Opinion

Absent lawmakers stymie special session Nearly 60 Texas House Democrats left the state last Monday for Washington, D.C. in an effort to stop passage of a Republican-led elections bill.

“Are you on the side of truth or lies; fact or fiction; justice or injustice; democracy or autocracy?”

I FOLLOWED THE DISTINCT SOUND of hammers to Luz Flores’ new home on Giraud Street Wednesday evening. What I found was a swarm of enthusiastic workers—some probably pulling nails for the first time in their lives, and others obviously more familiar with the business end of a hammer.

The Texas Legislature convened in special session last Thursday, and GOP legislators introduced a fresh set of voting bills after Democrats blocked an earlier attempt during the regular session by walking out in May, preventing a quorum.

LEAVING THE STATE to block restrictive voting legislation isn’t any more outrageous than requiring people to wait in line for 17 hours to testify on that same legislation at 3 o’clock on a Sunday morning.

IF YOU WERE SURPRISED by the recently completed legislative session’s focus on far-right social issues—permitless gun carry, fetal heartbeat abortion restrictions, curbs on teaching race in public schools, transgender athletes, and voting restrictions—and not on definitive solutions to the...

IN A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, it’s essential that voters have confidence in the system by which they, democratically with one vote each, choose their representatives.

This morning, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a series of emails and documents that show just how hard former president Trump worked to overturn the 2020 election and retain an illegal grip on power.

A YEAR OF PROTEST Through public protests, rallies and marches since the May 2020 death of George Floyd, we have seen a revived, frank—and yes, at times, confrontational—national conversation over racial injustice, policing and other issues.

The following is an excerpt from a Jan. 19, 1989, speech by President Ronald Reagan as he awarded the Presidential Freedome to Mike Mansfield, former U.S. ambassador to Japan, and George Shultz, former secretary of state. It was his final speech to the nation as president.