Tag: Politics

Justice Clarence Thomas’s Ominous Warning

Recently, as Americans were busily filing their taxes, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was hard at work on an ad campaign, which was about to launch on social media.

The self-described democratic socialist soon let loose with an off-the-wall video ad, titled “Happy Tax Day, New York. We’re taxing the rich.”

In the clip, he lauded the passage of the city’s first-ever pied-à-terre tax,which is an annual levy on luxury second homes that are valued at $5 million or more and are not considered primary residences.

Mamdani framed the bill’s passage as a big victory, carrying on about “taxing the rich” and the “fairness” of it all, while claiming that the revenue raised would fund numerous so-called progressive priorities.

At the same time any concerns about wealthy residents fleeing the city were quickly dismissed as “imagined.”

In the real world, such a confiscatory tax drives out investment, crushes the real estate industry, and decimates the city’s already beleaguered economy.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had previously resisted broad tax hikes on the wealthy, has done a massive turnaround and is now totally on board with Mayor Mamdani.

The theatrical Marxism of Gotham’s mayor affects more than just the city of New York. His video ad is a textbook exhibit of the very leftism that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently warned against in a powerful speech, which was delivered at University of Texas’s Austin campus.

Speaking on the 250th anniversary of The Declaration of Independence, Justice Thomas described the code word that radicals prefer these days; i.e., “progressivism,” as an “existential threat” to America’s founding principles.

“Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence, and hence our form of government,” the justice said. “It holds that our rights and dignities come not from God, but from government.”

In other words, so-called progressivism, or what increasingly appears to be communism in disguise, has nothing to do with progress.

Instead the implementation of the ideology turns back the clock on limited government, individual liberty, and the self-evident truths that built the most prosperous nation in the annals of history.

Mayor Mamdani’s video ad embodies the insidious slide toward tyranny to which far too many unfortunate countries before us have succumbed.

It’s a kind of trickle down ideology that celebrates a forced redistribution of wealth that is camouflaged as moral virtue.

A smidgen of real history is helpful in aiding our understanding of what is going on.

The United States of America did not have a permanent federal income tax for the first 137 years of its existence.

From our nation’s founding until the ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913, the federal government operated without routinely confiscating a portion of every citizen’s earnings.

In fact, America grew into an economic powerhouse precisely because individuals and businesses were free to create, invest, and retain the fruits of their personal labor.

The free market, rooted in property rights, voluntary exchange, and limited government interference, is what drove innovation, lifted millions out of poverty, and rewarded those who were willing to take a risk.

Much like humanity itself, the capitalist system is not perfect. However, it is far better than any alternative that has been tried.

Economic freedom has unleashed human potential and achieved greater success than the best of central planners ever could.

Like Mayor Mamdani, the Marxist-minded among us are aggressively dismantling our freedoms.

For every fiscal shortfall, their solution is never to place a cap on spending. Rather, it is to foment more class envy and/or assign additional victim status to those who are vulnerable.

New York’s fancy sounding pied-à-terre tax is simply being sold as the pinpointed targeting of luxury homeowners and global elites.

But like a freight train with no brakes, history has demonstrated that policies such as these have no stopping point. Instead they cavalierly race forward, smashing into things, distorting markets, squelching investments, and sending wealth sailing off to better shores.

When those in power punish success and fund their agenda on the backs of producers, an erosion of the incentives that make the free market work begins to feed upon itself.

Slower growth sets in. Fewer jobs are created. Opportunities for everyone diminish at an accelerated rate. And the collapse of a once-solid system begins to look inevitable.

Justice Thomas is correct. This malignant ideology doesn’t improve on the Founders’ vision. It wholeheartedly rejects it.

The Declaration’s promise of unalienable rights, endowed by our Creator, stands in direct contrast to the non-progressive notion that rights are doled out by politicians, are revocable at the ballot box, and are able to be axed at any local budget hearing.

Mayor Mamdani’s smirk says it all.

