Good morning –

When the kids were young and didn’t do their chores, we’d add additional work. Looks like Greg Abbott is taking the same approach with the childish members of the Texas House by calling another special session. And I end the week reflecting on the political hustle of which we are all willing victims. 

Here is the Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, August 6, 2021
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Report: Border Patrol Stops Apprehending Illegals

• With illegal aliens still flooding across Texas’ wide-open border, the U.S. Border Patrol has reportedly reassigned all hands from “apprehending” to “processing.” Robert Montoya has the details.
   
• Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith (R) told Texas Scorecard that U.S. Border Patrol informed him they had been given new orders. “They’ve all been reassigned to processing,” Smith said. “None of them are actually going to be enforcing the border.”

Second Session Starts Saturday

• With the current (flop of a) special session expiring today, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is forcing lawmakers back into session tomorrow. The biggest question in Austin: Will the House Democrats come back to work?
        
• Jeramy Kitchen reports that in addition to the dozen items the governor had on the first special session’s agenda, he has expanded the workload. The new items include banning mask mandates in schools, reforming the legislature’s quorum requirements, and allocating federal COVID funding. Those join the previous items such as strengthening the state’s election integrity laws and providing property tax relief waiting for legislative action. 
        
• As a reminder, the Texas Senate passed all of the policy reforms outlined by the governor in the first special session and the House addressed none of them before Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) lost control of the chamber by allowing Democrats to abscond to Washington, D.C., and bust the chamber’s quorum requirements without any repercussion.
       
• The Texas Constitution provides for a regular session of the Legislature to occur for 140 days every other year. Governors are allowed to call an unlimited number of special sessions with specific agenda items in 30-day increments.

Did GOP Speaker Phelan Coordinate With DEMs On Walkout?

• Newly released text messages point to a meeting between Democrats and House Speaker Dade Phelan, just days before the Democrat lawmakers fled for Washington, D.C. in July. If so, the meeting would echo a similar gathering held in May, hours before Democrats left the Capitol the first time this year to block consideration of election integrity reforms. Brandon Waltens has the details.
       
• The text messages came to light thanks to a public information request filed by the Texas Freedom Coalition, a citizen activist organization.
   

• On the morning of July 9, the second day of the first special session, Moody texted Phelan to ask for a meeting. “Based on things I’m hearing on our side of the aisle, I think it’s important to sit down with that same group we sat down with on [the last day of the regular session on May 31] and discuss where things are, and where they might go,” Moody tells Phelan, suggesting they hold the meeting later that day.
   

• Phelan then agreed to the meeting, saying, “Sure thing.”
   

• In a statement revealing the text messages, the Texas Freedom Coalition suggests the record “shows that Speaker Dade Phelan likely had prior knowledge of the planned break in quorum by the Texas House Democratic Caucus,” in addition to possible coordination.
   

• Interestingly, the request for records of conversations went to both Phelan and Moody. The Democrat supplied the relevant text messages, while Speaker Phelan claimed he had no records of any conversations. Phelan office has not answered questions about the discrepancy. 

When Lawmakers Abandon Their Post…

• The Texas House of Representatives has been paralyzed and unable to conduct legislative business for the better part of three weeks due to a lack of quorum. Jeramy Kitchen reports that could change under legislation that would remove lawmakers from office if they stack up unexcused absences. 
   
• State Rep. Mayes Middleton (R–Galveston) has introduced legislation that would define a legislative vacancy as 14 consecutive days of unexcused absences from the chamber in which the member holds office.
     
• “If you repeatedly don’t show up for work, you are fired from your job. Our offices should be no different. Excessive, unexcused absences are certainly a violation of each member’s oath of office and a refusal to do the job the member is elected to do,” said Middleton.
   
• A similar bill has also been filed by State Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands). His measure, however, would take effect after only seven unexcused absences.

Election Transparency

• Acknowledging Texans’ concerns about election security, a conference this week for election officials from across the state focused on transparent processes as key to building voters’ confidence that their votes count. Erin Anderson was at the conference. 
   
• Discussions ranged from paper-based voting systems to maintaining chains-of-custody for the ballots, and even post-election audits. 

Have You Checked Out The Store?

• We’re still a couple weeks out from the official opening, but you can browse the Texas Scorecard Store now and even make purchases as we get it fully up and running. Obviously still a work in progress… since mentioning it Tuesday, we’ve added more sizes and colors. Check it out.
   

• Let everyone know you are a citizen who is keeping score and taking action!

Friday Reflection: Two-Card Monte?

Every day we are treated to relentless messaging around the fight between the Elephants and the Donkeys. We must be invested in that fight, we are told, and that fight alone. We have to choose one of those sides.

An old street hustle is three-card monte, in which the con artist distracts you with a game while robbing you blind. In politics, we’re encouraged to be distracted by the “game” between the Elephants and the Donkeys – even as our Republic is stolen from us. 

Yes, there are two political parties – but they aren’t what we are told.

The two real parties in politics are the ruling elite, and everyone else. Understanding that is critical to being an effective grassroots activist. The hustle, of course, is making us disbelieve the evidence of our eyes.

For example, it is why – after two decades of Texas Republicans promising to cut property taxes and reduce the size of government – property taxes are nonetheless 181 percent higher, and government has never been bigger. All while those same Republicans have held all the policy-making power in the state.

It is why Democrats, despite their messaging against accumulated wealth and the evils of corporate America, are nonetheless enriching themselves while enjoying the support of those same corporations. 

Now, let’s be clear: there are differences between the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. A casual look at their stated platforms and policy positions reveals starkly different approaches to government.

Yet those sales documents, those brand descriptors, rarely apply to Republicans and Democrats holding offices of public trust. The politicians are more interested in building up themselves up among their fellow politicians than delivering on the promises they made to fight for their constituents.

The public policy fights on issues citizens legitimately care about are used by the hustlers to distract us from their efforts to consolidate power. Cutting taxes, controlling spending, protecting the border, improving education… all of those matter to citizens, yet rarely get done because they don’t serve the interests of the cronies profiting off government.

We must recognize our culpability as citizens. We have outsourced the management of our republic to ego-driven con men. We give our vote to the men and women whose words tickle our ears, not to people willing to fight aggressively against the entrenched establishment. We’ve let the cronies convince us public policy is best conducted with the voters sitting passively in the bleachers while the politicians participate in a choreographed fight using folding chairs and stage-blood.

The politicians who claim to be fighting for you, yet haven’t delivered, are players in a political hustle designed to deprive you of your liberty. The political parties are useful tools, but they are too often co-opted by self-serving politicians against the citizenry.

It’s time to take the fight to them. Citizens must stop outsourcing the governance of our republic to people more interested in their standing among the cronies than in delivering meaningful results. 

We must no longer be satisfied with scripted zingers aimed at the other party. As citizens, we must demand – and be satisfied only with – meaningful actions and real results.

This sad game of two-card monte played by three-bit politicians will only come to an end when the citizens have had enough. No more games. We have a republic to save.