This must be so embarrassing for the few "regular" people who happen to live in Texas, but are helpless to change its image.
17
The disenfranchised have been brainwashed for so long in Texas that they've been hung out to dry. Yet all they have to do is learn to say 'No" to the tycoons.
12
The pendulum will swing blue in Texas as the ever growing Hispanic community responds, as they did in the 70s to farm worker injustices in the 70s and to threats in the early 90s with Prop 187. Republican state legislators have since been relegated to the minority party. Today’s catalyst is Donald Trump’s rants and threats. Don’t underestimate the Hispanic community’s ability to organize as they have under people like Cesar Chavez and organizations like La Raza and LULAC. The only question is, what are they waiting for to show there’s power in unity?
18
I am sorry for the author--you don't get to choose your hometown --or home state (and I say that from the great swing state--the Commonwealth of Virginia--from Richmond, sadly, the former Capital of the Confederacy)
However, if any other Lone Star political standout-such as Gov. Perry, puts forward the secessionist agenda, I say--let's no longer "mess with Texas." Let's just cut 'em loose!
Despite all the bitter Tea Party talk, Texans pay, on average, $5K per person in federal taxes--and the rest of us pony up--sending them back $9K per person!
I propose that we let Texas be what it claims--"a whole other place"!!!
However, if any other Lone Star political standout-such as Gov. Perry, puts forward the secessionist agenda, I say--let's no longer "mess with Texas." Let's just cut 'em loose!
Despite all the bitter Tea Party talk, Texans pay, on average, $5K per person in federal taxes--and the rest of us pony up--sending them back $9K per person!
I propose that we let Texas be what it claims--"a whole other place"!!!
41
Many commentators seem to think Texas is poverty stricken, but it is actually close to the national average when it comes to poverty statistics. The U.S. Census Bureau now publishes an annual poverty report titled the Supplemental Poverty Measure that takes regional cost of living into account. The report is changing perceptions regarding which states are rich and which are poor. Nationwide, about 16 percent of Americans live above poverty level. In Texas, which has a large undocumented immigrant population, about 16.4 percent live below poverty level. But California is by far the poorest state, with 23.8 percent of its residents below poverty level while New York is the 7th poorest state with 18.1 of its residents below poverty level. The number are from Table 4 (Number and Percentage of People in Poverty by State Using 3-Year Averages) on page 13 of the Census Bureau report at https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p60-247.pdf
13
So is TX anymore monoculture than CA? CA is basically 100% Democrat at the state-office level, plus the Senators and most of the Representatives, and then throw in the big-city mayors and etc. In SF it appears that the two parties are the Maoists and the Trotskyites, both subsidiaries of the local Democrats. National Republicans and Democrats should not waste any time here other than to shill for cash; the electoral vote is a foregone conclusion. NY seems the same though I gather there is some Republican life upstate.
11
Every week more Democrats come to Texas from California. Every week more Texas Hispanics realize that the GOP has done them no favors and that Trump would be worse yet. Texas Turns Blue in 2022! It's a demographic inevitability.
16
It's amusing to see the non-Texans define us. As a lifelong Texan in a very blue area (Joaquin Castro, Julian Castro's brother, is my Congressman), the problem lies with the Texas Democratic Party which has become too liberal for any part of the state except the blue areas of the largest cities. However, Texas was a Democratic state for many decades. The party was much smarter. They knew they had to run someone who had broad appeal. Since a lot of Texas is rural, most of our Democratic politicians were ranchers, like LBJ. The working class has to identify with them. The last gubernatorial election the Texas Dems ran an unknown state Congress woman whose only claim to political fame was doing a filibuster against tightening abortion laws. She lost by a wide margin, but she was the Texas Democratic Party's liberal dream. Texas is really a moderate Democratic state but the party has to take into account who lives in the state, how they vote, and what they consider important. Not all Latinos are liberal, but most are Democrats. We have a lot of working class Democrats who could vote either way. People stream into Texas daily so demographics change. We are a large state and we identify with our mayor much more than our governor. But the state is well run. We received a tax break from the state Republicans last year but the county and city Democrats took that away by over-appraising our homes. So trust in Texas liberals remains iffy, even for some Democrats.
26
Phil Gramm taken seriously? Huh. First I'd heard.
9
It was a good article up to the end, except Florida is only a swing state in Presidential elections. In local elections it is as red as Texas. We have one Blue Senator but he will be gone in 18 when Rubio or Scott runs for his seat.
4
Texas: the state is four square against the federal government and all for self sufficiency until it gets in trouble and then it sounds like a frightened child begging for its mommy. I met a considerable number of Texans in the Bakken and I never saw a bigger bunch that epitomizes all hat and no cattle.
36
"Start somewhere..." Texas can start by putting actual history in your schools' history books rather than that right wing revisionist propaganda. And please remember that if you teach your children that the earth is only 10,000 years old, there might be a correlation to low science scores.
37
Is it "cynicism or plain old ignorance?" I think it looks like plain old cruelty.
12
Does Mary Beth Rogers best hope that Texas might become a "swing state like Florida" mean someone is finally listening to Austin's plea, "Help, I'm surrounded by Texas!"
20
Texas is no longer relevant.
Now that it's a red state.
Also known as sour grapes from the liberal establishment.
Now that it's a red state.
Also known as sour grapes from the liberal establishment.
11
Texas fell off the wagon of political acceptability & relevance when they dumped Ann Richards & gave us Dubbya.
While we may have slowly begun to recover from that other disastrous warmonger Texans gave us , LBJ, there is nothing the arrogant Texan cowboy-caricature should offer American politics beyond seceding.
Texans seem to love the arrogant, separatist Texan culture but they make a grave error in imagining the rest of us want anything to do with their absurd cartoon of how they think 'real americans' should be defined.
Texans should keep their preposterous lizard-skin boots, big brims, belt buckles & Spaghetti-Western political style to themselves, & far away from the rest of the USA.
While we may have slowly begun to recover from that other disastrous warmonger Texans gave us , LBJ, there is nothing the arrogant Texan cowboy-caricature should offer American politics beyond seceding.
Texans seem to love the arrogant, separatist Texan culture but they make a grave error in imagining the rest of us want anything to do with their absurd cartoon of how they think 'real americans' should be defined.
Texans should keep their preposterous lizard-skin boots, big brims, belt buckles & Spaghetti-Western political style to themselves, & far away from the rest of the USA.
22
Best Texas article I've seen since Molly Ivins was around.
22
Americans know so little of their history that I feel compelled to point out that the father of the fascism known as American conservatism was born in Washington on the Brazos, Texas on July 11 1881.
William F. Buckley Sr was the ultimate Texas Oil Tycoon who gave us Joseph McCarthy, William F. Buckley Jr and James Lane Buckley's Citizens United. If Mr Buckley had his way there would have been no problem with illegal Mexican Immigration as we would have conquered Mexico in 1917 when Mexico expropriated HIS oil.
