The recent news story of rebel Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives makes me cackle with glee, even though I'm not looking forward to the repercussions. Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that will only work once. It is also an exceedingly childish tactic, but I don't mind that so much because its purpose was to prevent an unpopular and very underhanded redistricting plan.
Basically the redistricting legislation, which had been introduced by the Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, was intended to add about 6 Republican seats to the Texas House and had to be acted on by midnight last Thursday. So the Democrats, who were in the minority but enough to prevent a quorum, skipped town for the week so that nothing at all could be done about the redistricting before it died. There was nothing the Republicans could do.
I have to admit that I get some evil glee from reading about politics these days. As much as I hate seeing Republicans in the majority all over, I'm enjoying watching them try to cut benefits to the elderly, as if they're not a growing segment of the population and one of the most heavily Republican demographics. Have they completely lost their minds? Of course I know it's a difficult time to be in power, and I seriously doubt that Democrats would do much better. I'm just looking forward to the next election. I'm anticipating that people (such as the elderly who got shafted) will vote Democrat en masse.