It’s Not Just Texas. The Democrats Are at War with America

This Isn’t Politics. It’s Rebellion.

The Democrat Insurrection never ended.

That is made plain by the utter absurdity of Texas Democrat lawmakers fleeing the state rather than allowing Governor Greg Abbott’s redistricting proposal to be put to a vote.

It is made plain by the equally absurd posturing by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who promises to redraw California’s Congressional districts if Texas redraws theirs—because the best way to oppose Governor Abbott’s “threat to democracy” in Texas is to replicate that threat in California.

It is made plain by the asinine grandstanding by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who said New York is “at war” over the Texas redistricting proposal.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said "we are at war" on Monday as she was joined by Texas Democrats who left their state to prevent Republican Governor Greg Abbott's attempts to redraw U.S. House maps.

"Here in New York, we will not stand on the sidelines with the timid souls on the sidelines who don't care and will not invest their heart and soul into this battle," she said at a joint press conference in New York. "This is a war. We are at war, and that's why the gloves are off. And I say, bring it on with that."

Her grand strategy, of course, is to simply imitate Texas the same way Gavin Newsom threatens to imitate Texas, by redrawing New York’s Congressional districts.

"If Republicans are willing to rewrite these rules to give themselves an advantage, then they're leaving us no choice; we must do the same," Hochul said. "There's a phrase, 'you have to fight fire with fire.' That is a true statement of how we're feeling right now. And as I've said, another overused but applicable phrase, 'all is fair in love and war'— that's why I'm exploring with our leaders every option to redraw our state congressional lines as soon as possible."

The absurdity reached new heights as Democrats around the country suddenly declared that gerrymandering Congressional districts was a bad thing.

“If Republicans are going to play this game, California can fight and push back harder,” said Representative Robert Garcia, Democrat of Long Beach. “We’re not going to allow national congressional Republicans and Donald Trump to rig and gerrymander the map across the country and just sit by and do nothing.”

Fun fact: the term “gerrymander” is derived from Founding Father, Massachusetts governor, and proto-Democrat (Democrat-Republican, or “Jeffersonian Democrats”) Elbridge Gerry, who in 1812 signed one of the nation’s first—and most notorious—redistricting laws. It was part of his partisan battle to strip the Federalist party of as much political power as possible (sound familiar?).

At age 65, Gerry ran for governor, motivated by “his obsessive fears about various conspiracies underway to wreck the republic,” according to Billias. In his 1810 inaugural address, Gerry called for an end to partisan warfare between his Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists. But as the United States edged toward war with Great Britain in 1811, Gerry decided that Federalists’ protests against President James Madison’s foreign policy had turned near-treasonous. Gerry replaced Federalists in state government jobs with Democratic-Republicans, got his attorney general to prosecute Federalist newspaper editors for libel, and seized control of the Federalist-dominated Harvard College board.

Gerrymandering was a Democrat tradition even before the modern Democratic Party was birthed in 1828.

To be sure, Governor Abbott’s redistricting proposal is a contentious and somewhat risky move.

We do well to remember that this has been done before. In 2003 by then U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas redrew its Congressional districts mid-cycle in a bruising political battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled in favor of the new district map¹. I would not be at all surprised if Abbott’s redistricting proposal gets litigated just as far.

While the 2003 redistricting proposal did result in a net gain for Texas Republicans, and the current proposal could potentially do the same, shifting around voters could expose previously “safe” Republican districts to unfamiliar levels of opposition. Moreover, the redistricting effort did not prevent Democrats from capturing the House in 2006.

Yet the 2003 effort did establish that mid-cycle redistricting is legal. While the maneuver may be questionable policy, there is no denying that it is Constitutional policy.

While the Texas effort is legal under both state and federal law, Gavin Newsom’s proposal has to jump through a few more hoops to be considered legal, because California put their redistricting efforts under an “independent” redistricting commission in 2010.

Newsom first raised the prospect of redrawing California’s congressional maps in favor of Democrats three weeks ago as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moved to do the same in his state in favor of Republicans. But while Abbott has been able to move forward with his redistricting efforts unfettered, Newsom faces more roadblocks. In most states, including in Texas, state lawmakers approve congressional maps, giving politicians power to shape districts in favor of their own political parties. But California voters took that power away from the state Legislature in 2010 and handed it to an independent redistricting commission.

For all his tough talk, Newsom may find he lacks the political support to force a mid-cycle redistricting.

Kathy Hochul has an even more formidable hurdle: in 2014, New York amended their constitution to ban explicit gerrymandering. Her idea of redrawing New York’s congressional districts to favor Democrats is prohibited by the New York Constitution.

All of this in support of Texas Democrats legislators who are openly working to stop Texas government completely. Redistricting is only one of the items proposed on Governor Abbott’s agenda when he called the special session of the Texas Legislature. Other items before the Texas House include improvements to flood warning systems, flood relief, and anti-human trafficking legislation. Much of that agenda—items which would serve the miscreant legislators’ own constituents—will now go unfulfilled.