American conservatism is all about Texas and Buckley's writings remain safely ensconced at the University of Texas. Texas is relevant it has always been relevant and today Texas can take pride in being the foundation of the country America has become.
William F. Buckley Sr was the ultimate Texas Oil Tycoon who gave us Joseph McCarthy, William F. Buckley Jr and James Lane Buckley's Citizens United. If Mr Buckley had his way there would have been no problem with illegal Mexican Immigration as we would have conquered Mexico in 1917 when Mexico expropriated HIS oil.
American conservatism is all about Texas and Buckley's writings remain safely ensconced at the University of Texas. Texas is relevant it has always been relevant and today Texas can take pride in being the foundation of the country America has become.
9
It's not cynicism or ignorance, it's plain old fashioned meanness. Those people ruling the roost are not nice.
20
I lived in Texas for almost 10 years beginning in 1972 and I never met a Texan I didn't like. However I met many that I did not respect.
Let me assure you it is neither cynicism nor plain old ignorance. It is hubris.
Let me assure you it is neither cynicism nor plain old ignorance. It is hubris.
14
Texas has a problem with the powerful religion and church industry (tax-free, you know). They're folks who think the devil is chasing them! It is sort of like survival of the fittest.
8
The Civil War is supposed to have settled the question of secession once and for all but is there any reason why the rest of the country can't kick a state out (not just Texas)?
9
Prior to the rise of Trump I might have engaged in some Texas bashing but not now. If I blame an entire state for the neanderthals that run it then, as a New Yorker, I might have to take responsibility for Trump.
9
Aren't there already more Democrats than Republicans in Texans? It's just redistricting that keeps it red, but this fails eventually. And when it fails the results can be one party rule for generations (like California after the districts were made representative). TX doesn't seem destined to be a swing state. It'll be like other states: blue cities, red countryfolk. It'll be a rarity in the South because it isn't poor and has universities.
2
I'm soooo tired of the "decades-long drift to the left" of the Democratic Party. Did I miss something? While Obama may be more progressive than Clinton, I wouldn't say it is by much; and Carter and Johnson were much farther to the left than anyone on the scene except Bernie (and he's not really a Democrat). Can we admit that people who think the Democratic Party is too far to the left are more conservative than Rockefeller Republicans and be done with it already?
28
Twice in his history Texas seceded: from Mexico in 1835 and the United States in 1861. In both case one of the causes was that the Texans wanted to maintain slavery.
14
I'm not entirely convinced that Texans realize how irrelevant they are politically. Just last week the Times posted an article about how much Texas loves itself which was greeted with a plethora of reader comments affirming it. The one question i'd like to ask Texans is did they really believe that Ted Cruz had a snowballs chance of being President? He is hated even more than Donald Trump. Let that sink in.
13
Texas is a lot like Alabama. It has good barbecue, foot ball, and most of the people that I know are real nice people (except for the ones that have Obama derangement syndrome). Alabama is also irelevent in the sense that at general election time we know that the republicans will win and the democrats will lose so there is no need for national candidates to come here.
The strange thing about Alabama (and probably Texas) is that only the crazy people vote. In the course of a day, I encounter many normal, sane people but at election time we wind up with statewide offices and the legislature mostly peopled by kooks and wingnuts. The more outlandish and ignorant they are the better we seem to like them. Would you hire a plumber that knew absolutely nothing about plumbing and apparently has no interest in learning?
The strange thing about Alabama (and probably Texas) is that only the crazy people vote. In the course of a day, I encounter many normal, sane people but at election time we wind up with statewide offices and the legislature mostly peopled by kooks and wingnuts. The more outlandish and ignorant they are the better we seem to like them. Would you hire a plumber that knew absolutely nothing about plumbing and apparently has no interest in learning?
52
Tom Delay as an example of effective governance? Hah.
He got into politics with the expressly stated desire to block the government from regulating things like potentially health-threatening pesticides.
And on his way out, he engineered an uncalled for redistricting between census years that has driven Texas politics off the far-right side of the road.
Instead of celebrating him as a paragon among Texas politicians, this article should have held him up as the creator of Texas's irrelevance.
He got into politics with the expressly stated desire to block the government from regulating things like potentially health-threatening pesticides.
And on his way out, he engineered an uncalled for redistricting between census years that has driven Texas politics off the far-right side of the road.
Instead of celebrating him as a paragon among Texas politicians, this article should have held him up as the creator of Texas's irrelevance.
59
In 2005, Tom DeLay was indicted on criminal charges of conspiracy to violate election law in 2002. DeLay resigned from his position as House Majority Leader. He was convicted in January 2011 and sentenced to three years in prison but was free on bail while appealing his conviction. The trial court's judgment was overturned by the Texas Court of Appeals, an intermediate appellate court, on September 19, 2013, with a ruling that "the evidence in the case was 'legally insufficient to sustain DeLay's convictions'", and DeLay was formally acquitted. The State of Texas appealed the acquittal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. On October 1, 2014, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the appellate court decision overturning DeLay's conviction.
6
Texas is big. 26 million people. Its cities are sophisticated, generally progressive and educated. President Obama carried every large Texas city except Fort Worth which just barely went Republican. It is a minority-majority state where non-urban voters outnumber urban voters unfortunately, and vast numbers of people along the Rio Grande and elsewhere don't vote, either because they don't meet ID requirements or they believe that their vote doesn't count. There is a traditional culture here that ignores the state's diversity, rich ethnic history, and its struggles against racism. Who knows about the confederacy's massacre of German immigrants who did not believe in slavery or secession? There are noble, smart, feeling people here, who resent that our government is held hostage by sub-neanderthals who have damaged our citizenry's public health, education and our natural environment. Texas must, and will, change.
24
"Few in Texas see a quick way to restore the state to national relevance, if not respectability."
In part because those who could contribute let their survival instincts override their obligations to the state and left. Texas has seen a brain drain of native-born intelligentsia that has finally caught the media's attention (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/01/guns-on-campus-texas-publ.... I doubt that when "the aged white voters of the religious right pass to their rewards" any millenials will care to clean up the mess. Not worth it.
In part because those who could contribute let their survival instincts override their obligations to the state and left. Texas has seen a brain drain of native-born intelligentsia that has finally caught the media's attention (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/01/guns-on-campus-texas-publ.... I doubt that when "the aged white voters of the religious right pass to their rewards" any millenials will care to clean up the mess. Not worth it.
4
Texas appears to be an example of how we are losing its way. The enlightenment that gave birth to this fine nation has been replaced by superstition, creationism, and disdain for evidence-based learning, aka the scientific method.
Texas is also emblematic of our polarized politics: candidates are judged not by their ability to work with (and for!) others, but by their adherence to dogma. Ignorance and brashness are valued over civility and knowledgeability.
I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, and I know there is no room for me in the GOP, not when their standardbearers are Ted Cruz and Donald Trump: where facts don't get in the way a demagoguery.
