When Wendy Davis stood up in the Texas state Senate to filibuster a bill placing more restrictions on abortion, her fellow Democrats cheered. With the help of liberal supporters in the gallery who created chaos, a final vote on the bill was delayed until past the midnight deadline.
Now the state’s top Republican, Rick Perry, has used his own constitutional powers to call lawmakers back for a second legislative session that will begin tomorrow.
And we say: Good for them both.
Notwithstanding the cheap substitute that passes for a filibuster in Washington these days — in which a senator doesn’t actually have to speak — the Texas filibuster means something. Under its rules, Davis had to remain at her desk and was not allowed even to lean against it. Furthermore, what she says as she speaks must be germane to the legislation under discussion.
The filibuster can be ended if the body deems that the speaking senator has broken its rules three times — as Davis was eventually found to have done. Even so, her 11-hour, 39-minute performance was more impressive than Rand Paul’s 12-hour, 52-minute filibuster over US drone policy (he was allowed to leave his desk and have other senators fill in).
Unfortunately, her impressive use of the filibuster was not what allowed her side to prevail. That was the work of an unruly mob. The irony of liberals behaving badly to prevent a vote — at a time when their party leaders are howling that the Supreme Court has just undermined voting rights — does not seem to occur to them.
Of course, this is hardly the first time Democrats have used extra-constitutional means to block votes when they find themselves on the losing end. Two years ago, Democratic state senators in Wisconsin fled to neighboring states rather than allow a vote on overhauling public unions. When that gambit failed, union protestors tried — as in Texas — disrupting the chamber with a crowd of rabble-rousers.
The essence of politics in a free society is as much about means as about outcomes. A filibuster is an important part of our system, because it gives a minority that is about to be run over by the majority a chance to give voice to important opinions, even when they may be unpopular.
It strikes us that the people who champion Wendy Davis for exercising her rights as a legislator ought to be commending Rick Perry for exercising his as governor — and condemning the mob that hijacked a democratic vote.