Perhaps because they have been the most harassed, and they look some of the worst politics of this Trump era, and the agenda of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 right in the face, Democratic members of the state legislature took some big risks, including to their own livlihoods, to defend democracy in the face of maga Trump fascism. As the Texas legislature and the worst governor in the United States proposed to redistrict the state in order to cheat out five more Republican seats in the House, Democrats used a last moment procedural move to block the redistricting by simply leaving the state legislature without a quorum. This effectively blocks a vote on the measure and they plan to stay out of the state until the session expires.

This is what resistance looks like.

The risks, to their own livlihood they had to temporarily leave, are real ones, since the Texas legislature does not pay enough of a livable salary for its members to live on. It is deliberately designed to be a rich person's legislature rather than a people's legislature. Some may lose their jobs, some may be severely persecuted because they left their seats. Ultimately, the governor of Texas is powerless to do anything about it, but make life miserable for a while. Well, go ahead and give that a try, since he's not going to get his redrawn districts.

And there is a great example of the in-your-face kind of boldness that is necessary in order to oppose this madness and make an effort to save American democracy.

We saw a surge of protests and marches, millions turing out to achieve...not much of anything as the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 marches forward toward turning the United States into a Christian nationalist, white supremacist dictatorship. Maybe some of that energy needs to have boldness applied, of the risk-taking kind we are seeing in Texas Democrats, and aim it at bringing down parts of that agenda, while keeping our integrity and staying within the boundaries of the law.

We are smart enough to figure out how to do this, aren't we?