Look at it as a cultural signal that the deconstruction of free-market principles is marching on, that government gets to be the one that picks winners and losers, and that wealth is a public resource available to be harvested on a Marxist’s whim.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, may we take heed of Justice Thomas’s call to reject cynicism and stand firmly for first principles.

And may more and more of us help Lady Liberty hold up the torch.

The Crawl toward Communism

Communist ideology should have been sidelined decades ago.

That’s what so many of us thought was going to happen after the Soviet Union collapsed back in 1991.

Instead the malignant ideas and strategies of communism, derived from the twisted mind of Karl Marx, gained a significant academic, institutional, and cultural foothold in the Western world.

Here’s a brief summary of how things played out.

Just about the time when the 1970s counterculture appeared to be fading away, a quiet yet insidious revolution was set in motion here in the United States.

There was no red flag waving in the air bearing a hammer and sickle. Rather, a long march through American universities began to take place.

New Left radicals weren’t storming barricades. Instead they were earning PhDs. Humanities and social science departments became ideological echo chambers.

Drawing from Antonio Gramsci’s theory on how the ruling class maintains power, and also the Frankfurt School’s critical theory that derided capitalism and promised social liberation, communist principles became the blueprint for how to deconstruct a societal framework, with the ultimate goal of supplanting it with a Marxist one.

In order to accomplish this, a battlefield had to be set up. The one chosen was that of “The Oppressors vs. the Oppressed.”

Through the fomenting of class envy and the assigning of victim status, members of society were pitted against one another.

What was already entrenched in the halls of our universities quickly spread to our elementary and high schools. Then like dominoes in a row, our federal and local governments, corporate boardrooms, news agencies, internet platforms, and even our Hollywood studios simply gave way.

Communism has been described by some as progressivism, democratic socialism, etc. But call it what you will, it’s just plain old communism, forever seeking the gradual ideological capture of the systems that comprise our societal pillars.

Which systems? Government, legal, education, economic, business, and media, to name some major ones.

Looking back, it seems that for America communism was custom-tailored to focus on culture and identity, a relatively easy way of conditioning our society to turn against neighbor.

It was then marketed, i.e., propagandized, to an already-primed public in order to reshape institutions from within.

We need look no further than our universities to see how the reshaping from within worked to our country’s immense detriment.

The faculties of almost all of the elite universities in our nation have come to lean decidedly to the far-left politically. In most cases, there are entire departments that are devoid of any dissenters to the dominant ideology.

As would be expected, graduating students of these institutions are highly knowledgeable on the topics of “systemic oppression,” “equity,” and “decolonization.” But they are woefully ignorant with regard to the death toll in the millions, which occurred at the hands of history’s most notorious communist regimes.

Sadly, the same communist-laced curriculum easily made its way into our preschools, elementary, and secondary schools. Consequently, far too many of our youth now find socialism and communism acceptable, and sometimes even preferable, than the representative republic that has secured our freedom for just short of 250 years.

Of course, a sizable portion of our Democrat politicians, major corporations, news media outlets, entertainment industry, and internet platforms have played a major role in the crawl toward communism.

We have heard a whole lot of talk over the last few years about existential threats.

It appears that we are currently facing a potential “Mother of All Existential Threats”; that being that communism could seep into our hearts, minds, and souls under the cover of virtue.

Whether the unthinkable occurs in a single stroke or bit-by-bit, the end result is the same. The America we love and cherish ceases to exist.

This is why we are duty-bound to reverse the trajectory.

A good place to start is to hold accountable the politicians who are already out of the communist closet.

This is an imperative since having avowed communists holding public office is a fairly new occurrence. Even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t cozy up to communist candidates until somewhat recently.

Another idea is to join in on the religious revival that’s been going on, if you haven’t already. Nothing like faith, hope, and love to turn your world around.

May God bless America, now and forever.

Can David Ellison Save CNN?

At a time when trust in the mainstream media has fallen to historic lows, a bold corporate move is taking place, which has the potential to have a profound effect on CNN.

It is a business acquisition that affords the rare opportunity many free press devotees have been waiting for: the restructuring of a once-prestigious cable news network.

The acquisition just may hold the key to the restoration of journalistic integrity and balance.