Texas is also emblematic of our polarized politics: candidates are judged not by their ability to work with (and for!) others, but by their adherence to dogma. Ignorance and brashness are valued over civility and knowledgeability.
I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, and I know there is no room for me in the GOP, not when their standardbearers are Ted Cruz and Donald Trump: where facts don't get in the way a demagoguery.
12
Not a Texas native, I have lived in Houston for the past three years. I have been surprised to observe how few citizens actually turn out to vote - Ted Cruz was elected with something like 10% of eligible voters bothering to vote. That has to change. According to the cited "Turning Texas Blue" article by Mary Beth Rogers, it IS possible to turn Texas blue by maintaining the current democratic 95% black vote, 65% Hispanic vote and increasing the white vote from 25 to 35%. I know it's a lot to shoot for (and gerrymandering makes it even more difficult, as do restrictive voting laws), but it we could get the white women who find Trump unappealing to vote for Hillary, it could make a difference.
11
A toothache is very painful and dental treatment can be costly. A thousand dollars for a root canal would be low in New York.
But the ACA does not include dental care which is more health related than contraceptives.
When I was a student, we young men used to buy prophylactics, and it was not because we were ill or worried about our health.
It is hard to not suspect that the inclusion of contraception, including some abortifacients in ACA is a way to "stick it" to conservatives and make them eat crow.
An administration which wants bipartisanship would not have done it. They would have gone for dental care. But bipartisanship is not what they wanted.
Maybe Texas will provide dental care and not contraceptives?
And hey, it will be legal in Texas to say, "All lives matter" and you will not be called a racist.
Actually, I am sure there are things with Texas which need fixing. But since none of the recent massacres have taken place in Texas (the venues have been Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon and California) perhaps Texas is doing something right?
And how come when they have all these nasty white males? Just wondering.
But the ACA does not include dental care which is more health related than contraceptives.
When I was a student, we young men used to buy prophylactics, and it was not because we were ill or worried about our health.
It is hard to not suspect that the inclusion of contraception, including some abortifacients in ACA is a way to "stick it" to conservatives and make them eat crow.
An administration which wants bipartisanship would not have done it. They would have gone for dental care. But bipartisanship is not what they wanted.
Maybe Texas will provide dental care and not contraceptives?
And hey, it will be legal in Texas to say, "All lives matter" and you will not be called a racist.
Actually, I am sure there are things with Texas which need fixing. But since none of the recent massacres have taken place in Texas (the venues have been Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon and California) perhaps Texas is doing something right?
And how come when they have all these nasty white males? Just wondering.
5
Have to agree with Mimi on this one. Best way to describe it, Texas is in "political malaise". Wasn't always that way. Even in 1971, at the end of the Viet Nam War, state was on the move. San Antonio (five military bases) and Fort Worth (heavy concentration of defense industry) both took economic hits, but the state bounced back with OPEC and the oil crisis. Rust Belt relocation in the '80's and '90's, brought new people, but only to specific areas. (Austin, Greater New Dallas (northern suburbs) and some to northwest Harris County.) State kept moving with Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the White House. Reagan Amnesty of 1986 was only a preview of the deluge of population from the south. But still no dramatic political transformation. But now, Texas politics, as defined in the article, has deliquesced to "crazy, creepy and crude". Yes, people are still moving in, but only to specific areas. In Greater New Dallas, the epicenter of the relocation, it appears to be a race to the Red (River) and Oklahoma. And that should give all demographers pause.
5
As I have said many times before, Rick Perry's Texas miracle was more like a mirage-built on the shifting sands of the oil boom or bust economy that has always been the state's economic driver. Even with corporate relocations facilitated by huge tax abatements, the growth in the technology sector, and even the boom in natural gas, with a state government run by right wing idealogues who view long term investment in education and infrastructure as a waste, Texas will eventually start losing jobs and economic growth to more progressive states. It is a shame, but until there is a major shift away from the Greg Abbott "Tea Party true believer" mindset of so many Texas voters, there is little hope for progress or change!
5
Kay Bailey Hutchison interested in governance?
How soon the myth gets made.
Look at her voting record and bills sponsored list here:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/kay_hutchison/300054
If that's the sort of governance which passes the common good test, we're in big trouble.
Yes, she was better than her replacement, Ted Cruz. But that's a pretty low bar to hurdle.
How soon the myth gets made.
Look at her voting record and bills sponsored list here:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/kay_hutchison/300054
If that's the sort of governance which passes the common good test, we're in big trouble.
Yes, she was better than her replacement, Ted Cruz. But that's a pretty low bar to hurdle.
9
Your best hope is to defeat Cruz should he run for re-election to the Senate. Then we will know you're serious. Not before.
11
The Texans I've actually met are very reasonable people, and its a very nice place to visit. The crazies must hide out in large numbers in the desert somewhere and dash in to populated areas only to give press conferences.
8
It's all in the DNA. You know, Texas started as a de facto penal colony for all the people that had been run out of other states. Houston started as a dubious real estate scam by New York "speculators" to sell coastal swampland to the gullible. Maybe that is why Houston still floods all the time. And, who can forget that Houston gave us Enron, the financial nightmare built on innovative accounting fraud. The current Texas Attorney General is under indictment and facing SEC charges, and the art of stuffing ballot boxes was perfected on dark nights in South Texas. Texas politics is as crooked as the hind leg on a dog, and it will always be that way.
15
Texas didn't start as a de facto penal colony for people run out of other states. San Antonio was founded in 1719 by 400 families from the Canary Islands. Americans crossed the Red River and begin settling in Northeast Texas after the United States purchased that part of Texas from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1813. (These U.S. settlers became Spanish citizens when the United States traded Northeast Texas to Spain in exchange for Florida as part of the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819.) Most of the Stephen F. Austin colonists came to Texas in the 1820 from Missouri at the invitation of the Spanish crown. Many settlers came to the Texas Republic from Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Texas Hill Country is still predominantly German American. A tiny percent of settlers were fleeing debt collectors and marshals, but this is true of all states. The folks who invested in Houston swampland got very rich.
Enron was a merger of Houston Natural Gas Houston of Texas and InterNorth Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska. The natural gas part of Enron continued to make money the way it always had, by drilling natural gas wells. The InterNorth executives were the financial scam artists.
Enron was a merger of Houston Natural Gas Houston of Texas and InterNorth Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska. The natural gas part of Enron continued to make money the way it always had, by drilling natural gas wells. The InterNorth executives were the financial scam artists.
3
Maybe when the oil and gas runs out? Mineral extraction and evangelicalism seem to go hand in hand, depending on who is interpreting the Bible.
7
I feel your pain, Mimi. I lived in Texas almost 30 wonderful years in San Antonio
and Austin. It's so painful to watch the state crater to the no-nothing crowd.
If only Obama hadn't rounded up all those gun loving Texas patriots and detained them in underground bunkers beneath Walmart during Operation Jade Helm maybe things would be different today.
