By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2025-01-23 00:09:00 | Updated at 2025-01-23 04:12:45
4 hours ago
Democrats purport to be obsessed with threats to “democracy,” but they tend to go into full obstruction mode when democracy actually threatens to break out.
We have seen that over the last week, as US Senate Democrats grilled Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees and repeatedly demanded the extent to which they’ll defy the duly elected commander-in-chief.
“Will you say no if Trump wants you to commit a crime?”
“Will you refuse to follow a Trump order to shoot innocent protesters?”
And so on.
The Democrats’ questions assume that Trump is a monster, and the job of a Cabinet member is to frustrate his designs.
In fact, Trump has just won an overwhelming electoral victory, and the job of his Cabinet members is to help effectuate the policies that voters have endorsed.
We see the same thing at the state level — when Democrats lose, their first impulse is to obstruct, to take their ball and go home.
In Wisconsin in 2011, following Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s election and facing a GOP majority in the state Senate, every Senate Democrat fled the state for nearly a month so the body would not have a quorum and could not conduct business.
Texas Democrats followed that playbook in 2021, when dozens of them hightailed it to Washington, DC, in a failed attempt to block a Republican-sponsored voting-reform bill.
Something similar is happening now in my state, Minnesota.
In November’s election, Republicans gained several seats in the state House of Representatives, and it appeared the 134-member body would be evenly split, 67-67.
But as it turned out, one of the Democrats’ candidates had cheated.
Minnesota’s constitution requires a legislator to live in the district he or she represents — and one seemingly victorious Democratic candidate lied about his residency, living all the while in a different district.
His Republican opponent filed an election contest.
The judge who heard the lawsuit held that the Democrat cheated and enjoined him from taking a seat in the House.
So the tally stood at 67-66, in favor of the GOP. Under state law, the House convened at noon on Jan. 14.
Those present with valid election certificates would be sworn in, and the House would elect a speaker and begin to conduct business.
But as in Texas and Wisconsin, the Democrats decided not to participate, vowing not to show up for the 2025 House session if they were in the minority.
The ongoing boycott has had the support of the Democratic Party machine, in an orchestrated campaign.
Gov. Tim Walz issued an illegal order setting a ridiculously early date for a special election to replace the Democrat who cheated.
Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon bizarrely produced an eight-page memo arguing that the Republicans’ 67 votes — plainly a majority of the 133 current members — did not constitute a quorum.
And on the Sunday before the legislative session, the Democrats held a fake “swearing-in” ceremony, conducted by a retired Democratic judge — a farce that utterly failed to comply with statutory requirements.
When the House convened on Jan. 14, all Republicans were present, but not a single Democrat.
Simon, who under the state constitution has the purely ceremonial role of bringing the House to order, announced — with no legal power or authority — that there was no quorum, so the House should adjourn.
To their everlasting credit, Republicans didn’t stand for it.
They took the podium and elected a speaker, Lisa Demuth — for what it’s worth, the first black speaker in Minnesota history — and began doing the people’s business.
More than a week later, the Democrats are still AWOL.
But they are being bombarded with thousands of emails from constituents, demanding that they do their jobs and show up for work.
While not appearing themselves, a party minion on Tuesday crashed a committee hearing and screamed obscenities at Republican House members through a bullhorn for 20 minutes — the Democrats’ only contribution to the legislative process so far.
In a final irony, the Democrats claim that being “sworn in,” in an illegal ceremony, entitles them to be paid.
Minnesota’s Supreme Court has already shot down one part of the Democrats’ strategy.
The court has ruled that Walz’s premature order setting a special election for January 28, well in advance of the statutory schedule, was illegal.
So the missing members likely will have to continue their boycott into March.
Meanwhile, the Democrats have sued in the state Supreme Court to prevent the Republican majority from conducting business.
Their case has no basis in the state constitution, but it remains to be seen how the court’s all-Democrat members will respond after it hears arguments on Thursday.
One thing’s for sure: Democrats are pro-democracy only when they win.
John Hinderaker is president of the Center of the American Experiment.