Paramount Global, under the leadership of CEO David Ellison, is acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, a major entertainment company.

Warner Bros.happens to be the owner of CNN, and also some valuable but beleaguered film and TV assets as well.

Paramount’s bid, which prevailed over competitors that included Netflix, has the possibility of significantly altering the current media and entertainment landscape.

The resulting entity, when measured by revenue, will be in the world’s top-four entertainment companies. Additionally, it will be a significant player in Hollywood’s global streaming, linear television and cable programming, and entertainment output.

CNN has a growing self-inflicted credibility crisis. Once revered as a global standard bearer for straight news reporting, the network has increasingly become an outlet that prioritizes a one-sided narrative over news, and opinion over objectivity.

Ratings have suffered accordingly, and public confidence has continued to erode.

Polls now consistently indicate that a majority of Americans view many of the major cable news outlets with deep skepticism, particularly CNN. This is obviously unhealthy for our national discourse.

The public’s right to have access to accurate information is no partisan issue. Rather, it is the cornerstone of an informed citizenry.

Whenever a major news outlet is more consumed with the pursuit of power and fame instead of integrity and truth, the situation becomes a zero-sum game.

Enter CEO David Ellison, the son of mega-billionaire Larry Ellison. The younger Ellison is now steering an old-line Hollywood studio toward a new destination.

He is transforming Paramount (a company where the writer of this article was once employed) into a media and entertainment powerhouse.

Ellison has already signaled a willingness to make “sweeping changes” where necessary, while simultaneously pledging to uphold editorial independence. This is a balance that should inject some major accountability regarding inaccurate reporting.

CNN presently has a sizable track record of dispensing falsehoods. The Jussie Smollett attack tale, the accusations against the Covington Catholic students, and the fabricated narrative surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop are a few of the more egregious examples.

Most recently, the network claimed that officials in President Trump’s administration had supposedly made the admission that the Pentagon and National Security Council “did not plan” for Iran’s attempts to close the Strait of Hormuz. Additionally, the charge was made that the economic impact of the military operation had been underestimated.

CNN appears to have ignored the fact that the operation was explicitly designed to neutralize Iranian naval missile threats to shipping. The network’s selective reporting evidently prompted White House Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to remark, “The sooner David Ellison takes over CNN, the better.”

There are concerns on the part of some that too much media “consolidation” is taking place, which could result in reduced competition. However, the alternative could make things much worse, i.e., that CNN and other media outlets would simply be allowed to continue to harm the public with their unfettered false narratives.

Ellison is suggesting a different path, one that is focused on rebuilding viewer trust.

Under new ownership, CNN could benefit from a fresh perspective that tilts toward factual reporting as opposed to ideological slant. This is what Ellison appears to favor as he addresses the challenges at CBS News with what some observers have called a “conservative-friendly” openness to diverse viewpoints.

This news redo is not about one political side scoring a win. It is about the public scoring one.

The current fragmented media terrain is one that is saturated with social media echo chambers and partisan outlets. A restored CNN led by competent executives at Paramount may actually be the catalyst to reverse course.

For far too long the American people have been receiving news that is really just propaganda dressed up as journalism. The moment has arrived for a return to news that can be trusted.

Ellison has a window in time in which he can deliver exactly that.

May the the long-awaited CNN makeover begin.

California’s One-Party Rule Could End with a Steve Hilton Win

California is at a breaking point.

The once-Golden State has been pummeled with sky-high taxes, faded dreams of home ownership, soaring crime rates, a crumbling infrastructure, and an absentee governor who is consumed with national ambitions.

As California’s 2026 gubernatorial race draws near, one candidate in particular recently took the lead in the polls: Steve Hilton, a business consultant, restaurateur, and former advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Hilton has garnered national attention for his common-sense approach to revitalizing the Golden State.

Resonating with the state’s battered populace, Hilton has been focusing on working folks, as opposed to Sacramento insiders and coastal elites. And he has zeroed-in on what voters truly care about: Good jobs, affordable homes, safe neighborhoods, and effective schools.