Still, there's hope that the valiant Rick 'Coyote Killer' Perry and Ted 'Ostrich Boots' Cruz will liberate those patriots and lead them to secede like they
always wanted and Texas will be its own country once again free from Liberals
like God intended and Jesus would come again and open a big store in Waco
to sell Cowboy boots and hats and do the Cotton-eyed Joe just before
the Apocalypse. If only...
and Austin. It's so painful to watch the state crater to the no-nothing crowd.
If only Obama hadn't rounded up all those gun loving Texas patriots and detained them in underground bunkers beneath Walmart during Operation Jade Helm maybe things would be different today.
Still, there's hope that the valiant Rick 'Coyote Killer' Perry and Ted 'Ostrich Boots' Cruz will liberate those patriots and lead them to secede like they
always wanted and Texas will be its own country once again free from Liberals
like God intended and Jesus would come again and open a big store in Waco
to sell Cowboy boots and hats and do the Cotton-eyed Joe just before
the Apocalypse. If only...
15
Looking a regional breakdowns and urban progressive voters coupled with new Generation Texan women and Latinos..Texas is much closer to Blue than it seems.
4
We feel your pain with the pridefully ignorant pygmies. We have 3 Nobel prize winning scientists 10 miles apart in two world class universities here in the heart of NC. Fat lot of good that does us...
13
A solution is to have electors represent counties rather than entire states. The system where the candidate with 51% of votes gets 100% of the electoral votes is inherently undemocratic.
And, it makes states which are reliably blue or reliably red "irrelevant".
And, it makes states which are reliably blue or reliably red "irrelevant".
2
Texas is in a sad state right now. I am a moderate Democrat, but I usually vote Republican in the primary because--at least in my county--there are no Democrats running, particularly for judicial offices. It's depressing. We have an Attorney General, our top state lawyer, who is facing criminal charges, and that is just the beginning.
10
C'mon Janette:
New York politicians get indited on a weekly basis. I have wondered how the New York State Senate has enough Senators to have a quorum:
Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Dean Skelos
Speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver
Deputy Majority Leader of the New York Senate Tom Libous
Minority Leader of the New York State Senate John L. Sampson
Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Malcolm Smith
State Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa
State Assemblyman William Boyland Jr.
State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson
Then there was Governor Spitzer and the call girl, no indictments but he resigned because of the scandal.
Our politicians are babes in the woods compared to New York State's.
New York politicians get indited on a weekly basis. I have wondered how the New York State Senate has enough Senators to have a quorum:
Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Dean Skelos
Speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver
Deputy Majority Leader of the New York Senate Tom Libous
Minority Leader of the New York State Senate John L. Sampson
Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Malcolm Smith
State Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa
State Assemblyman William Boyland Jr.
State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson
Then there was Governor Spitzer and the call girl, no indictments but he resigned because of the scandal.
Our politicians are babes in the woods compared to New York State's.
5
I disagree with the author here. Texas is a well managed fiscally sound state that is attractive for people around the country and businesses as well. Medicaid expansion is too expensive for states in the long run, and the carrot of temporary dollars is not enough to offset future financial oblivion. Being Republican doesn't mean someone is closed minded.
10
PROVE IT
and present a convincing argument rather than an assertion
and present a convincing argument rather than an assertion
7
Next column by Ms. Swartz - California: Blue but Not Relevant. Now that would be the day. Meanwhile, if Texas is so rotten, why are so many Americans moving there?
6
Tom DeLay is supposed to be in jail for his grand plan -- he was convicted of money laundering campaign contributions, which was part of his bigger agenda of having the state redistricted to establish a permanent Republican advantage.
Our current Governor and AG have made a series of embarrassing public statements, mostly concerning the culture wars (or what I call hatin' for JEEzuhs).
It is terrible .... and embarrassing.
Our current Governor and AG have made a series of embarrassing public statements, mostly concerning the culture wars (or what I call hatin' for JEEzuhs).
It is terrible .... and embarrassing.
20
I'm sorry we embarrass you.
Please feel free to move to someplace your not ashamed of. We can use the space since so many people are moving here.
Please feel free to move to someplace your not ashamed of. We can use the space since so many people are moving here.
5
Tom DeLay gets things done? Is he still in jail?
6
He never went to jail - was found innocent. Unlike a former governor of your state that I could name.
1
He's defending Hastert's legacy. Really!
5
I'm from Wisconsin (I know, I know, crazy doesn't just happen in Southern states), but have happily lived "across the border" in lovely, liberal Minnesota for 35 + years, so I know how you feel liberal Texans. Lost, alone in the wilderness. But even here in MN we have suffered our fools--Michele Bachman anyone?! So, you have my sympathy Texans. Good luck and keep repeating my favorite Texan mantra: Molly Ivans, Ann Richards...Molly Ivans, Ann Richards...you will find it quite soothing to do so. And good luck.
13
I am really missing Molly Ivins. Imagine what she would have done with this election!
13
My wife and I say this to each other every evening as we watch the daily madness from the campaign trail. Oh, how we miss you, Molly.
8
Texas is "nearly irrelevant in the presidential races", except for its 38 votes in the Electoral College, second only to California's 55.
5
The author has not been keeping up with the trend. More and more people are moving into Texas from California ---- moving company headquarters. Dallas County as well as Harris County (Houston) and other large cities are Democrat and it's changing local city politics. I expect it won't be long before Texas fades from red to blue.
P.S. I dislike the tea-partyers as much as you do.
P.S. I dislike the tea-partyers as much as you do.
8
Major Texas cities like Houston, San Antonio and Dallas have voted Democrat for decades. They are predominantly black and Hispanic.
1
It's been embarrassing having an Ooops governor followed by another mobilizing the state militia to "protect" citizens from the US Army, then a senator that sounds like a broken record about being conservative. It looks like a long while before Houston and Harris county can lead the state to more common sense.
8
Why is it that Texas has not seceded yet? Ever since I can remember (or start paying attention to public), secession has always been talked (and used as a threat) about. It's about time Texans put your words into action. Oops, no, not when oil price is low and the economy is slowing. Let's wait till the oil hit $100 a barrel.
4
Why not turn the tables on Texas and start a petition to have them secede from the Union?
4
When it comes to Texas I remember the Mainzer Adelsverein founded in the early 19th century to promote the immigration of impoverished Germans to Texas. These people settled mainly in the Hill country around Fredericksburg. If I'm not mistaken there's even a Wilhelmstrasse in the old part of San Antonio close to the Alamo.
Maybe the born-in conservatism of these Germans contributes to the Red state.
Maybe the born-in conservatism of these Germans contributes to the Red state.
2
There is a small town in North Texas called "Muenster" it is full of descendants from the original German immigrants that settled the town around 1900.
1
I was relieved to read this. So horrified was I of Bush II that I despaired of the influence Texas was having on national politics. So glad to hear this is now in the past.
3
"...politicians like Lyndon Johnson, Phil Gramm, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ann Richards and Bush 41, but they believed in government and governing..."
