The reason that Donald Trump decided Texas was gonna be his go-to was because he figured, look, it’s a big Republican state. I can get this done in the cover of night, real easy peasy, and the Democrats can’t put up much of a fight. What you’re seeing is [us] taking the nuclear option, the more drastic choice to say, this is not just so important to Texas, but this has the power to shape and shift our country for years to come. We’re already watching our people suffer. Once that “big, bad bill” or whatever you want to call it is implemented, and people start seeing the cuts to their health care access — how things are not any more affordable, and costs are not going down — they’re not going to be apt to put some of those same Republican representatives in office.
This is Donald Trump just trying to game the system. He doesn’t want to have to win his constituents over with good policy. He just wants to be able to enforce his will. It’s the moment that we’re in now. But also people got to realize, democracy, those guard rails, are not self-enforcing, and Donald Trump is testing the fence. He’s poking to see just how far he can go and how much he can get away with. And when we don’t push back in a real way, it just makes it that much easier.
We, in a lot of ways, in my opinion, are slip-sliding right into fascism. We’re so tired, we’re so overworked, we’re so busy with our day to day lives, it’s hard to keep up with the minutia of your city council, your school board, your state legislature, your federal government. It’s incumbent upon people like me, people who do this for a living, people who are endowed in our communities, to wake our people up and say, “Listen, you ain’t got to know all the ins and outs, but this is what matters right now. This is what’s important, and this is what you’re about to lose because of what’s happening.” So I hope that, if nothing else, we can convey that message adequately.
A few of us from our delegation even traveled to other states to have meetings with Democratic governors to say, look, we’re not going to tell you that you need to redistrict your state, but what we are going to tell you is that your your big blue wall will not insulate you from the harms that are to come if Donald Trump can enact his will over the people of Texas.
TV: Are you scared of the threats against Texas Democrats who left the state?
LAS: I mean, I’m a union organizer in Texas, so somebody’s always making a threat. I don’t want to take this lightly, but I think our resolve is hardened, because we know that if this wasn’t important, they wouldn’t be reacting the way they’re doing. Our governor is literally crashing out on social media… One of our US Senators reached out to Kash Patel. They’re going crazy, because what we’re doing is blocking their agenda. For however long we hold out, we hold that power.