He received an assist with his candidacy from three issues currently in the news: California’s proposed punitive billionaire wealth tax, the state’s Commercial Drivers License scandal, and the recently uncovered corruption and incompetence that has driven away businesses, families, and untold opportunities.

Some info on the state’s proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act.

Pushed by unions and primarily cheered on by the democratic socialist senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, the proposed ballot measure would slap a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of any individual whose assets are valued at $1 billion or more and who was residing in California on January 1, 2026.

In anticipation of the passage of the proposed ballot measure, California is already seeing jobs disappear, wealth flee, and its tax base shrink.

Billionaires are hard at work restructuring assets and pondering exit strategies.

Tech giants who, not so incidentally, are largely responsible for building up California’s economy are now packing up in droves.

The proposed ballot measure is being peddled to voters through the use of old fashioned class envy and newfangled propaganda.

Hilton’s reaction to the idea of a billionaire wealth tax? A flat-out “No.”

Instead of confiscatory gimmicks that punish success and hurt everyone within reach, Hilton proposes actual relief: No state income tax on earnings under $100,000, a flat 7.5% rate on anything above the amount, and the protection of Proposition 13 with no new property tax hikes.

Hilton plans to cut state spending back to pre-pandemic levels, which would end the 50% explosion that occurred in bureaucracy. This is the same bureaucracy that spent $24 billion on homelessness with zero results, wasted $30 billion on high-speed rail that failed to materialize, and engaged in endless giveaways to unions.

Hilton’s pro-growth policies will keep talent and capital in California and put a damper on exits to Texas, Florida, and other more inviting alternatives.

Regarding the Commercial Drivers License (CDL) scandal, here are some notes on the textbook case of Sacramento prioritizing politics over public safety.

Federal audits have revealed that California’s DMV illegally issued more than 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to foreign drivers, whose legal status did not match their license expiration dates.

These were no minor oversights. The state government put unqualified, oftentimes unvetted drivers in the front seats of 18-wheelers and school buses. The fallout? Deadly crashes, including tragedies in and outside of California.

When the Trump administration’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy demanded fixes, California officials dragged their feet. This cost the state $160 million in withheld federal highway funds.

It was not mere incompetence on their part. It was an arrogant insistence on a leftist political agenda. Rules were bent in favor of illegal immigrant drivers, who in many cases were insufficiently screened and lacking in proper instruction, which seriously jeopardized public safety.

Hilton’s solution is to enforce California law, revoke illegally issued licenses, and place valid and competent workers behind the commercial wheel.

If elected governor, Hilton is intent on restoring accountability at the DMV, prioritizing legal workers, and ensuring that roads and highways are kept safe.

After eight years of unchecked one-party Democrat rule, the median price of a home is about $1 million, arrest rates have plummeted, violent crime has risen precipitously, reading and math scores of public school students have dropped, the state’s budget has experienced record deficits,

the cost of living has spiked, the population has declined, and tent cities have continued to line the streets, despite billions having been spent on homelessness.

Hilton additionally plans to enforce laws against shoplifting and open drug markets, empower parents with school choice and charter options, cap hidden housing fees, slash anti-housing regulations so that the American Dream can once again be realized, and deliver abundant energy and water minus the routine blackouts.

His persona is appealing, an outsider with executive experience who is not just another career politician.

Can he end the one-party stranglehold and restore luster to the once-Golden State?

Anything is possible here on the Left Coast.

The Threat Posed by the Democratic Socialists of America

For decades many of us were warning that socialism (a.k.a., communism lite) was slowly creeping onto the American stage, largely due to an organization called the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Now, following Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City’s November 5, 2025 mayoral election, things have become crystal clear. Overt socialism has gotten a major foothold in the largest and most iconic city in America.

Time to take a more in-depth look at DSA.

With over 80,000 dues-paying members, including 11 sitting members of Congress and over 200 state and local officials, DSA has been able to wrestle control of the levers of power in a number of key places in the U.S.

In New York City, the group controls key committees, and in Chicago, 6 DSA members have a seat at the city council’s table.

