This week, we’ve been treated to yet another round of the Texas Two Step, courtesy of that ever dwindling group, the Texas Democrats.  The Texas Two Step has various meanings.  Most commonly, it’s a dance.  Texans love to dance, especially to the music of a fiddle and guitar.  The dance is basically a fox trot.  The steps are quick, quick, slow, slow, one-two, one-two, slide shuffle.  Then, step-together, walk, walk.

The Texas Two Step is also a Texas Lottery game.  The player tries to match four numbers plus the bonus number, to win the progressive prize.

Another meaning of the Texas Two Step refers to a type of business bankruptcy, presumably perfected in Texas.  I never heard of this, but apparently, a solvent company that’s facing large lawsuits can undergo what’s called a Texas divisive merger, that splits the company’s assets and liabilities, and then declare a Chapter 11 bankruptcy to shield the assets from litigants.  Basically, it’s a scam, just like the Democrat Party.

The Texas Two Step to which I’m referring is both none of the above and all of the above.  There’s a curious Summertime exercise going on in the Lone Star State.  The Texas Legislature has had the temerity to pursue redistricting of its Congressional districts, which redistricting could accrue to the benefit of Republicans, possibly adding five House seats to the Republican caucus.

Surprising no one, Democrats in Texas and nationwide are apoplectic.  How dare Texas Republicans try to redistrict for political gain?  Texas is just doing the bidding of that authoritarian dictator Donald Trump.  Republicans are planning to steal the 2026 elections because they know they can’t win fairly.

The Texas Democrat response to the redistricting effort was the Texas Two Step.  As they did in 2021, more than 50 Democrats have fled the State to keep the Legislature from having a quorum in order to do business.  The flight of the Democrats has elements of all the meanings of the Texas Two Step.

They did the dance.  Quick, quick, slow, slow, one-two, one-two, slide shuffle.  The Democrats were quick to complain, and slow to comply, as they shuffled toward the door.  Then it was, step-together, walk, walk to a private plane, reportedly paid for by three time loser Democrat Beto O’Rourke, which whisked the fugitives away to, wait for it – Illinois, a U.S. State that has perfected the practice of gerrymandering.  More about that later.

The Texas Democrat exodus also mimics the Two Step lottery game, because these misguided refugees actually believe they will profit from their folly.  The odds of winning the top prize in the lottery is more than a million to one.  The odds of Texas Democrats turning political cowardice into political gain are considerably longer.

And then, the flight of the Democrats implicates the bankruptcy definition, because it has conclusively proven that Democrats are morally, intellectually, politically, and fiscally bankrupt.

None of these factors have prevented denizens of the Left from denouncing the Texas Republicans in their usual manner – incessant lying.  Rachel Maddow (is she still around?) laid the blame in the usual place, at the feet of President Trump, claiming he ordered Texas to do what it did because he’s an anti-democratic dictator.  This from the Party that prevents its own voters from picking its candidates in primaries, tried to imprison, and then kill its opponent, tried to remove his name from State ballots, and engaged in a criminal conspiracy that utilized government agencies to reverse the will of the voters.

And we can never leave out the Nazi references.  One Texas Democrat elected official actually compared Texas Governor Abbott’s efforts to force Democrats to return to the State to attend legislative sessions to (I’m not making this up) the Holocaust.  That’s right.  Trying to force elected officials to do the jobs they were chosen to do is the same as murdering ten million people.

What the Republicans are planning in Texas must be unprecedented and outrageous, right?  Wrong!  Redistricting for political gain, also known as gerrymandering, is a time honored practice, as old as our Republic.  The name refers to Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, who in 1812 created grossly contorted Congressional districts, one of which resembled a salamander, hence Gerrymandering.  Both Parties have used the practice, but Democrats are masters of the trade.

You might think that, if a political Party gets 45% of the vote in a State, that would translate into a respectable number of Congressional seats in that jurisdiction.  You’d be wrong.  The Texas Democrats fled to Illinois to protest gerrymandering?  It is to laugh.  Illinois has 17 Congressional districts.  Democrats recently gerrymandered the districts into meandering knots in order to eliminate Republican House members.  They succeeded.  Although Republicans garnered more than 42% of the votes, they won only three districts.

Is that just a coincidence?  No way.  The new 13th District starts near the Indiana border, then meanders west through Champaign, Decatur and Springfield, before turning south, and ending near the outskirts of St. Louis.  It resembles the Florida keys.

The 17th District is in the shape of a C, beginning near the Wisconsin border, west to Iowa, then south, before turning east and ending in the center of the State.

The only thing more outrageous than the convoluted shapes of these gerrymandered districts is the fact that Illinois’ bloated barrage balloon Governor Pritzker went on record denouncing gerrymandering.  Other crooked Democrats joined in.  Massachusetts Governor Healy ridiculously declared that the Texas action has forced her State “to fight fire with fire.”  It’s unclear what that means, since her State already has eliminated all Republican House members, despite 40% of the voters supporting Republicans.

Maybe Governor Healy could help Connecticut with their gerrymandering, but they don’t need any help.  They gerrymandered all Republicans from office years ago.  The same way New Mexico banished Republicans from their delegation, and California, which has 42 Democrats to 8 Republicans, and Maryland, which has one Republican…  Need I go on?

The point is that the Democrats already have gerrymandered their States to keep them in power, or very close to a majority.  Gerrymandering may be frustrating, and unseemly, but it’s not illegal.  It goes on in every State in one way or another every time there’s redistricting.

Some complainers have called upon the federal government to outlaw the practice.  There’s little chance of that.  Politicians who are trying to ensure their own reelections are the people who get to decide on the new districts.  They won’t willingly give up that power.  And it may not even be legally possible.  The U.S. Supreme Court has washed its hands of review of redistricting, unless it can be proven to be racially motivated.

As this is written, Texas Democrats remain at large, still hoping they can Two Step away from their responsibilities, the better to help them destroy the democracy they falsely claim to be protecting.  Let’s hope they’re dancing on their own political graves.