Texas GOP Troika Could Rethink Statehouse
Reopening in Trump Fueled Terrorism Wake

Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside
January 6, 2021

GOP leaders in Austin might be reassessing their plans to have the Texas Capitol open to the public when the regular session convenes in six days amid fears of possible payback attacks by Antifa and civil rights advocates in the fallout from the siege by President Donald Trump loyalists at the nation's Capitol on Wednesday.

Governor Greg Abbott and legislative leaders have been touting the decision to let the public return to statehouse with substantial hype and fanfare as a symbolic move that reflects their opposition to lockdowns during the coronavirus crisis that's entered its 11th month.

The state power triad of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, presumptive new House Speaker Dade Phelan and Abbott have been asserting that they are confident that both chambers will have sufficient coronavirus protocols in effect to keep the 87th regular session from becoming a massive superspreader.

But it will come as no surprise if the Big 3 reverse the call on public admission to the Capitol during the session that kicks off in six days for the sake of minimizing the potential for violence inside the building as a product of the unprecedented mayhem that Trump inspired in Washington D.C. today with several Texas Republicans as major enablers.

Patrick - the Texas campaign chairman for Trump - had appeared to be the most concerned about the health and safety of lawmakers and staff during the first gathering of the Legislature during a pandemic in 102 years. Abbott has been in personal COVID-19 prevention mode for months with everyone who's actually in his presence having to be tested on a daily basis.

Patrick had suggested behind the scenes, however, that he also had been worried about the prospects for violence under the pink granite dome that would be initiated by the same left-wing extremists on which he and Abbott had tried to pin the blame for the Memorial Day protests and riots in cities across the state.

Abbott, Patrick and other GOP leaders from Texas like U.S. Senator Ted Cruz have parroted Trump claims about an anti-facist revolution while refusing to acknowledge that white supremacists and other pro-Trump right-wingers had contributed as much or more to the violence here last spring.

Much like Trump's false assertions on voter fraud in the 2020 election, the Republicans who still control the Lone Star State offered no meaningful evidence between QAnon conspiracy theories to support their claims that the Texas demonstrations had been the products of the Antifa movement on the far left. They know for a fact now, however, how elements in the Trump hardcore base are capable of domestic terrorism like they put on display today in Washington in one of the disgraceful moments in American history.

While militant radicals can be found at both ends of the political spectrum, the insurrection that shut down the U.S. Capitol today has made the Texas Republicans' narrative on Antifa appear to be as fictional as Trump's claims on massive voter fraud in a worldwide conspiracy to steal the White House from him.

But that might not stop Republicans who appeared to really believe in Antifa from fearing an invasion at the Capitol by socialist radicals as a counter shot in Trump's new civil war. The Capitol could be locked down after all if that's the case.