Guest Author
The headline of this article probably caught your attention. Good.
I think the Texas State House Democrats ought to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. I picked the year 2022 because the Nobel Peace Prize website indicates that “All living persons and active organizations or institutions are eligible candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize … In order for a nomination to be valid, it must be submitted no later than Jan. 31. Submissions shall preferably be made through an online form.”
No later than Jan. 31 means the brave souls who continue challenging anti-democratic forces in the Lone Star State must wait another year to be considered for their just reward.
The Nobel Peace Prize website also explains who can make a nomination.
It says, “According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize is considered valid if it is submitted by a person who falls within one of the following categories, a personal application for an award will not be considered.”
Here is the category of potential nominators that jumps out at me:
University professors, professors emeriti and associate professors of history, social sciences, law, philosophy, theology, and religion; university rectors and university directors (or their equivalents); directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes.
Surely there is a university professor out there who teaches law, history or social sciences who understands the important work the Texas State House Democrats are doing to preserve and protect our democracy from domestic enemies.
For starters, the Texas Democrats blocked a massive voter-suppression bill by walking out of the state House in May. Their effort denied the Republican majority the quorum needed to make it more difficult for many people to vote in Texas. The lack of a quorum ended the regular Legislative Session, but the craven GOP Governor called a Special Session this summer.
Again, the bold and courageous members of the minority party showed their gumption; they got on planes to fly to our nation’s capital, where they have been lobbying national politicians. And the Texas Dream Team of Democracy Lovers won’t be returning to Texas en masse until the Special Session expires. Their goal in D.C. — convince seemingly unmotivated national Democrats to approve voting rights laws that will protect voters in all of the states in our union. The Democrats can do this if they stick together in the Senate and create a pro-democratic carve out that lets a simple majority vote win in the Senate.
The House, with a narrow Democratic majority, already favors federal voting rights protections.
Of course, it is also important for members of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to know what the Texas State House Democrats are not doing. They are not rioting at the U.S. Capitol; they are holding meetings and testifying before committees. They are not attacking police officers with American flags, guns, and bear and pepper spray. They are not spreading a “Big Lie” to justify their disregard for our democracy. The Texas State House Democrats are not asking legislators to pass laws that will let Democrats overturn the will of the people if the vote doesn’t go their way.
In short, they are acting like adults who love our country and who dare to dream that we can do better.
The Texas State House Democrats follow in the tradition of another pro-democratic, anti-violence force in this country. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
According to the King Institute website: “Presenting the award to King in Oslo, Norway, that December, the chairman of the Nobel Committee praised him for being “the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races.”
The politicians from Texas are not preachers. But they are preaching the gospel of peace and democracy. Amen.
___
Steve Schneider is a journalist based in Hollywood.
22 comments
zhombre
August 3, 2021 at 3:46 pm
Man, what bullshit. Propaganda plus.
zhombre
August 3, 2021 at 3:55 pm
This is not journalism, or an op-ed; it’s some hack acting as a lapdog for the Democrats. His paean to “bold and courageous” Texas Dems reads like old Soviet or North Korean boilerplate. This is repulsive. This is whorish. I’m not surprised to see it published here. The usual idiots will probably praise it in their comments.
Steve Schneider
August 4, 2021 at 10:35 am
You don’t like the “bold and courageous” comment? Why? Don’t you know the Texas State House Democrats left behind their friends, families, and homes for at least a few weeks to stay in rooms in the D.C area? Don’t you know the governor has threatened to have them arrested when they return to Texas? It is certainly likely they are suffering financially for their actions.
As for being a lapdog for the Democrats, you don’t even know me. You don’t seem to understand that I dare to disagree with my fellow Democrats when I see things differently. You also don’t seem to understand that I admire what the Texas State House Democrats are doing.
It is certainly much different than the actions of the Trump mob, which continues to lie and continues to work to steal elections — either by force or force of law with changes in state election law.
Still, I’m glad I got you worked up enough for you to post two comments. Maybe I got through to you on some level.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 11:24 am
Baloney. You got through to me only to prove you’re a lapdog writing rubbish. This was a stunt by Texas Dems; if Republicans in a Dem-controlled state legislature had done this, halfwit, pretentious journos like you would condemn them as obstructionistsm and abject cowards subverting democracy, throwing a public tantrum because they could not get their way. The Texas Dems abandoned their legislative duties and their state to fly to DC on a chartered flight (with a case of beer and w/o masks) to be celebrated by the lapdog media and feted by Dems in DC like VP Cackling Kam. If they suffer financially, which I doubt they will, good. They should’ve calculated the risk before taking the leap. They should’ve stayed in Texas and voiced their opposition in the legislature. This is how the process is supposed to work, slick. Nobel Prize, my ass.