I agree with just Johnson & Richards. Gramm was at the beginning of conservative Republican slash and burn politics and both Bushes went along to get along...
Benefits for America if Texas, and any state south of the Ohio River, were to secede:
More bang for our tax dollar (in general, red states receive more in federal monies than they pay in taxes);
Lower health care insurance cost (in general, red states are far more unhealthy than are blue states);
More progress towards "energy independence", alternative energy sources and an end to subsidizing the extraction industry (red states, in general, are the most willing to drill and mine, and consequently, have the most "accidents" for which the rest of us have to pay twice: higher energy prices plus clean-up expenses.) which would also lead to lower pollution which would enhance the overall health of the populace which would lead to lower health care insurance (see above);
Infrastructure could be more easily improved and repaired;
A better educated populace with higher education priorities and standards to match the rest of the industrialized world;
A more collegial, reasoning and reasonable national government;
A less bellicose and more reasoning and reasonable foreign policy.
I agree with just Johnson & Richards. Gramm was at the beginning of conservative Republican slash and burn politics and both Bushes went along to get along...
Benefits for America if Texas, and any state south of the Ohio River, were to secede:
More bang for our tax dollar (in general, red states receive more in federal monies than they pay in taxes);
Lower health care insurance cost (in general, red states are far more unhealthy than are blue states);
More progress towards "energy independence", alternative energy sources and an end to subsidizing the extraction industry (red states, in general, are the most willing to drill and mine, and consequently, have the most "accidents" for which the rest of us have to pay twice: higher energy prices plus clean-up expenses.) which would also lead to lower pollution which would enhance the overall health of the populace which would lead to lower health care insurance (see above);
Infrastructure could be more easily improved and repaired;
A better educated populace with higher education priorities and standards to match the rest of the industrialized world;
A more collegial, reasoning and reasonable national government;
A less bellicose and more reasoning and reasonable foreign policy.
10
This smarmy column reminds me of Newsroom's Will McAvoy's smarmy speech about why America isn't the greatest country in the world. In fact, America is the greatest country in the world, and Texas is amazingly relevant to America, not only in politics (Cruz finished second, and our previous president was a Texan), but also business and culture.
5
You need to look up the meaning of "smarmy". Perhaps Texans' incomplete grasp of standard English has something to do with their difficulty with complex thoughts.
8
Living here in California, I don't understand why the demographics in Texas doesn't flip the state. The combined Hispanic and African American population is almost 50%. Combine that with a proportion of white liberals, it seems from California, that Hispanics, African Americans and white liberals could tip the state from Red to Blue. Why isn't this happening at the state and national level? Gerrrymandering may protect State and House seats, but it shouldn't apply to state and national. I wish someone would inform why this isn't happening.
7
Lots of conservative, hard working, church going Latinos here. They are against abortion, welfare fraud, and high taxes. They are for growth and jobs.
The Republican party fits them pretty well.
The Republican party fits them pretty well.
4
Hummmmm?
Firstly, Texas is relevant. Why? 38 electoral votes - that's why.
Secondly, conservative Texans take a perverse delight tolerating (encouraging) immorality in politics. Tom Delay would be an excellent example. Mrs. Schwartz, are you saying that immorality is ok as long as there is "gravitas" involved? I hope not.
Thirdly, cash flow covers most mistakes and the mineral wealth of Texas is a godsend for the immoral. Sometimes such unearned income can lead those that sup on the crumbs to think they are smart as well.
Fourthly, there are no Democrats at the barricades in Texas. There aren't even barricades. Why? I don't know? lack of courage perhaps? lack of conviction?
So Texas is relevant - quite relevant. Respectable? That's another matter AND it is a problem that isn't political party specific.
Firstly, Texas is relevant. Why? 38 electoral votes - that's why.
Secondly, conservative Texans take a perverse delight tolerating (encouraging) immorality in politics. Tom Delay would be an excellent example. Mrs. Schwartz, are you saying that immorality is ok as long as there is "gravitas" involved? I hope not.
Thirdly, cash flow covers most mistakes and the mineral wealth of Texas is a godsend for the immoral. Sometimes such unearned income can lead those that sup on the crumbs to think they are smart as well.
Fourthly, there are no Democrats at the barricades in Texas. There aren't even barricades. Why? I don't know? lack of courage perhaps? lack of conviction?
So Texas is relevant - quite relevant. Respectable? That's another matter AND it is a problem that isn't political party specific.
4
Texans cannot possibly be as stupid as the state's politics would have you believe. It is past time for this country to elect all it's representatives based on majority rules and districts set by a plain rectangular grid overlay. Let's see how the rednecks fare then.
4
We thought we'd fixed all that half a century ago...or at least that's what the US History textbooks were saying when I was in school. (I graduated from high school in 1967.) Of course, I'll betcha they don't say anything about that in today's textbooks, or at least the ones in use in Texas, Arizona, Mississippi, Lousiana or any other "red" states.
1
It is not "conventional wisdom" that Texas is a bunch of "crazies." That is just plain fact. Obviously, I mean those in positions of power.
My favorite story was when Gov. Abbott told the Texas National Guard to be on Alert for a possible invasion by the US Military. Yes, in the fevered imaginations of the gun toting, birther banner waiving, right wing radio listening Texas kooks, a well publicized, standard army training exercise is an invasion of the Nation of Texas.
This of course raised a lot of questions. Why would the US Military pre-announce the invasion? Wouldn't a sneak attack be preferable from a tactical standpoint? Did the Governor believe his force of reservists would be a match fro the US Military?
Thanks for mentioning Governor Oops. I recall when Perry did his intellectual makeover which consisted of getting a pair of glasses, that a lot of GOP political pundits were impressed by his new mental gravitas. Perry is truly a cancer on conservatism. Can anyone forget the cringe worthy moment when he threatened to secede and Take Texas out of the Union. If only it were that simple Mr. Perry...
But all is not lost! The GOP has managed to villify, denigrate and insult the fastest growing demographic in America - Hispanics. The GOP tried the same in California under Pete Wilson. If the reuslts in Cali are an indication, Texas will soon by SKY BLUE and everyone will be happy.
My favorite story was when Gov. Abbott told the Texas National Guard to be on Alert for a possible invasion by the US Military. Yes, in the fevered imaginations of the gun toting, birther banner waiving, right wing radio listening Texas kooks, a well publicized, standard army training exercise is an invasion of the Nation of Texas.
This of course raised a lot of questions. Why would the US Military pre-announce the invasion? Wouldn't a sneak attack be preferable from a tactical standpoint? Did the Governor believe his force of reservists would be a match fro the US Military?
Thanks for mentioning Governor Oops. I recall when Perry did his intellectual makeover which consisted of getting a pair of glasses, that a lot of GOP political pundits were impressed by his new mental gravitas. Perry is truly a cancer on conservatism. Can anyone forget the cringe worthy moment when he threatened to secede and Take Texas out of the Union. If only it were that simple Mr. Perry...
