Douglas Offermann letter: Legislative walk-out a disservice

Douglas Offermann

When Austin American-Statemen writer Chuck Lindell wrote about the walk-out (Reporter-News, May 31) staged by Texas House Democrats, he missed the bigger picture.

Representative walk-outs have increased in occurrence lately. What he could have written about is the purpose of quorums, voting rights and parliamentary rules.

The original intent of the quorums is to ensure representation, not to stifle it. Therefore, I believe the House Democrats, by walking out, resigned their offices, and Gov. Greg Abbott should immediately appoint Democratic-bound replacements for the special session so Democrats can be represented in debate properly. 

Civil societies must have rules of conduct and debate. But the recent tactic employed by House Democrats was a violation of civil debate rules and disrespected their constituents.

Finally, the advent of online voting software no longer leaves any excuse for representatives to hide from their obligations to civil society.

Serve or resign office.

— Douglas Offermann, Abilene