Democracy Rebounds In The Hands Of The People
Beto is the target but the real fight is over whether votes still matter.
I have five different projects I’m working on and trying to complete over the next week. My schedule has been non-stop this last week, but this evening, there are a few Texans’ voices that need to be amplified. By now, I assume most of you have read the latest Beto O'Rourke newsletter. I share quite a bit of “audience overlap” with him, although not as much as I do with Heather Cox Richardson.
For years, I have been telling y’all that Texas is a fascist state, it’s the testing grounds of authoritarianism. So, while the things that our fascists in office are doing are shocking, they aren’t really surprising. According to Beto’s post, Attorney General Ken Paxton has frozen the organization’s assets, is threatening to seize his personal property, and is even dangling jail time over him.
Beto hasn’t committed a crime. Obviously. Duh. But it’s because the Texas Democrats broke quorum in the first special session, rather than just hand Temu Hitler five new Congressional seats on a silver platter.
Because Republicans in the Texas House, and honestly in the Texas Senate as well, hold a simple majority and not a super majority, it was the only tool left to stall an engineered takeover.
However, the power-grabs we see in DC, and the ones we’ll see in the future, were first tested in Texas. That’s always how it has been. It’s just the perk of living in a fascist state.
Back in 2021, Abbott had already gerrymandered Texas into a pretzel and was bragging about it in court.
But that wasn’t enough for Donald Trump. Fast forward to 2025, and Trump picked up the phone and demanded Abbott “find” him five more congressional seats in Texas so he could lock down Congress ahead of 2026. Abbott, ever the obedient errand boy, convened an expensive special session to do just that.
If Republicans could redraw five seats here, Democrats would have to win eight to net the three they need to take back the gavel. And that’s why Paxton is running point on the crackdown, prosecuting anyone who dares resist, even inventing charges against Beto.
Democrats, backed into a corner, used the one move left. They broke quorum. It’s not glamorous, but it was the only way to throw sand in the gears of an authoritarian power grab. As Jim Hightower put it in his latest newsletter, this isn’t just gerrymandering. It’s “gerrymandering the gerrymander.”
Republicans do everything they accuse Democrats of doing. Targeting political enemies, implementing martial law, and being sick, sexually twisted freaks.
For Ken Paxton, the most corrupt politician in Texas, it isn’t about the law. It’s about making an example of anyone who stands in the way of Trump’s authoritarian plans to steal the election and end democracy. The charges are laughable on their face. But why is Paxton targeting Beto?
In 2024, young Texans registered by Powered by People voted at a 79% turnout rate. The national average for that same age group was 42%.
During the 2020 pandemic, volunteers logged 17,000 hours at food banks and raised $200,000 to keep pantries open.
In the 2021 grid collapse, they made over one million wellness calls to seniors and raised $1.4 million for water, shelter, and local aid.
When Abbott, Paxton, and Trump look at Powered by People, they don’t just see a nonprofit. They see a threat to their entire power structure.
“If we can’t freely organize, we don’t have a democracy.” -Beto O’Rourke
Yes, blue states are responding.
California’s Gavin Newsom has already signaled he’ll redraw his state’s maps in retaliation. Illinois and New York may follow suit. The “map wars” are officially on. But as Jim Hightower put it, all of this “makes a mockery of government,” because the game was already rigged when Republicans decided voters weren’t allowed to pick their representatives anymore.
This isn’t really a fight about red lines on a district map. It’s a fight about whether votes still matter at all.
Authoritarians don’t take power in one swoop. They do it step by step, with a playbook we’re watching in real time:
Criminalize opposition. Trump’s AG in Texas is inventing charges against Powered by People, trying to bankrupt and jail the people registering new voters.
Centralize power. The legislature continues to strip cities and counties of their ability to pass local laws, whether it’s labor protections, environmental standards, or housing rules.
Suppress participation. No online registration. No automatic registration. No same-day registration. Layered on top of the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act.
Flood the zone. Dark money, corporate cash, Fox News propaganda, and Trump’s social media machine all drown out the truth with noise.
Texas has long been the proving ground for both authoritarian overreach and resistance. In 1861, as southern states were breaking away, Texas’s then-governor, Sam Houston, stood firmly against secession, even when his fellow Texans voted overwhelmingly to leave the Union.
A special Secession Convention convened in January 1861 and approved Texas’s departure from the Union by a vote of 166 to 8. Houston, true to his principles, refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy when ordered to do so on March 16, 1861. He declared:
Fellow-Citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas. . . . I protest . . . against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void.
That refusal ended his political career. The legislature declared the office vacant, and Houston was deposed from office, unable to remain in power despite offers of federal troops to support him.
Why this matters today.
Sam Houston wasn’t a radical. He was a slaveholder and a Southern politician, but he recognized the catastrophic consequences of playing along with authoritarian impulses. His refusal wasn’t defiance for its own sake. It was rooted in principles and a long view of Texas’s best interests. Texas principles.