DSA presents itself as a champion of compassion. However, beneath rhetoric such as “medicare for all” and “affordable housing” lies a radical agenda rooted in Marxist ideology.

The organization has been following the communist playbook to a T, seeking to obtain power through infiltration. It has made insidious steady progress toward this goal.

Unfortunately, it is currently the central focal point of energy for the Democratic Party, a party that appears to have so lost its way it is difficult to imagine any kind of return to sensibility.

Now let’s look at DSA’s core ideology.

Founded in 1982, its ideology is firmly rooted in Marxism, advocating for the end to all capitalism in favor of governmental control of industry.

The organization explicitly calls for the abolition of private property, the nationalization of enterprise, and the replacement of the free market system.

Most of the sustained attempts at the implementation of its ideology have ultimately arrived at communism’s doorstep. Communism’s legacy is one of economic decay, governmental ruin, and social collapse, a distinct pattern that is historically consistent across time, place, and events.

DSA’s own platform, updated in 2023, demands “public ownership of utilities, housing, and finance,” “decommodifying healthcare and education,” and “seizing the means of production,” all prequels to the imposition of totalitarianism and freedom’s ultimate demise.

The reality is DSA is a political insurgency with a proven playbook: Infiltrate, normalize, and dismantle.

Its youth wing, Young Democratic Socialists, is in favor of “abolishing prisons,” a prescription for crime and chaos that disproportionately harms the very vulnerable communities the group professes that it is seeking to protect.

DSA’s 2024 platform calls for nationalizing key sectors of the economy, such as energy and housing.

Its working group, “Ecosocialism,” advocates for “planned degrowth,” deliberately working to shrink the economy in order to meet specified climate goals.

The organization’s 2024 convention passed a resolution that called for “expropriating fossil fuel companies” and “banning private real estate development,” resolutions that translate into a form of national self-destruction.

DSA’s policies reflect a visceral hatred for the free market, and conversely, a worship of government. This inevitably leads to food shortages, black markets, and Soviet-style oppression.

The tenets of its foreign policy are equally atrocious. DSA’s “International Committee” has called for cutting all aid to Israel. It has hosted events with activists that are linked to terrorist groups. And it has refused to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

A document from the NYC-DSA’s Anti-War Working Group (AWWG), which was recently obtained by the Just The News website, shows AWWG has been plotting ways to pressure newly-elected New York mayor Mamdani to comply with its “demands.”

Demands include arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and active IDF soldiers, divesting city pension funds from Israeli securities, withdrawing city funds from banks that do business with Israel, ending city contracts with companies that do business with Israel, operating city-run grocery stores free from Israeli products, and evicting weapons manufacturers and transporters from New York City.

Mamdani is a longtime DSA member and leader. He is listed as one of the group’s “New York State Socialists in Office.”

When DSA-aligned officials are in power, “defund the police” efforts are typically underway as well, leading to skyrocketing crime rates.

Homicides were already up 30% in NYC post-2020, according to FBI data. Now with Mamdani’s victory secured, the trend is unlikely to be NYC’s friend.

Those who are DSA-aligned have also pushed for open borders and sanctuary policies, which have fueled a host of crises, including fentanyl overdoses, human trafficking, surging crime rates, and wage suppression for working-class Americans.

DSA’s own rhetoric betrays itself. Co-chairperson Ari Rabin-Havt recently tweeted about “seizing the means of production” as essential to combating climate change, ignoring how such seizures in Cuba and Nicaragua have led to corruption and poverty.

The communism that DSA is peddling has a 100% failure rate. This is because, among other irrefutable things, it violates human nature and defies economic realities.

We ignore this group at our peril.

It may be that many who subscribe to socialist ideology have never had to work to protect their rights. Someone else has always done that for them.

As one who with wholehearted rejection of communism and its socialism offspring has battled across decades to preserve our God-given rights, I speak for those of us who are still willing to continue to do so.

Just praying that it’s not too late.

The Big California Redistricting Scheme

California’s state legislature recently came up with a proposed redistricting plan, which is spearheaded by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Democrats are taking a democracy-destroying approach in order to supposedly save democracy. Wobbly-headed, but after all, this is the Left Coast.

