https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...1bf34663a837ae&ei=25

Texas GOP Amendment Would Stop Democrats Winning Any State Election
Story by James Bickerton • 20h • 3 min read

According to The Texas Tribune it is unclear whether requiring support from a majority of counties to achieve statewide office "would be constitutional and conform with the Voting Rights Act" as racial minorities are disproportionately concentrated in a small number of counties.

On Saturday the Texas GOP also voted on whether to back a referendum on the state leaving the United States and becoming a fully independent country, a proposition it approved during the previous party convention in 2022.

The motion stated: "Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto."

Other motions proposed included a call to "abolish abortion by immediately securing the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization."

There was also a call to reverse the renaming of military bases named after Confederate leaders to "publicly honor the southern heroes," and a proposal that Confederate "monuments that have been removed should be restored to their historic locations."

On Thursday supporters of the Texas Nationalist Movement, which wants the Lone Star State to become an independent country, were photographed holding signs which read "TEXIT NOW!" inside the convention center.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...851d551d386ac2&ei=26

Why the new platform from the Republican Party of Texas matters
Story by Steve Benen • 3h • 2 min read

In recent decades, the Republican Party of Texas has periodically revised and approved its official platform, and by any fair measure, it’s always an extraordinary document. As we’ve discussed before, year in and year out, the GOP platform in the Lone Star State is consistently one of the more astounding — and hysterical — documents one will find in 21st century American politics.

The latest installment is no exception. The Texas Tribune reported over the holiday weekend on state GOP delegates voting on a platform with all sorts of notable ideas, ranging to demanding Bible classes in public schools to seeking UFO information to calling for U.S. military bases to be named after Confederate leaders who took up arms against the United States.

But The Texas Tribune also highlighted one of the state Republican Party’s newer priorities.

It’s been a few decades since a Democratic candidate won statewide office in Texas, and with that in mind, it’s tempting to think Republican officials would be satisfied with the state’s electoral system as it currently exists.

Evidently, that’s not the case. For the Texas GOP, the party’s decades-long winning streak might someday come to an end, and so now is apparently the time to make it effectively impossible for a Democrat to win a statewide election.

Under the status quo, candidates compete in elections, and those who win a majority take office. Under the model envisioned by the Republican Party of Texas, that would no longer sufficient: Candidates might receive the necessary support from Texas voters, but they won’t prevail unless they also carried most of the state’s counties.

What would be the point of this? GOP officials in the state seem to realize that Democratic candidates generate a lot of support in Texas’ large urban areas. As those cities grow, it’s at least possible that a Democratic contender might someday even reach 51%.

And that's where this newly proposed county-based requirement would kick in, shifting power away from voters in order to ensure Republican rule. As historian Kevin Kruse explained:

Kruse added, “It’s staggeringly unequal, and silencing an ‘urban’ vote that is of course now not just coded as more liberal but racially diverse too. And that, of course, is the point.”

This is, in other words, the latest example of Republicans looking at democracy as something that needs to be rigged, rather than a system that needs to be preserved.

It’s the old federal system re the senate.

It makes sense in that the urban areas with huge populations tend to dominate statewide races.

Look at county maps of most states and the red counties heavily outnumber the blue… yet the democrats outnumber the GOP in a large number of statewide offices.

This system has been found unconstitutional somehow when applied to lower levels (the one man one vote rulings) and a large number of states that tried to duplicate the federal legislative system of senate and house now essentially have two house organizations.

I really doubt that Texas will get this past the federal courts… even if it makes some sense in a way.

It's the last sentence in the OP that's the take-away.

quote:

This is, in other words, the latest example of Republicans looking at democracy as something that needs to be rigged, rather than a system that needs to be preserved.

The end justifies the means.

Let Texas go.

Among the states, they are the third hardest suckler on the federal teat, to the tune of $105 billion in 2021.

Let's see them thrive on their own. Especially after we impose an export tariff on goods.

Of course, their power grid is an example of utter efficiency, needing no fed support.

Makes one wonder which GOPer Texans are enhancing their net worth on that scheme.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
It’s the old federal system re the senate.

It makes sense in that the urban areas with huge populations tend to dominate statewide races.

Look at county maps of most states and the red counties heavily outnumber the blue… yet the democrats outnumber the GOP in a large number of statewide offices.