But all is not lost! The GOP has managed to villify, denigrate and insult the fastest growing demographic in America - Hispanics. The GOP tried the same in California under Pete Wilson. If the reuslts in Cali are an indication, Texas will soon by SKY BLUE and everyone will be happy.
11
It's not a waste of time for Clinton or any Democrat to work for Texas. The oligarchy there is more noise than it is substance. It'll break like an earthen dam.
5
I predict Donald Trump will catalyze enough thoughtful Texans to vote for Hillary Clinton in Texas in November and she will carry our (great) state.
5
What is really terrifying about Texas being firmly Republican is the sway they hold on textbook content approved for elementary and secondary school texts. The fictionalization and censorship of the truth being fed to our youth is appalling and comes straight out of Texas.
10
Texas is unique, complex, and tragic-comic but what isn't often perceived as ironical, humorous, contradictory, wild 'n crazy, and absurdity.
Your inhabitants are diverse, and a politically purple State again is not hard to imagine as the eventuality.
An illustrative story of the above qualities is alleged about EXXON's President (or high executive) who complains and sues about fracking negatively effecting the peace & quiet of his upscale neighborhood.
Your inhabitants are diverse, and a politically purple State again is not hard to imagine as the eventuality.
An illustrative story of the above qualities is alleged about EXXON's President (or high executive) who complains and sues about fracking negatively effecting the peace & quiet of his upscale neighborhood.
2
Small nit here, but Ted Cruz is performing in Washington exactly the way his supporters would have him perform. They are sick and tired of the go-along-to-get-along ways of the Beltway crowd, and they want someone up there on the Hill espousing conservative values and not bending to the will of the Way It's Always Been Done. If you think Texas Republicans wanted Cruz to get out of the way of the Obama Doctrine and allow for unopposed passage, you haven't been paying attention to your home state for quite some time. I'm not a Ted Cruz supporter, but to say that Senator Cruz has not represented the people who sent him to Washington up to this point is to ignore both the will of those people and the performance by Senator Cruz in his first term. As we have found out with the rise of Trump, be careful about what you choose to ignore.
1
Maybe "master dealmaker" Trump could entice Mexico to build the wall if he sweeten's the deal with Texas. Say what you will about the state, it would definitely make a great buffer zone, and they'd finally be rid of pesky Washington and its rules and regulations.
2
As a lifelong antiwar activist, here’s a curiosity that troubles me:
Lyndon Johnson, a macho Texan, started the Vietnam War (effectively with a great escalation).
GW Bush, a macho Texan, started the Iraq War.
These wars were the most morally & constitutionally questionable wars America has fought in decades. They were both started on questionable pretexts (to say the least), were unnecessary, and had catastrophic and counterproductive results.
Ted Cruz, a macho Texan, says he will carpet bomb the Middle East if elected president.
If it wasn’t for Ron Paul, for whom I have some respect, I’d be a Texophobe!
Lyndon Johnson, a macho Texan, started the Vietnam War (effectively with a great escalation).
GW Bush, a macho Texan, started the Iraq War.
These wars were the most morally & constitutionally questionable wars America has fought in decades. They were both started on questionable pretexts (to say the least), were unnecessary, and had catastrophic and counterproductive results.
Ted Cruz, a macho Texan, says he will carpet bomb the Middle East if elected president.
If it wasn’t for Ron Paul, for whom I have some respect, I’d be a Texophobe!
3
This article reminds me of a visit I made to the USSR in the 1980s. The place was falling apart, and I remember sitting on their magnificent Metro and feeling sad that such a beautiful dream, a workers' paradise, had to end up with a grotesque oligarchy and a dysfunctional society.
4
I would love to see Texas secede but once all the ugly ramifications begin manifesting, it will end up as an even bigger narco-state than Mexico (location, location, location!). President Trump better hold off on his wall until he's sure of the most effective place to build it.
4
The Texas haters are obvious in this comments section, and such jealousness is predictable. Texas is a great state, in spite of the nuances this lady is portraying, and there is such a thing as Texas grit and independence. Those students in the rest of the country are forced to learn from US gov’t approved pc textbooks, with the usual left slant on how bad America is, but not Texas. Just like Texas has its own power grid, it was its own country for ten years before it ran out of money and decided to take the offer to join the US federation – with the caveat that at any time, for whatever reason, it has the right to secede. Unlike the promises made to the 13 colonies that they could secede if they chose, later backstabbed by Lincoln, Texans knew better than to trust the US Federal system. Texans are peculiar to the rest of the country, as few in other states have the pride of being part of a great state anymore. CA and NY once had that pride, but since big government took pride out of the middle class, constantly trying to make potential voters permanent supplicants to federal money, few states are standing tall these days. The current mindlessness and pc religion of the millennials will not change anything as this post implies, but create an even more clueless electorate.
3
Put down your crack pipe. I've lived in TX for longer than I wanted to, and it is full of some wonderful people. But it's also got more under-educated people who have absolutely zero Critical Thinking Skills. "Wilful ignorance" runs rampant in TX. You've read too many old cowboy comics as a child.
6
As a former Houstonian, I can honestly say the oil crash is a good thing: it gets people panicked enough in oil and gas (upon which every other industry depends, really, especially culture and education, since all funding is essentially privatized), to think about state income taxes. If Texas eventually taxes its citizens, it might come down to earth, re-join the union, and create the expansion of social services that the state and its people and animals (cruelty prevention, people!) so desperately need.
2
I lived in the south for 36 of the first 39 years of my life in the South, 28 of them in Houston, Texas. When I moved to Denver in November of 1997, I was a staunch Nixon/Regan Republican, proudly telling everyone how I felt and how I not only wrote 4 term papers on Nixon in college, but I also interviewed G. Gordon Liddy for one of the papers!
I dated a social worker for 3 years and, without confronting me, showed my the other side of the coin. I began to see how the far right has harmed our nation and, in 2004, I voted straight Democratic for the first time and have been doing at all elections since.
When I see the antics of Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, and Greg Abbott, I am embarrassed to admit I am from Texas. I am sick and tired of calling Texas friends and promptly having them change the topic to their disgust with Obama and how he is a Muslim.
I give up on the south.
I dated a social worker for 3 years and, without confronting me, showed my the other side of the coin. I began to see how the far right has harmed our nation and, in 2004, I voted straight Democratic for the first time and have been doing at all elections since.
When I see the antics of Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, and Greg Abbott, I am embarrassed to admit I am from Texas. I am sick and tired of calling Texas friends and promptly having them change the topic to their disgust with Obama and how he is a Muslim.
I give up on the south.
28
I am surprised by the amount of hate heaped upon Texas and Texans.
I am Texan. I am Mexican-American, born and raised in Texas. My great-great grandparents were here before Tejas was Texas. For generations my family has suffered the indignation of racism and Jim Crow laws that treated all minorities as second-class citizens. Texas doesn't need to be its own country, that would isolate us more.