The whole thing is a dangerous step backwards for the state, and even more importantly, for the nation at large.

Here’s the skinny. In 2008 and 2010, California voters decisively approved Propositions 11 and 20, creating the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC). The goal was to draw fair and impartial district lines for future state and congressional elections.

The bipartisan citizen-led body was designed to remove the taint of political self-interest from the redistricting process. The CRC’s maps, drawn after extensive public input and certified in 2021, were crafted to reflect California’s diverse population and to ensure competitive representative districts.

Polls indicate that Californians overwhelmingly support the independent commission, with 64% favoring its continued authority over line-drawing as compared to only 36% that back legislative control.

The results of the poll make sense because the voters themselves created the CRC to keep the hands of politicians off congressional maps.

With the backing of former President Barack Obama and other Democrat figures, California Democrats moved full steam ahead, opting to dismantle the system and sideline the CRC in order to allow Dem lawmakers to draw new congressional maps that favor their own party.

It is a blatant underhanded way to bypass the current system. Here’s how the whole thing went down.

Democrats introduced a constitutional amendment that would suspend the CRC’s authority, ostensibly temporarily.

Then they proceeded to draft maps behind closed doors, without any public hearings and minus the all-important input from the community.

With political dissecting tools in hand, they split counties a hefty 16 times, and cities over 100 times.

The map will only take effect if voters approve it in a special election that is scheduled for November 4, 2025.

The election will be a referendum on whether Californians are going to value their own democratic reforms and protect the independent CRC, or whether they will fall prey to the same partisan gamesmanship they once rejected.

Ironically, implementation of the Dem’s plan will end up shredding the very democratic reforms that Californians fought so hard for. Adding insult to injury, the purported tab for the financially-strapped state may run as high as $250 million.

The tortured redistricting approach is a complete betrayal of voter intent. In addition, it is a logistical and ethical nightmare.

Here’s why. The design requires that a constitutional amendment be passed, which would have to be rushed through via a questionable legislative tactic that would bypass the state’s 30-day public review rule.

Republican lawmakers have already filed a lawsuit, which contends that the legislative process violates California’s constitutional requirement that bills be in circulation for at least 30 days prior to a vote by the legislature.

The plaintiffs also contend in the lawsuit that the new map was drawn in secret without meaningful public input, which undermines transparency and democratic participation.

There are broader legal concerns as well, due to a 1983 California Supreme Court ruling that prohibits mid-decade redistricting. It is this prohibition that Democrats seek to override via a new amendment to the state constitution.

The Dem’s game plan is likely to face additional legal challenges. The National Republican Congressional Committee has vowed to fight it “in the courts and at the ballot box.” Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, is launching a “legal war” against it as well.

Dems have enlisted some support from former President Obama, who has chimed in, endorsing the plan and characterizing it as a “responsible approach” and a “smart, measured approach.”

Proponents argue that it is a necessary counter to Republican redistricting in Texas. By overriding the CRC, the new maps will eliminate five Republican seats, tilting California’s already left-wing legislature even further to the left, creating a hyper-partisan map that stifles competition and marginalizes voters.

So it looks as though the scheme may actually kick off a redistricting war nationwide, inviting both parties to manipulate congressional maps to the max. This is a game that Republicans will likely win, since most blue states have already been highly distorted by previous gerrymandering.

In truth, the California Democrat plan doesn’t really deserve to succeed. Internal polling shows a thin 52% level of voter support, which is likely to sink even lower due to a well-funded information campaign backed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican donors, and a coalition of groups that includes Common Cause.

But the more important reason it doesn’t deserve to succeed is because it’s one more in a series of schemes, courtesy of a party that just can’t bring itself to even want to win elections on merit.

A party that is top-heavy with members who are way too busy admiring themselves in the mirror to notice their constituents have left the room.

Lawmakers’ Desertion Is Soros Funded

Over 50 Democrat legislators recently fled their home state of Texas and took up temporary residence in the ultra-blue states of Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts.

