I, like many, tuned in through a live feed offered via the Texas Tribune's YouTube channel. It seemed that Wendy Davis was going to be successful with her marathon filibuster, then with two hours left, partisanship reared its ugly head. Another Senator, Donna Campbell, called a point of order for Wendy Davis straying off-topic. Senator Davis was making a point on how the sonogram law passed by the Texas legislature, along with SB 5, will add only more constraints onto Texas women. Dewhurst, presiding over the Senate and all-too-willing to find a way to kill the filibuster, sustained Campbell's point of order.
Needless to say, I thought those two actions were a shameless display of partisan politics. First, as other senators noted, mentioning a sonogram law that affects abortions in relation to a discussion about a current abortion bill, logically makes sense and is definitely germane. If not for the efforts of Senator Watson, this would have been Davis' third strike and the filibuster dead with it. The second strike was Davis receiving aid in attaching a back brace, and the first was for mentioning Roe v Wade during the earlier portion of the filibuster. Again, the latter, like the third strike was definitely related to the discussion, but Dewhurst abused his power and used a very subjective definition of germane to try to quell the filibuster. As we all know, it essentially launched a second filibuster via Senators West and Watson and SB 5 died, well at least for a day.
As has already been mentioned on this blog, the devotion of Republicans to these social issues, when there are other issues such as the transportation bill to tackle, is only holding the party back. A presidential election is still fresh in all of our minds where the zealous pursuit of these social issues essentially doomed our party, alienating moderates, women, and minorities. Dewhurst's blatant, shameful partisanship and abuse of power will not help the Republican Party, as many from not only around the state, but around the country took notice.
So why was the abortion bill even on the docket for the special session? Especially when there were other bills that required work? Well Governor Perry insisted on it. He picked a fight and he lost, and ironically, made a celebrity out of Wendy Davis in the process. Any doubts of her candidacy for the next gubernatorial election are eliminated now.
The battle for SB 5 serves as a microcosm of the issues currently plaguing the Republican Party. This focus on abortion is a purely hypocritical stance. We argue against big government, but then create a sonogram law to intrude on rights of Texans and an even more draconian abortion law, SB 5 to take that further by eliminating choices completely. We say we are pro-business here in Texas, but have no qualms in attempting to pass SB 5 which would have definitely closed 37 of the state's 42 abortion clinics. Closing businesses through legislation is not good for business. Not to mention, we are so mixed up with these social issues, we do not even know when to apply our logic. We use the argument when defending the second amendment that, if you ban guns, only outlaws will have them. This implies that people will continue to use guns regardless of the law. However when fighting against abortion, we think that by banning abortions, they will all the sudden stop, despite the massive historical precedent showing that is not true.
Essentially, we are for small government, except for when we are not and we are pro-business except for when we are not, and we made a mockery of the Texas Senate in the process. This defeat of epic proportions lies with Governor Perry. I think, at least in regards to his influence in the state, it may be his Waterloo. Even if SB 5 passes in one form or another during the second special session, it will be a Pyrrhic Victory, an Alamo. The national focus is now on Texas and instead of making inroads in luring women back to the Republican party, we have alienated them further with this zealous and misguided conviction to social issues, which at the end of the day does not help in fixing budgetary requirements, ailing infrastructure, or keeping government small. Pushing this social agenda one too many times has finally backfired, as Democrats and Texas women now have a strong candidate to rally around in Wendy Davis.
It is best to close with a quote from our great governor today (via Dallas Morning News):
Texans value life and want to protect women and the unbornWe value life, except for when we don't. Things were going so well for this state when the Republican Party just cared about doing business. Why don't we just get back to that?
References:
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/06/wendy-davis-begins-filibuster-to-stop-omnibus-abortion-bill.html/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q8Hr0O20LY
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/wendy-davis-senate-bill-5-filibuster-second-special-session-texas-legislature-213200601.html
http://themiddlethirty.blogspot.com/2012/08/has-republican-party-become-abortion.html
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20130626-editorial-lets-avoid-a-rerun-of-texas-special-
session.ece
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/texas-senator-filibusters-against-abortion-bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_united_states
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/wendy-davis-rick-perry_n_3506917.html
http://themiddlethirty.blogspot.com/2013/06/lou-dobbs-comments-illustrate-just-how.html
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/06/gov-rick-perry-to-push-abortion-regulations-again-in-special-session-starting-next-week.html/
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0626/Texas-to-execute-woman-Capital-punishment-No.-500
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