Democrats, RIP

A unanimous vote on Texas Senate budget portends a set minority status.

It is with a somber heart that we must announce the death of the Democratic Caucus of the Texas Senate.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Planned Parenthood or the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.

Changes to the Two-Thirds Rule in 2015 delivered a near-fatal blow to the already weakened Democratic members. The suffering caucus sadly took its own life last week by voting unanimously to support Dan Patrick’s budget. It didn’t have to end this way. An organization that once touted great legislators like A.R. “Babe” Schwartz and Barbara Jordan has been left to fight for crumbs. The only leverage left is signing on to the two-year, $218 billion budget, which theoretically gives them a seat at the negotiating table.

But it isn’t like someone put a gun to their head — open-carry or otherwise — and forced them to accept Lt. Gov. Patrick’s atrocious budget. The bill — Senate Bill 1 — doesn’t even try to keep up with our state’s population growth and baseline inflation. Cuts to higher education funding hack past the fat and into the muscle and bone of our state’s colleges and universities. And the whole thing only balances because it shifts education costs off the state and onto local districts. That means an extra $2 billion will have to be paid by your property taxes. As we’ve written before, Patrick wants to raise your property taxes, and now he’s got 11 Democratic senators to back him up.

Even Patrick’s fellow Republican, House Speaker Joe Straus, hammered the Senate budget for relying on financial tricks and shifting timelines to free up $2.5 billion otherwise slated for the state highway fund.

“Counting money twice in order to balance a budget is not a good idea,” Straus told reporters. “This is the Texas Legislature. We are not Enron.”

Isn’t there one — just one? — Senate Democrat willing to throw a few punches at Patrick, the personal avatar of talk radio-dominated politics? A good Senate budget fight might even land a few blows in the run-up to the 2018 election. Instead, Senate Democrats are marching lockstep with a man who had made it his personal crusade to destroy everything that their party is supposed to care for.

But why should Democrats even try to fight? Electoral aspirations beyond gerrymandered seats are treated as foolish naivety. Democrats have given up on any gains. They’ve reached a detente. Not a single Houston-area state senator faced a challenger in the 2016 election. Not one.

So now Texas has Democrats who act more like state Rep. Sarah Davis, a moderate Republican who touts her ability to work within the system, than former state Sen. Wendy Davis, who riled up supporters across the country with her single act of defiance against the Republican Senate.

This is bad news for Texas — even if you prefer Republicans. Our state is facing economic trouble and we’re in dire need of serious political leadership, Richard Parker wrote for the Dallas Morning News last week.

“Depending on which index you want to measure, jobs, growth or productivity, Texas is ranked 26th, 10th, or 21st. Once the state with the lowest unemployment, Texas fell to 26th earlier this year.” Parker wrote.

These are some real challenges. So where is Gov. Greg Abbott? He’s rounding up votes for a national constitutional convention. Patrick is pushing his potty bill. There’s no need to focus on core issues if you only have to worry about your right flank.

Democrats should be working to fill this void left by Republicans. Iron sharpens iron, and Texas would benefit from an alternative vision beyond budget cuts and ending local control. But the once-proud Yellow Dog Democrats have neutered themselves. They can’t even imagine what our state would look like with a different party in charge, and how that would make life better for Texas families. Today’s Democrats are only able to define themselves as “not Republican,” and with their acquiescence to Patrick, they’re even failing at that.

“You need a core inside you,” Barbara Jordan once said. “A core that directs everything you do. You confer with it for guidance. It is not negotiable.”

For Senate Democrats, all that’s left is negotiation.