While the who, what, and why of their ill-advised departure continue to be hammered out, the how may be of particular importance to Texans and the country at large.

It appears as though the absconders may have received an assist in their runaway efforts from none other than George Soros, Beto O’Rourke, and possible others.

More than a mere political stunt, the performance act is a frontal assault on the legislative process and blatant mockery of our governmental system.

These state lawmakers swore an oath to serve the people. Needless to say, showing up for the job is a prerequisite. Abandoning their posts and hiding out in various other states is a breach of their core obligations.

They have one major goal in mind: To thwart a constitutionally mandated redrawing of a congressional map, which is necessitated by Texas’s population growth and the societal values of the region.

This quorum-impeding antic is racking up quite a bill. Private jets, luxury hotels, and logistical support for the runaway legislators has been costly. However, the tab is evidently being picked up by the Soros-backed Texas Majority PAC and O’Rourke’s Powered by People PAC.

The involvement of Soros and O’Rourke is particularly concerning. Soros, through his various foundations, has poured millions into radical causes over the past decades, causes that have eroded America’s shared societal values.

O’Rourke is a failed political candidate, who appears to be chasing fame and seeking relevance. His group reportedly has a $3.5 million war chest, much of which has apparently been funneled into covering the legislative duckers’ airfare, lodging, and possibly the $500 per day fines, which every lawmaker faces for dodging the legislative session.

Despite how the mainstream media characterize it, this is not grassroots activism. Rather, it is a cynical ploy on the part of Democrats to have their betrayal of voters paid for and the desired unearned power placed in their hands.

Texas has seen its population explode over the past decade, with millions of residents being added and additional congressional seats being warranted.

Texas is a red state powered largely by conservative principles, such as smaller government, religious liberty, and individual autonomy. Voters in the Lone Star State have repeatedly rejected the left’s agenda of open borders, higher taxes, and radical social policies. The proposed congressional maps reflect these realities.

The truth is the Democrat’s hypocrisy is in plain view. Gerrymandering, or the redrawing of lines on congressional maps, which set unnatural boundaries and carve out slivers of one-party voters, has been the hallmark of Democrats for years now.

Look no further than the states of Illinois and New York. Maps were redrawn prior to elections to secure power for Democrats, with the goal of maintaining it indefinitely.

What Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican majority in Texas are doing is not a moral equivalent. Rather, the governor and the legislators are utilizing a tool that is at their disposal to bring the congressional map up to current representative standards.

Gov. Abbott has correctly ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate potential bribery charges. If O’Rourke’s PAC is covering fines or personal expenses for the renegade Democrat lawmakers, it may be in violation of Texas’s election laws. House rules explicitly bar the use of campaign funds for personal expenses.

Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against O’Rourke’s group alleges that funds are being misused for private jets, hotels, and dining expenses. In the lawsuit, he has accused the political group of misleading donors by claiming contributions would be used for political purposes, when instead the money is being used for what the AG has characterized as “lavish personal expenditures” for AWOL lawmakers.

Atty. Gen. Paxton also claims that O’Rourke promised to cover fines for Democrats if they broke quorum. Additionally, he has petitioned to have 13 of the lawmakers removed from office for their roles in stalling the redistricting plan, and he is seeking a court declaration to allow Gov. Abbott to call special elections in order to fill the seats of missing Democrats.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, has the FBI assisting in the apprehension of the illicitly absent lawmakers.

Ironically, back in 2021 a group of Democrats tried to pull off a similar stunt, fleeing the scene in order to block election integrity measures. They returned empty-handed, their grandstanding achieving nothing.

In the current version of the same ploy, Democrats are hoping to run out the clock on a legislative process that they cannot legitimately outmaneuver.

Staying out of state until December 2025 would cost Democrats more than $3.2 million in fines.

December 2025 also happens to be the filing deadline for candidates to register for the 2026 midterms. Congressional maps would have to be set by that point, and no further redistricting could take place.

These absentee lawmakers are shirking their responsibilities, wasting taxpayer dollars, and undermining the foundations of representative government.

Democrat legislators have chosen to game the system.

May honorable leaders right the wrongs.