The usual understanding of democracy is “one man [person], one vote.” No matter how rich or powerful you are, your vote counts the same as that of the poorest person in the same district. We know from experience that the very rich win power by making lavish political donations, but at the ballot box each person has only one vote and all votes are counted equally.
At its recent convention, The Texas Republican Party endorsed an outrageous scheme to cancel the foundation of democracy. It’s not enough for them that billionaires are funding pliable politicians. The state Republicans want to cancel the principle of “one person, one vote.”
They adopted a plank that imposes a sort of electoral college on statewide elections. The winner will not be the candidate with the most votes, but the candidates who win a majority of counties. “The State Legislature shall cause to be enacted a State Constitutional Amendment to add the additional criteria for election to a statewide office to include the majority vote of the counties with each individual county being assigned one vote allocated to the popular majority vote winner of each individual county,” the new plank says.
Democrats are concentrated in big cities; Republicans are the majority in large numbers of small rural counties. If this plank weee to become part of the State Constitution, Democrats would never again be elected Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or U.S. Senator. Democrats might win the popular vote by a large majority, yet still lose the election if they don’t win a majority of the counties in the state.
This proposed Constitutional Amendment is a stake in the heart of democracy. Democrats must organize and elect candidates who want to strength of our society, not destroy it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Leave it to Txass!
One county, one vote. Worse than the electoral college, which at least uses population as a variable in allocating electoral votes among the states. Under this proposal, Loving County, pop. 43, and Harris County, with over 110,000 *times* more people, would be electorally equal.
Why do they hate the United States of America?
The last Democratic governor of Texas was Anne Richards in the early 1990s. The GOP already has stranglehold on the state, enough already.
And soon, if the amendment passes voting, the poor will have, NO voice, and, the only voice that counts would be the, upper class, while, the MOST of the, population’s opinions get, axed out, and, we the people will be, NO more, because, the MAJORITY of population, lands in that, middle, largest, chunk. And, the voices of the majority, means, absolutely, NOTHING, and that would be the, NEW STATE of, democrazy, under the bullshit governance of the, Republican Party, and, the people are, CONDONING this…the prople, DESERVE, everything they’re going to, get, if this is the, case…
Texas has 254 counties, making 128 of them a majority. According to Wikipedia, and based on the 2020 census, the 128 lowest-population counties have an aggregate population of 932,243. Texas’s population is 30,503,301, giving these 128 counties approximately 3.06% of the state’s residents.
Bill, that’s an astonishing statistic. 3% of the voters decide who wins elections.
No matter how rich or powerful you aren’t, your vote will never undermine the power of the appointed dictators of policy. From the MIC to the SCOTUS, from the FED Reserve to the Dept of (fill-in), the appointed call the shots. No matter how rich or powerful you aren’t, your vote counts less than the vote of the electoral college. If our so-called Democracy has been “killed” by money, it’s NOT a DEMOCRACY. You don’t “buy” democracy, it’s not for sale. So when it comes to blowing on the democracy dog whistle, who benefits from the deception, beyond the deceivers?
Rule of law means nothing to Republicans. They simply seek to change the long-standing norms to grant themselves power.
This is what authoritarianism looks like.
When laws can be changed with such ease, then laws become meaningless.
Missouri just tried the same tactic to change how voters can pass a Constitutional Amendment. Republicans hate it that the voters can essentially override their legislation with a simple majority of all voters – (amendment to reverse MO no-abortions ruling).
GOP legislation was amendment to change Constitution would need to pass in 5 of the State’s 8 Congressional districts. A 50+ hour Democratic filibuster the last week of the session kept the legislation from a floor vote.
So the only check on the list of right-wing and conservative legislation 2024 to-do list was tragically statewide school vouchers and expansion of charter schools in one county (where MU and state capitol are located). It took them adding hundreds of millions of promises raising teacher minimum pay and others to get that to pass. Fortunately the MO supermajority is too busy in-fighting and candidates trying to show they are more right wing than their conservative opponents.
BILLIONAIRES BEWARE!
Hey, Billionaires — Have you been counting how many Russian billionaires have been clumsy enough to fall out of windows stories above the street? Hmmm.
And what about those Russian billionaires and millionaires who have just sort of…well…disappeared from the public view?
One of the first things that Putin did when he took power was to call a meeting with the Russian oligarchs and tell them that from then on he would get his cut — or bad things will happen to them.
America’s billionaires and millionaires need to pause and think what can happen to them if a Putin wanna-be like Trump gains the absolute power he craves to control everything from Congress to the FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department to weaponize them against anybody who even merely irritates him?
So, Billionaires — Beware of open windows if Trump gets power. If he wants what you’ve got, he’ll take it. If you irritate him, you disappear.
quikwrit: Selfishness is the last motivational appeal for the worst among us. CBK
What the fascists that rule Texas want to do is worse than the existing constitutional Electoral College that only decides the presidential winner, and that deplorable compromise to keep the slave owning states in the rebellion against the British Em pire, is the only thing like it in the world in a democracy.
That will turn power over to the rural counties with a lot of empty land, no matter how many people live in counties with large urban areas.
“As a percentage of overall population, Texas is 83.7% urban, making it the nation’s 15th most urban. Its closest peers in terms of the share of population living in urban areas are Maryland and Washington. By comparison, Arizona, California and Florida have urbanized shares of around 90% or more.”
That means 16.3% of the Texas population will control who wins elections.
A moment ago, a thought occurred to me. Texas is baiting Biden with a heads we win, tails you lose scenario.
Still, if Biden doesn’t bite, he only loses among the MAGA cult’s voters who wouldn’t vote for him anyway. They’ll see that as a victory. If he bites, then many voters who wouldn’t have voted for the traitor, may stay home and not vote, thinking Biden as acting like a dictator when all he would be doing is defending the US Constitution against the rebellious fascist Texas state government.
The first attempt was when Texas intervened along the border, stepping in to stop immigrants from crossing a river into the state, causing the deaths of a few who got snarled in barbed concertina wire in the middle of the river.
From what I’m reading, SOCUTS let Texas get away with premediated murder and usurping the federal government’s constitutional authority to protect the US borders.
Biden could have challenged that ruling by using US troops to stop Texas from setting brutal traps designed to murder immigrants trying to get into the US.
Texas has about 250 counties but 34 hold 79% of the state’s population.
The second attempt to challenge the US Constitution and bait Biden is stripping the power of the vote from 79% of the state’s voters in those 34 counties turning Texas into a minority ruled country like Syria, that’s supported by Putin.
Will the US Supreme court’s fascist justices also vote in a bloc to allow Texas to get away with another unconstitutional act, and what will Biden do — ignore the bait again or bite?
Does Texas’s authoritarian government also have Putin’s backing?
As soon as I posted my last comment, I decided to find if there was an answer to my last question about Putin.
The answer is YES! Putin supports what Texas is doing.
I asked Google and the answer came back that Russia is boosting calls for civil war over Texas border, offering support. That was behind a pay wall so I couldn’t read the details. What kind of support? Russian troops?
Interestingly, these morons, who hate the fundamental principles of American democracy, call themselves “patriots.” OBVIOUSLY, they aren’t.
Speaking of the very rich and their lavish political donations, More Perfect Union has a list of 56 billionaires who are backing Trump. Some of them disavowed him after the January 6 debacle, but have come around to favoring oligarchy. This org is doing terrific work, by the way.
https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/here-are-56-billionaires-backing