Some of you have long followed me for #history posts + Electoral College info. I am very sorry my news feed has included so much TX politics lately. To clarify: I might disagree w/particular policies, but I am mostly upset about legal PROCESS. A TX primer might help. #txlege /1

One important thing to know about Texas: Our legislature meets once every two years. Even then, it is on the clock. The bi-yearly #txlege session is a mad scramble because legislators have limited time. We do this because #TEXAS (Ha.) We don't like being overgoverned. /2 #COVID19

We don't want legislators with dead time on their hands, dreaming up all new ways to control our lives. Thus, you'll understand that rule by executive decree is especially painful here. We already don't like being overgoverned. /3 #COVID19 #masks

Especially with this background, being overgoverned at the whim of one executive official is (with all due respect to everyone), just ridiculous, especially to most born and bred Texans. /4 #COVID19 #masks

The legislature did delegate emergency power to the Governor, but the idea behind this is to handle an immediate crisis. In #Texas, that often means a hurricane or similar. No one ever anticipated months & months of rule by executive decree. /5 #COVID19 #Masks

If the legislature were in session, it could rein some of this in and replace executive decisionmaking with legislative decisionmaking. Unfortunately, the legislature doesn't convene until January UNLESS it is called into special session. /6 #COVID19 #Masks

Only the Governor can call a special #txlege session. I read one person theorizing that @DanPatrick could call the state senate into session, as president of the Senate, but I'm honestly not sure about that. If he can, I wish he would. /7 #COVID19 #Masks

I sincerely hope that the next regular session of the Texas legislature will include other less drastic measures: Seems to me the legislature should automatically get called into session in certain emergency situations. /8 #COVID19 #Masks

Why should the same person get to (a) declare an emergency giving himself power? but then (b) be the sole arbiter of when he gives up that power? Even well-intentioned people will not always recognize when they are too close to an issue & need help. /9

The other reason people are frustrated is because there appear to be many problems with the way #COVID19 is counted. The definition of "probable" COVID changed in May. There are other discrepancies that make people wonder what is going on. /10 #masks

The “spike” seems to be a reporting issue, at least in some respects. Why should we endure lockdowns and #mask orders over a reporting glitch? /11 #COVID19

Why should our children be forced into schools, wearing masks, with clear partitions between their desks and all sorts of crazy stuff if this is about incompetent reporting by bureaucracies? /12 #COVID19 #masks

In any event, I hope that helps to explain why you've seen so much about Texas politics from me. I am very concerned that checks & balances / separation of powers are being ignored when they absolutely need to be respected. /13 #COVID19 #masks

To quote four Justices of the Texas Supreme Court: "All government power...derives only from the state and federal constitutions. Government power cannot be exercised in conflict with these constitutions, even in a pandemic." /14 #COVID19

Honestly, a special session of the #txlege still may not legislate in a way that I am perfectly in agreement with, but I would feel better about any solution that allowed more Texans' voices to be heard. For now, this feels unAmerican & unTexan. /15 #COVID19

Thus, I can't stay silent. Our Founders rallied around "no taxation w/o representation." Today it should be: "no compliance without representation." Rule of Law must be respected. And TEXAS must be TEXAS. /16 & end #COVID19 #ChecksAndBalances #SeparationOfPowers #liberty #freedom