Steve Schneider
August 4, 2021 at 1:31 pm
Ok, zhombre. The process is supposed to work the way you say it should work. That’s b.s., and you know it.
The Texas State House Democrats found a legal way to put more pressure on the GOP majority in their state. They denied them a quorum. They took an extraordinary step to deal with an extraordinary situation. At the same time, the Texas Democrats are helping to shine a national spotlight on the issue of voting rights.
And, for what it is worth, it is not at all clear that enough national Democrats understand the importance of passing federal legislation to protect voting rights now. I’m glad the Texas State House Democrats are helping to wake them up.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 2:03 pm
LOLOLOLOLOL!!! No, slick, BS is what spews from your brain and slithers into the indignant, pretentious propaganda you write.
Ane
August 3, 2021 at 5:21 pm
Steve Schneider,
Fabulous article. Thank you. I was close to tears.
Steve Schneider
August 4, 2021 at 10:13 am
Thank you, Ane. I’m glad the piece worked for you.
But I don’t expect to be sharing a beer with zhombre, which is fine with me.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 11:25 am
I will be happy to piss in your beer.
Mike Olivson
August 3, 2021 at 10:17 pm
Excellent satire. I laughed so hard.
Nohbody
August 4, 2021 at 8:16 am
I think we just found out where Baghdad Bob went after being put in the witness relocation program.
Not a very good job of hiding.
Steve Schneider
August 4, 2021 at 10:15 am
Hey Bud,
I opposed the Iraq War, which I suspect some of the posters here probably backed until they changed their minds. Of course, they changed their minds after our fellow Americans suffered the consequences of a needless, elective war.
Steve Schneider
August 4, 2021 at 10:09 am
Some people might feel better if I had suggested the Jan. 6 Trump terrorists deserved the nomination. I guess it depends on how we define peace and democracy.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 11:36 am
If you had suggested that, I would regard you as equally stupid. I do not support rioters or a mob, and hold them in greater contempt than shabby politicians engaged in a stunt, or the lapdog journalists who would nominate them for a Nobel. The pols and journos at least cause no destruction, only make fools of themselves with their pompous preening.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 12:16 pm
You heard the joke, slick? The Texas Dems went to DC with a case of Miller Lite and while there got several cases of Corona.
Huey P. Newsom
August 4, 2021 at 12:40 pm
A modest addendum: The 20+ million brave and courageous non-citizen immigrants living in America should share the Nobel Prize with Texas Democrats, because a 2014 Stanford University study estimated that 2.2% of these non-citizen residents voted in 2010.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 12:49 pm
Only after George Floyd is awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize.
Steve Schneider
August 4, 2021 at 1:35 pm
I get it zhombre and Huey, You guys don’t have much regard for black and brown people, at least black and brown people who seek a better life for themselves in a free and prosperous country, or a black person who gets killed by a white cop who now sits behind bars.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 2:11 pm
Oh for sure if we disagree with you, Tinsel Town based journalist, and have any even a smidgen of doubt about massive illegal immigration, and mock, or simply fail to show proper reverance for, the overinflated idols of the left, we MUST be White Supremacists. Because no dissent is warranted or allowed and the country has been predicated on RACISM(!) since 1619. LOL! Hollywood, the land of fantasies, money and woke posturing, is a good place for you.
Steve Schneider
August 4, 2021 at 2:26 pm
Good God, Man,
Take a Haldol before you write your next post. I live in Hollywood, in Florida, not “the land of fantasies, money, and woke posturing” that you attack.
And after you down a Haldol or two, please check your blood pressure. I suspect you oppose so-called “vaccine passports.” But, for your own good, Florida Politics should keep you offline until you can prove that you are not on the verge of a stroke or heart attack.
Granted, you walk this earth carrying the heavy burden of privilege. Hopefully, with time, your hostility will subside and you will learn to have an honest discussion with people who sees things differently than you do.
Cheers!
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 2:34 pm
Hollywood, Florida. My mistake. My BP is fine, by the way and thanks for your concern. It is hard however to have an ‘honest discussion’ with somebody who thinks Texas Dems rate a Nobel Prize nomination, an absurd premise. But have a nice day and ge your vaccine passport.
zhombre
August 4, 2021 at 3:20 pm
Oh, woe is me, for I walk this earth carrying a heavy burden of privilege. Born with it, this undeserved privilege, and the sins I thus accrued can never be remitted, or forgiven, no matter how many times I adjure privilege, think woke thoughts and vote Democrat.
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