What the under-represented minorities in Texas need is to be fairly represented in state and federal government, to be given a voice to speak and be heard, and to be treated with respect by all, including by those who don't live here.
I am Texan. I am Mexican-American, born and raised in Texas. My great-great grandparents were here before Tejas was Texas. For generations my family has suffered the indignation of racism and Jim Crow laws that treated all minorities as second-class citizens. Texas doesn't need to be its own country, that would isolate us more.
What the under-represented minorities in Texas need is to be fairly represented in state and federal government, to be given a voice to speak and be heard, and to be treated with respect by all, including by those who don't live here.
8
It is misguided to suggest Texas Republicans are not relevant. Just look at their congressional delegation. On the Senate side Cornyn is #2 in the majority party. The house side is even more dominant as Texans are chairman of the Way & Means, Science, Space & Technology, Rules, Homeland Security, Financial Services, Armed Services and Agriculture Committees. No other state has this level of congressional influence. Love or hate their policies and politics Texas Republicans are far from irrelevant.
5
Yes, Jeff. And just look at the incredible amount of money these right- wing conservative Republican senators and house representatives funnel into Texas, all the while preaching loudly of extreme, strict limits of spending.
5
Those dweebs are "appointed" by fellow Republicans in their "private club" in DC. They didn't get there because they are smart, fair, kind, good, thoughtful.
2
I love when people talk about the Democratic Party's "shift to the left" over the past 10 years. I am an honest-to-goodness left-winger (an anarcho-syndicalist/democratic socialist who has had his little red Wobbly card for 50 years). I am fourth-generation non-communist left and include people like I. F. Stone in the family. I have watched the Democratic party, once home to FDR, JFK, LBJ (okay, if you ignore his tragic Vietnam mistake) shifting to the Right ever since the Clintons decided that, if they threw working people and trade unions under the bus in order to cater to multinational corporate, obscenely wealthy, and Wall Street mogul donors.
The Dems (particularly the DLC and the Blue Dogs) have moved ever more rightward in an attempt to pick off the disenfranchised "moderate" Rockefeller Republicans as the GOP has shifted so far to the right that they are in the process of falling off the right edge of their flat earth. The Dems, including Obama and the Clintons, have marginalized the liberals, progressives, and leftists in the party while courting the mythical "undecideds" in the center, relying on the traditional Democratic base to vote for them solely out of fear of the GOP. Now that she is starting to feel she doesn't have to defend her left flank from Bernie, Hillary is doing the patented Clinton shuffle to the right. She has even had her campaign people approaching big donors to the three Bushes to seek out even more conservative money.
The Dems (particularly the DLC and the Blue Dogs) have moved ever more rightward in an attempt to pick off the disenfranchised "moderate" Rockefeller Republicans as the GOP has shifted so far to the right that they are in the process of falling off the right edge of their flat earth. The Dems, including Obama and the Clintons, have marginalized the liberals, progressives, and leftists in the party while courting the mythical "undecideds" in the center, relying on the traditional Democratic base to vote for them solely out of fear of the GOP. Now that she is starting to feel she doesn't have to defend her left flank from Bernie, Hillary is doing the patented Clinton shuffle to the right. She has even had her campaign people approaching big donors to the three Bushes to seek out even more conservative money.
10
If you had written this five or ten years ago I would have agreed ("The Republicans and Democrats are one political party with two right wings . . ." - Gore Vidal). You seem oblivious to the tectonic political shifts that have been going on since the mid-2000s. They are caused largely by cultural shifts. Bernie Sanders did not turn millions of people, particularly young ones, into left-leaning progressives. Their movement facilitated his emergence, and their values and opinions had been forming for a number of years before that. I don't think you recognize the country you live in, and you certainly don't recognize the one you will be living in after a few more election cycles.
2
The problem with Republicans and conservatives is that they are too focused on social engineering. As Ms. Swartz points out, there are many Texans who are global leaders in industry and academics, but some of their professionals achievements are overshadowed by their intense desire to sway political and social attitudes. Rather than being tolerant, they insist on wasting time on regulating bathroom usage and women's contraception. The rest of us see serious work that needs to be done on infrastructure, education and economic development. They are focused on symbolic issues, hanging on to a era that never really existed.
61
Before I stopped drinking, I drank bottles of Texas red mainly because the wine is cheap. However, in terms of kabuki politics, the one aspect of Texas people on the east coast seem to miss is perhaps the most important advantage, if it can be called that, Texas provides to the commercial sector: it is far away from responsible and responsive centers of political power, the fly-by-night business people flock here because even the judiciary has been bent to give all the advantages to even the most crooked players imaginable. The poor need not apply. What cannot be done elsewhere can be done for a song and dance in Texas. All the fake prattle about "values" is nothing but pretense. Most people in large urban areas tend to think liberal, but the onslaught of "official" Texas in the media is a conservative force-feed 24/7. I live here. I know this. I have seen the corruption first-hand, and no, the federal government does nothing about the persistent problem. I live on a limited income, but Texas has allowed landlords and property owners to shift the burden of expensive electricity bills onto the wages of poverty in order to save wealthy people money.
Where is the Democratic Party on this? Where is Hillary? Of course. At a high-dollar fundraiser. The poor need not apply.
Where is the Democratic Party on this? Where is Hillary? Of course. At a high-dollar fundraiser. The poor need not apply.
9
So, you want to be a swing state like Florida? Take our governor, Rick Scott, please! Despite the fact that he ripped Medicare off for millions he has managed to get elected twice. And even the Republican legislature can't stand him.
8
Again with the "decades-long shift to the left"! Where was I when this fabled event occurred? I've been following politics for decades, even Texas politics, and all I've seen is as Ms Schwartz describes "ever-more right-wing activists". Which is it? Is it both? Is it none? All I know is Republicans from yesterday couldn't get elected there today. If the Democrats are so danged 'shifty', how is it that there are so many of them, just shoved into fewer, larger, districts, and posting up absolute majorities that get nullified by electoral and political shenanigans? And if 'left' means giving due concern for the community as well as the individual, then here's hoping it continues.
9
Where was the shift? You must be kidding. Once the party of the middle class working families. Now abortion is celebrated as is gay marriage, transgender rights, vicious anti coal, oil, natural gas, NAFTA is claimed as an accomplishment though millions lost their jobs, religious belief is belittled to the point that the last convention openly booed a motion to keep God referenced in their platform, and I could go on but if you don't get the point by now you never will.
I would imagine it is a similar atmosphere in any state that has been under one-party rule for so long. Look at Illinois for example. (And if you think the Governor actually runs Illinois, you are sadly misinformed.)
2
Actually, Texas hasn't really been "one-party" since after the 2000 election
We are seeing the high water mark for Texas Republicans right now. From here on, the tide is going out. It might be slow, it might get ugly, and god help us, session is coming!! But this is the peak.
