Newscast about Texas Legislature

The news report in the video shows the Texas Legislature in action (Click on the title for this post to get the You-Tube video). Hardly anybody is in the room when the vote is called, and legislators make desperate efforts to push the vote button in the empty seats. I was doubtful about whether legislators actually read what they were voting on, but the video may cause me to change my opinion. Either 1) they are not at the called session because they are too busy reading or 2) not only do they fail to read legislation, they don't actually cast many votes at all. According to the new report, the rules of the house prohibit this action, but one might guess that the members are getting past their own rules by one legislator giving another "permission" to cast the vote. I believe that the "permission" excuse is probably more lax than a written proxy, or even express direction to vote. I suspect that the people voting are assuming that the missing legislator will follow party lines. And that is not much of a recommendation for our two-party system.

I don't want to continue to harp on the number of laws that were passed during the 90 day session, but my confidence that the votes that I cast to elect legislative representative have any meaning whatsoever is starting to wane.