This system has been found unconstitutional somehow when applied to lower levels (the one man one vote rulings) and a large number of states that tried to duplicate the federal legislative system of senate and house now essentially have two house organizations.

I really doubt that Texas will get this past the federal courts… even if it makes some sense in a way.

Cows and grass do not get to vote.
The urban voter is ignored at the partial of the GOP as a whole. The rural voter does not count 2x to a an urban voter.

This argument is tiresome and silly.
The urban voter is not the enemy nor a problem. They are a voter w their own concerns, and interest. The GOP to continue to ignore and alienate urban voters is stupid.

What has been declared Unconstitutional is racial gerrymandering.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
It’s the old federal system re the senate.

It makes sense in that the urban areas with huge populations tend to dominate statewide races.

Look at county maps of most states and the red counties heavily outnumber the blue… yet the democrats outnumber the GOP in a large number of statewide offices.

This system has been found unconstitutional somehow when applied to lower levels (the one man one vote rulings) and a large number of states that tried to duplicate the federal legislative system of senate and house now essentially have two house organizations.

I really doubt that Texas will get this past the federal courts… even if it makes some sense in a way.

Urban areas in Texas most definitely do not dominate state wide races. Texas has not elected any Dem to statewide office since 1994.

I bet those state district maps drawn by the GOP legislature look interesting.

The needs and desires of rural populations and large urban area populations are different.

The original intent was to protect minority opinions.

Why was the senate set up based on regions instead of individual votes?

Why is a state copying the federal system (house based on population, senate based on counties) considered illegal now?

Admittedly I’m taking this beyond Texas.

Look at the California electoral map by counties at tell me with a straight face that the democrats aren’t doing to the GOP/conservative voters what the Texas state legislators are trying to do to the democrats.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
It’s the old federal system re the senate.

It makes sense in that the urban areas with huge populations tend to dominate statewide races.

Look at county maps of most states and the red counties heavily outnumber the blue… yet the democrats outnumber the GOP in a large number of statewide offices.

This system has been found unconstitutional somehow when applied to lower levels (the one man one vote rulings) and a large number of states that tried to duplicate the federal legislative system of senate and house now essentially have two house organizations.

I really doubt that Texas will get this past the federal courts… even if it makes some sense in a way.

Cows and grass do not get to vote.
The urban voter is ignored at the partial of the GOP as a whole. The rural voter does not count 2x to a an urban voter.

This argument is tiresome and silly.
The urban voter is not the enemy nor a problem. They are a voter w their own concerns, and interest. The GOP to continue to ignore and alienate urban voters is stupid.

What has been declared Unconstitutional is racial gerrymandering.

I cannot and will not dispute the California example.

What has been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States is racial gerrymandering. Political gerrymandering has not been addressed, and the Court continuously refuses to address that issue.

Ultimately, because you cannot gerrymander a state wide race is why grass and cows do not matter. That sea of red counties on Presidential Election night does not mean near as much as right pundits pretend.

They count no more than urban votes. As long as GOP politicians seek to anger urban votes w policies, the less GOP has a path to big chairs.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...073d4a0e4afcbb&ei=36

Texas Secessionists Celebrate Election Success
Story by James Bickerton • 1h • 3 min read

DAF.....

And at the same time, in the immortal words of George Jefferson "Don't let the door knob hit ya where the good lord split ya"

Justice Scalia said that cows and grass are owned by a corporation. They have value in $$$ and therefore they can vote!

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
It’s the old federal system re the senate.

It makes sense in that the urban areas with huge populations tend to dominate statewide races.

Look at county maps of most states and the red counties heavily outnumber the blue… yet the democrats outnumber the GOP in a large number of statewide offices.

This system has been found unconstitutional somehow when applied to lower levels (the one man one vote rulings) and a large number of states that tried to duplicate the federal legislative system of senate and house now essentially have two house organizations.

I really doubt that Texas will get this past the federal courts… even if it makes some sense in a way.

Cows and grass do not get to vote.
The urban voter is ignored at the partial of the GOP as a whole. The rural voter does not count 2x to a an urban voter.

This argument is tiresome and silly.
The urban voter is not the enemy nor a problem. They are a voter w their own concerns, and interest. The GOP to continue to ignore and alienate urban voters is stupid.

What has been declared Unconstitutional is racial gerrymandering.