington DC, then the clock will run out for this special session. This means the Democrats will have about a month away at home. If they return to Texas, the governor could have them arrested. But in reality, the governor could call for another special session after this special session, all the way up until the election next year.

Texas Democrats knew that when they took the flight to DC, it was all really about drawing national attention to the voting bill.

Chris Turner, Chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, told reporters that we need the Congress to pass federal voting rights legislation to save our democracy because these Republican attacks will continue to occur over and over again in Texas and across the country.

The Bill 7 which could make mail-in voting more difficult and ban drive-thru voting was introduced during the pandemic in Houston which is a Democratic stronghold.

Today we are facing a big challenge in Texas politics. Many Democrats live in the big cities such as Houston and San Antonio. Now we are having more and more minorities move into the smaller areas of the state. The minorities now are becoming the majority. Now the whole state is turning to blue and later will control most of the elected officials.

We all hope that both parties will compromise and let the political turmoil come to an end.