Screen Cap from NY Times article; active link to the sound bite in another video below

UPDATED: SEE BELOW

In another demonstration that Republicans will not permit Democrats to govern and are in militant denial of climate change, GOP State Senators in Oregon have gone into hiding to prevent a quorum for a vote on a cap and trade bill, after the governor called on the legislature to complete unfinished business. Per the NY Times report from Timothy Williams:

Tensions boiled over in the Oregon Capitol this week as Republican state senators vanished in an effort to delay a vote on a climate change bill they oppose. On Thursday, Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, ordered the state police to find them and bring them back. It was only the latest chapter in a season of partisan division and frustration in the nation’s statehouses, where, for the first time in more than a century, all but one state legislature is dominated by a single party. In Oregon, where Democrats dominate both chambers, Republicans were unapologetic about their efforts to slow the state’s adoption of an emissions-reduction program by disappearing — and keeping the Democrats from having enough lawmakers present to call a vote.

The picture at the top of this post is a screen cap of the Times story with the embedded video (The video is live at the article.) The speaker in the video is Brian Boquist.

In June 2019, after the governor Kate Brown threatened to send police to forcibly round-up any State legislators who declined to attend a special session she called to prevent a quorum from being reached, Boquist said that she better "send bachelors and come heavily armed ... I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon". The next day Boquist and 11 other Republican Senators walked out of a vote on a cap and trade resolution meant to reduce carbon emissions for the purpose of dealing with climate change.[8][9]

He currently serves in the Oregon Senate representing District 12. Pat Dooris is a reporter at KGW: here’s a follow up video from KGW showing the sound bite , and the reaction of people in Boquist’s district to it. (Whatever happened to Blue Lives Matter?)

Here’s a video clip from Dick Hughes where Boquist gives his view of what’s happening in Oregon where Democrats now have control of the state house and the legislature. This is the narrative that his constituents are embracing.

From the Times, here’s the bill that has Boquist threatening to take up arms.

The fight in Oregon unfolded after Ms. Brown [Oregon Governor Kate Brown] threatened to order a special legislative session to complete unfinished business, including the highly debated bill that could make Oregon one of only a few states to impose an emissions-trading program, commonly known as cap-and-trade. The arrangement is modeled after a 2016 California law. Using a market-based approach to lower greenhouse gas emissions, the bill would place limits on the amount of emissions that businesses, including utilities and other industrial facilities, could lawfully emit. Under those limits, emissions would be significantly reduced by 2035. By 2050, the bill mandates an 80 percent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels. Some businesses would also be required to purchase credits for each ton of greenhouse gas they produce. Those credits would subsequently be purchased at special auctions and traded among businesses. Over time, the state would make fewer credits available, ultimately forcing companies to pollute less.

Cap and Trade is an attempt to use market forces to decarbonize the economy, by putting a price on fossil fuel use. It is a response to climate change. The Republican response has been to characterize it as a tax and climate change as a hoax. It’s about keeping their grip on power through demagoguery.

In practice, what Republicans are doing is protecting fossil fuel industry profits at the expense of everyone else who must pay for dealing with the consequences — externalizing costs as it is called.

This is a de facto carbon tax being imposed on us, while the rich and corporations get their taxes cut. We are paying so the fossil fuel interests and their shareholders can keep cashing in as long as possible. Every dollar for disaster relief, every dollar to repair and reinforce infrastructure that wasn’t built for the ‘new normal’ is a carbon tax . Every move by Republicans to deny and reverse climate policies is a carbon tax increase .

The framing Boquist puts around this and Democratic governance in general is chilling. So is the response of his constituents. It’s the kind of rhetoric that mainstream media does not like to cover — not when it comes from the right at least. Climate change threatens life on this planet and civilization as we know it. Adding the threat of civil war to the mix does not help matters. If we don’t get a war overseas at some point, the GOP is probably ready for a Fort Sumter moment here at home. Strange days for the party of Lincoln.

The Republican Party is beyond saving at this point. Their media machine is driving the country apart. Republicans have chosen to treat climate change as a political issue, making it impossible to for them to act rationally on it. (Reality is not their friend.) When the Pentagon experts warn of disruption, civil disorder, and political instability because of increasing stress from climate change, I wonder if they dare mention it can happen here...

UPDATE: Spherical Aberration has more details, including militia support for Boquist.

The Oath Keepers and the 3% militias have chimed in now, offering their support for the absconded Republicans and pledging to “provide security, transportation, and refuge for those Senators in need.” It isn’t clear at this time whether any of the Republican Senators have been in contact with the militia groups or taken them up on this offer. There’s also a GoFundMe, of uncertain provenance, which I will opt not to link to here. As of this writing, “Encourage the Walking Senators” has seen $17,000 pledged. Because of course it has.

Remember when Republicans used to brag about being the party of Law and Order?