GOP voter-suppression disgrace —Why I am not going to Austin today

I am not going to Austin today, Saturday, June 10, 2021, to testify against the State Senate voter suppression bill because it won’t make a difference to Republicans. I also don’t believe that Democratic state lawmakers should have returned for the Special Session to allow Republicans to even have the opportunity to pass all the bad bills that Governor Abbott has recommended be passed.

For me, there is no acceptable middle ground on the bills that Republicans want to pass. My only goals are to kill those bills, elect a Democratic majority in the legislature and elect Democrats to statewide offices. To achieve these goals in 2022, Democrats in the legislature must once again leave. They must not let Governor Abbott hold them hostage because he vetoed legislative funding. Abbott did it and they need to let him pay the political price for doing it. Democratic donors and labor unions can (and must) help take care of the state employees that may have to go on unemployment during this fight for the future of our state.

Republicans are not only going to pass legislation to suppress our right to vote, they are also going to pass bills to whitewash the teaching of history in our state, make health care options for women harder to obtain, discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community and take Texas taxpayers’ money to build a wall at the border rather than use that money to fix the grid and improve health care and broadband access in rural communities.

It is not too late for Democrats, in the Legislature, to once again bust the quorum and leave.

The job of the Texas Legislature is to protect Texans and our tax dollars; It is not to discriminate against Black, Hispanic, low income, women, LGBTQ+ and younger Texans but that is exactly what Republicans are planning to do during this Special Session. Enough is enough. Democrats have to start fighting back as hard and as tough as Republicans are doing and the Texas Democratic Party needs to lead that fight.

It is not too late for Democrats, in the Legislature, to once again bust the quorum and leave. Nothing good is going to happen for the people they represent during this Special Session and they represent more than just the people who live in their district. After State House Democrats walked out to kill the voter suppression bill at the end of the Regular Session, they now represent all Texans and Americans fighting to protect and save our democracy. 

For Texas Democratic state lawmakers, doing their job-at this moment in history-for those they represent in Texas (and all across our nation) demands that they, once again, bust the quorum and leave the Texas Capital.

Texas Democratic State lawmakers can save our nation; they can draw a line in the sand here, in Texas, against voter suppression, hate and discrimination.

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Thank you and God Bless Houston. For constructive dialogue, you may contact me directly >>>

Hon. Robinson is the former Chairman, City of Houston Transportation, Technology and Infrastructure Committee; Former Vice Chairman, Houston-Galveston Area Council Transportation Policy Council (H-GAC TPC) and Associate Professor of Public Administration, Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, Texas Southern University.