Governor Abbott responded to the Democrats’ efforts to break quorum in the House by ordering the civil arrest of the MIA lawmakers, calling their disappearing act “dereliction of duty”.

While it is at least that much, I prefer a somewhat different term, one with a few more consequences: Sedition.

Under Texas law², sedition occurs when a person knowingly:

(1) commits, attempts to commit, or conspires with one or more persons to commit an act intended to overthrow, destabilize, destroy, or alter the constitutional form of government of this state or of any political subdivision of this state by force, violence, or a threat of force or violence;

(2) under circumstances that constitute a clear and present danger to the security of this state or a political subdivision of this state, advocates, advises, or teaches or conspires with one or more persons to advocate, advise, or teach a person to commit or attempt to commit an act described in Subdivision (1); or

(3) participates, with knowledge of the nature of the organization, in the management of an organization that engages in or attempts to engage in an act intended to overthrow, destabilize, destroy, or alter the constitutional form of government of this state or of any political subdivision of this state by force or violence.

The Democrats are clearly conspiring, and they are clearly intending to coerce—i.e., “force”—their will on the Texas government, or else destabilize it and shut it down. Does that meet the requirements for a charge of sedition under Texas law? The one certain way to find out is to prosecute the Democrats and let the courts decide.

One could easily argue that, in an era when we are told that words are worse than physical violence, the Democrats’ own heated rhetoric argues for a more expansive conceptualization of what constitutes “force”.

As the Texas Democrats are conspiring to obstruct Texas’ legitimate authority to redraw the map of its Congressional districts, they are also potentially acting against the US government as well, which would be sedition on the federal level³:

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

Is the Texas Democrat effort to impede a legal redistricting process a conspiracy to overthrow the United States Congress? Again, the certain way to answer that question is to charge the Democrats and let the courts decide. Meanwhile, an indictment and arrest would compel their return to Texas, at which point their appearance in the Texas House chamber is easily compelled.

What is certain is that Democrats response to Republicans using state and federal laws in ways they do not like has been to act as if the laws themselves do not exist. They would rather tear down government at every level than allow any amount of political authority be wielded by Republicans.

The Democrats message is clear: do as they demand or they will crater everything—your community, your state’s government, even the economy.

And they mean it. They’ve already said the quiet part out loud on immigration, blaming the Trump Administration and ICE for Los Angeles’ latest economic woes.

But there are already visible microeconomic impacts today, not just in the future. The 2,800 arrests in Los Angeles since June, outside Home Depots and car washes and homeless shelters, massively understate the chilling effect of ICE raids on the largest city in the largest state in the union. A report from the University of California, Merced’s Community and Labor Center released last month found that 3.1 percent of the entire private-sector labor force in California didn’t show up for work between May 11 and June 8, just as ICE activity was ramping up in L.A. These numbers resemble the losses from the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic, and if anything, they’ve grown as raids intensify.

Democrats can’t get anything done, it seems, unless they have a large population of illegal workers. Any attempt to enforce immigration laws guarantees Democrats will do all they can to make that effort as expensive as they can. They proved that in Los Angeles two months’ ago.

California Insurrection

How is this not sedition? How is this not insurrection?

How is this not a continuation of the Democrats’ rebellion against reality from earlier in the summer?

Democrats Are Rebelling Against Consequences

So far, Governor Abbott has only called for the civil arrest of the miscreant legislators, that they may be brought back to Texas. I for one would like to see Gene Wu—the leader of the MIA Democrats—brought back to the Texas House in chains. I would like to see the US Department of Justice indict Wu and his merry band of missing lawmakers. Let Pam Bondi swear out indictments against them, then send the US Marshals to Chicago to pick them up and bring them back to Texas.

This latest effort by the Democrats to undo the Republic may lack the drama and the video clips of two months ago, but it is still part of the same unhinged lunacy, part of the same nihilistic agenda. The subtext is the same—give Democrats everything they want or they will break government at every level.

I am a firm believer in the rule of law, and I have stood firm that corrupt and punitive “lawfare” against Democrats as retaliation for their corrupt acts against President Trump over the past four years was wrong. My desire is that the Constitution be upheld, and that it be applied to everyone without fear or favor.

Yet the Democrats have shown time and again that they have no use for such niceties, and no interest in context, nuance, or the Constitution. What they cannot control they aim to destroy. They have made that clear.

Kathy Hochul is right. The Democrats are at war. They are at war against the United States. They are at war against the American electorate. They are at war against reality.

Within a nation such a war is called insurrection. It is called sedition. Under either label it is a crime.

Take the Democrats at their word. Arrest them for sedition, for insurrection, and for stupidity in the first degree. Let them cool their heels in a prison cell for the next twenty years while everyone else figures out how to get on with the business of living and working together—something Americans are supposed to be good at.

1. League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399 (2006)

2. TX Govt Code § 557.001 (2024)

3. 18 USC §2384