Houston’s removal wasn’t a legal remedy. It was a forced purge of a dissenting voice by a one-party, secessionist mob. We remember Sam Houston today for his moral stand. He chose principle over power, becoming a symbol of resistance. And like Beto today, he stood for democratic values when the system worked to rob them.
The political elite in both 1861 and 2025 used law and political theater to remove principled opponents. In 1861, Houston was deposed for refusing a loyalty oath to a fraudulent regime. And in 2025, Beto’s group is being targeted with fabricated criminal charges because their voter registration works too well.
In both eras, the logic was the same. Democracy is a threat to the authoritarian project and must be silenced. However, history also tells us that authoritarians invite resistance, and democracy rebounds in the hands of the people.
So what does winning look like in the face of all this?
It’s not one magic bullet.
In the short term, Democrats must continue to hold the line. That means lawsuits that slow Paxton’s lawfare, emergency communication to keep people informed, and most of all, making this a national fight instead of a Texas sideshow.
For the 2026 election, we need to register, re-register, and protect every eligible voter. Ensure that the new apartment renters, including young people and those moving to Texas suburbs, are all included in the process. Powered by People has already shown that when you register young Texans, they don’t just show up, they show up at nearly twice the national rate. That’s how you flip the script.
In the long term, rebuild the lattice that makes a party viable. That means filling vacant precinct chair slots, training organizers at the block level, and running working-class, movement-rooted candidates who can connect with people’s real lives. This isn’t glamorous work, but it’s how you turn a “non-voting state” into a participatory democracy.
Push reforms that hit the root causes. Ban dark money in primaries. Pass local ordinances that expand democracy in cities and counties, even as the state tries to preempt them. Take them to court when they overstep their bounds. Democracy is a structure that we continually build.
“We’re not a red state. We’re a non-voting state.” -Jim Hightower
Resistance is already working.
In the courts, Paxton’s attempt to weaponize the AG’s office against Beto was stalled this month by a stay from the 15th Court of Appeals. He overreached, and the judiciary pushed back against him.
In the legislature, Powered by People invested more than $1 million this summer in the Texas House Democratic Caucus, the Black Caucus, and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, providing lawmakers with the resources to continue their fight.
On the ground, registration drives are ongoing. Volunteers are still in the field, pulling in the next wave of young voters.
At the ballot box, we’ve already seen what happens when grassroots organizing works. Greg Casar went from labor organizer to Congress. Jasmine Crockett has emerged as one of the fiercest voices in the Democratic Party in DC. That pipeline is widening.
Resistance is measurable. You can see it in court orders that slow authoritarian grabs. You can see it in the new voters added to the rolls. You can see it in fresh candidates stepping up to run. The story isn’t just what Paxton and Trump are trying to destroy. It’s what Texans are already building in response.
What can you do by next week?
Resistance isn’t a spectator sport. So, get off your ass and do something.
And if you’re already doing 1,000 things and don’t know how you’ll possibly do any more, start mentoring a young person to be just like you.
Today:
Are you registered to vote? Check your voter registration status.
Make sure three friends or family members check their voter registration status.
Sign up for a weekend canvassing or phone banking event with a local organization.
I’ve seen that both the Tarrant County Democratic Party, the Denton County Democratic Party, and the Brazoria County Democratic Party have started phone banking. Likely, there’s one at your local county too. You have to look for it.
Canvassing will soon be happening in Tarrant County, Harris County, and El Paso County. Likely more in your county. Just look for it.
This month:
Attend a town hall or a rally. And take two people with you.
Do you know how to find these near you? Keep an eye on your local political Facebook Groups, but also check the calendars of your local Democratic club. Also, be sure to sign up for Mobilize and download the app.
Apply to be a Democratic precinct chair in a vacant county slot. This is one of the quickest paths to victory in Texas, and every county needs them. Contact your local county to sign up.
This election cycle:
Adopt a target district. Make a small monthly donation and commit to two field shifts per month.
Start a neighborhood text chain or WhatsApp group focused on voting deadlines, registration drives, and local issues. This is a simple but powerful way to build community-level turnout.
Refuse the lesson they want to teach.
The lesson Paxton and Trump want us to absorb is that resistance is futile, that fear works, and that silence will keep us safe. Our answer is to show up, speak up, and organize anyway.
“Do not bend the knee.” -Beto O’Rourke
“We’re not a red state. We’re a non-voting state.” -Jim Hightower
The people are the strategy. Every door closed by Paxton, Abbott, or Trump can become ten new doors opening in neighborhoods across Texas. That’s how democracy survives here, and that’s how we make sure it survives everywhere.
November 4: Constitutional/TX18/SD09 Election
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“Democracy rebounds in the hands of the people”
Another great line from Michelle💪
Thank you for your hard work. 🙏🏼 I am not only praying but working hard that Texas gets precinct chairs in as many places in Texas as possible. 🙏🏼 It will take all of us.