In the name of defending the People from alleged threats to democracy, Democrats have been holding democracy hostage by fleeing Texas to prevent a vote they don’t like regarding redistricting. When votes don’t go their way, they will stoop to any tactic to impose their will. This necessitates playing hardball:

In a bold move to uphold the rule of law and ensure democratic processes aren’t hijacked by partisan theatrics, the Texas House has passed a motion to issue arrest warrants for the runaway Democrats who fled to Illinois. These lawmakers abandoned their posts in a desperate attempt to block the adoption of constitutionally redrawn U.S. House maps — maps supported by President Donald Trump and designed to reflect the will of Texas voters. Rather than engage in the legislative process, these Democrats chose to obstruct it, and now face the consequences of their dereliction of duty.

Democrats don’t like it that they will lose a few seats in redistricting, so they left Texas to hide out in blue states like Illinois:

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said at Sunday’s press conference that he would do whatever he could to help Texas lawmakers while they were on the lam.

Check out the map of Illinois congressional districts. The state is infamous for over the top gerrymandering, earning an F for failure ranking on Princeton’s Redistricting Report Card.

Despite the pearl-clutching when Republicans do it, gerrymandering has been a feature of American democracy from the beginning:

Elbridge Gerry, from whom the word “gerrymander” is derived, was the Vice President of the United States who served under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 1814.

In more recent history, Texas Demorrhoids pulled the same quorum-breaking stunt in 2021 to block a vote on election reform:

They went to Washington, D.C., and started releasing photos of themselves eating salads and talking about what absolute heroes they were.

The arrest warrants may only be a gesture…

The order is not enforceable outside of Texas, so it will likely have little effect, as most Democrats fled to Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to assist in the effort to return the rogue lawmakers to the state Capitol. No civil or criminal charges will be attached to the arrest warrants.

…but then again:

The governor also said that the rogue Democrats may be exposed to felony bribery charges after they requested donations to pay for their plan to flee the state. He added that the Democrats, in crippling the state’s ability to conduct legislative business, have left the government unable to pass legislation to help the victims of severe flooding in central Texas earlier this year.

With luck, Democrats will pay a political price for their underhanded obstruction tactics.

On tips from Jester, abcanc, Tlabia Majora, and Lyle.