This week, while 60 of their Democrat colleagues were subverting democracy by fleeing the state and traveling to Washington, D.C., to avoid constituting a quorum, the Texas House of Representatives, virtually all Republicans, responded to the situation by singing the famed patriotic song “God Bless America.”
Watch:
🇺🇸Texas House breaks into chorus of God bless America🇺🇸
#txlege pic.twitter.com/lIGkNcKMhg— Young Conservatives of Texas (@yct) July 16, 2021
Bob Garrett, the Austin Bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, noted on Friday that the House members had “added this to their morning regimen during the Dems’ quorum break,” adding, It follows ‘impromptu’ pledges of allegiance to U.S. and state flags.”
Texas House members in Austin applaud after an a cappella singing of 'God Bless America.' I missed this yesterday, but they’ve added this to their morning regimen during the Dems’ quorum break. (It follows ‘impromptu’ pledges of allegiance to U.S. and state flags.) #txlege 1/2 pic.twitter.com/UoAYi7LA5C
— Bob Garrett (@RobertTGarrett) July 16, 2021
The song was originally written by the famed composer Irving Berlin during World War I in 1918 and revised before the Second World War. The preamble to the song, which is hardly sung today but which was sung by Kate Smith, who made the song famous, states, “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea/Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free/Let us all be grateful for a land so fair/As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.”
The night of the 9/11/2001 attacks that were meant to target the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, and the White House, members of Congress stood together and sang the song on the steps of the Capitol.
As The Daily Wire reported of the Texas Dems subverting democracy:
The Texas Senate passed a voter integrity bill while 51 Texas Democrat House members and eight Texas Democrat Senate members fled the state to subvert democracy by denying the Republican-led House the quorum needed to approve bills in Governor Greg Abbott’s special session agenda.
“Senators voted 18-4 along party lines to approve the legislation. Eight Senate Democrats announced that they too had fled to Washington, D.C., on Monday, with a ninth expected to arrive Monday evening,” National Review reported. “However, with 22 out of 31 members present, the Senate kept a quorum and was able to pass the measure.”
On Wednesday, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy questioned White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about President Biden’s remarks regarding the Texas Democrats fleeing the state this week. He asked, “About voting rights and these Texas lawmakers who have come to Washington, do you know… of any examples from his 36 years in the Senate that Joe Biden just hopped on a train and left town to avoid a vote that he knew he was going to lose?”
Psaki responded, “Look. I think that the president’s view is that these Texas legislators were making a statement through action in opposition to efforts in their state to oppose restrictions on people’s fundamental rights and their rights to vote in their state. That is why they departed. The vice president met with these legislators yesterday and the vice pres — and the president, I should say — certainly applauds their actions and their outspoken opposition to … efforts to put in place restrictive measures in their state.”