1
I sure hope so. It's high time they were tossed out.
All the talk about hoping Texas secedes is a joke. They tried that already and the Federals were down there fast enough.
Texas produces over a third of US oil. It produces 30% of natural gas. 28% of refining capacity. Significant portion of chemical production. But you all don’t need that. You have solar and wind mills. By the way, Texas has 21% percent of US installed wind power. That’s almost double of CA, MA, and NY combined. I thought NY was worried about Global Warming?
Energy makes the world go around. Texas has it. How about you NY?
Texas produces over a third of US oil. It produces 30% of natural gas. 28% of refining capacity. Significant portion of chemical production. But you all don’t need that. You have solar and wind mills. By the way, Texas has 21% percent of US installed wind power. That’s almost double of CA, MA, and NY combined. I thought NY was worried about Global Warming?
Energy makes the world go around. Texas has it. How about you NY?
4
Well the point, Michael, if you can hear anything over your boosterism, is that Texas does indeed have quite a bit of importance in the world. The politics and absurd ego problems exhibited by its representatives and, by default, its population are outdated, tiresome, and, frankly, ugly.
So yeah, people will continue to buy "energy" products from firms in Texas, and chemicals made there as well. People are not likely to go on giving Texas "culture" a pass, because, you know, people grow up.
So yeah, people will continue to buy "energy" products from firms in Texas, and chemicals made there as well. People are not likely to go on giving Texas "culture" a pass, because, you know, people grow up.
5
When I get discouraged hearing the news out of Texas, I always think of Ann Richards. To me, she was what Texas can be - whip smart, funny, bold, sassy, and brave but always with a twinkle in her eye. Her daughter has a lot of her qualities, keeping Planned Parenthood going through all the muckraking and budget cuts.
The country still has a lot of good people out there. The problem is making running for office appealing again. Social media can too easily taint a good person discouraging them from entering politics. We the people have to take back our minds from cyberspace.
The country still has a lot of good people out there. The problem is making running for office appealing again. Social media can too easily taint a good person discouraging them from entering politics. We the people have to take back our minds from cyberspace.
9
Nice, funny article, but the author seems to peddle in the same Texas weirdness she critiques --
Here is info that Ms. Swartz and every Texan needs to know -- The rest of the people of the United States do not see Texas as 'thing.'
Ms. Swartz, at the end of her screed, takes as given (noting 'haters' on 'borders') that the mere state lines of Texas enclose something special.
The rest of the country is not bemused (or concerned) by Texas.
They are bemused by those who continue to bizarrely refer to Texas as if it were something more than a mere component state of the United States (and not, as Texas tourism ads suggest, a 'whole 'nother country.')
Here is info that Ms. Swartz and every Texan needs to know -- The rest of the people of the United States do not see Texas as 'thing.'
Ms. Swartz, at the end of her screed, takes as given (noting 'haters' on 'borders') that the mere state lines of Texas enclose something special.
The rest of the country is not bemused (or concerned) by Texas.
They are bemused by those who continue to bizarrely refer to Texas as if it were something more than a mere component state of the United States (and not, as Texas tourism ads suggest, a 'whole 'nother country.')
2
Many commentators disparage Texas schools, but according to the Texas public school students outscore the rest of the country in science and math but not in reading comprehension. Leading two categories out of three isn’t bad.
http://www.oaoa.com/news/education/ecisd/article_a4bf92a8-7c87-11e2-88d9...
http://www.oaoa.com/news/education/ecisd/article_a4bf92a8-7c87-11e2-88d9...
1
The naïveté of this following statement referring to how TX has become so completely Republican in this article is disappointing to say the least: "How did we get here? The reasons are varied. The national Democratic Party’s decades-long shift to the left contributed to the end of 100 years of Democratic dominance.”
Has the author no sense of history, or has she purposely ignored race and its legacy? Had the author even read any of the national political articles in the last several years in this very paper, the answer should be blatantly clear. To reference a Texas politicians own words that may somehow resonate more with this writer; LBJ himself after signing the landmark civil rights bill of 1964 stated, "I just signed the South away for a generation.” Perhaps the shift from the solid democratic south took longer to occur than LBJ anticipated, but to sum up; sure enough the "solid south" has now become the "solid republican south.” And this “solid republican south” encompasses the entire south, not just LBJ’s home state, but Jimmy Carters and Bill Clinton’s too. However, It shouldn't be necessary to reiterate such basic history in a NYT's article.
Has the author no sense of history, or has she purposely ignored race and its legacy? Had the author even read any of the national political articles in the last several years in this very paper, the answer should be blatantly clear. To reference a Texas politicians own words that may somehow resonate more with this writer; LBJ himself after signing the landmark civil rights bill of 1964 stated, "I just signed the South away for a generation.” Perhaps the shift from the solid democratic south took longer to occur than LBJ anticipated, but to sum up; sure enough the "solid south" has now become the "solid republican south.” And this “solid republican south” encompasses the entire south, not just LBJ’s home state, but Jimmy Carters and Bill Clinton’s too. However, It shouldn't be necessary to reiterate such basic history in a NYT's article.
1
"curtailing poor women’s access to birth control while refusing to take a cent in Medicaid expansion"
What you consider to be examples of "backwardness" I would consider positive responses to the growing epidemic of Government sponsored freebies. Poor women should be fixated on education and career growth and less on doing the horizontal mambo in order to have more kids so they increase their Government entitlements.
And as far as Medicaid, instead of busting their state budget with an ever increasing cost Texas rightly puts the responsibility of the individual to get health coverage.
As far as I am concerned Texas shows the way in terms of how society should be run with its emphasis on having makers as residents. Takers can always vamoose to states like NY which welcomes such laggards and deadbeats while making taxpayers pay for it all.
What you consider to be examples of "backwardness" I would consider positive responses to the growing epidemic of Government sponsored freebies. Poor women should be fixated on education and career growth and less on doing the horizontal mambo in order to have more kids so they increase their Government entitlements.
And as far as Medicaid, instead of busting their state budget with an ever increasing cost Texas rightly puts the responsibility of the individual to get health coverage.
As far as I am concerned Texas shows the way in terms of how society should be run with its emphasis on having makers as residents. Takers can always vamoose to states like NY which welcomes such laggards and deadbeats while making taxpayers pay for it all.
1
I see a lot commentators discussing Texas' so-called desire to secede but the only people raising the issue are you non-Texans and a very small minority of our moronic elected leaders. A vast majority of Texans have no want or desire to secede.
1
If you truly don't like the state you live in... my suggestion is to move. Try the People's Republic of California. Yes, we have higher taxes than Texas, but we also have a budget surplus, great produce, the eighth largest economy in the world, great weather and natural sites, beaches, skiing, and soon, a bullet train. Let Texas sink back into the 19th century. I hope they make good on their constant threat to secede. They are a "taker" state -- they pay far less in federal taxes than they receive in federal money. As a country, we'd be better off without them.
7
I, too, would like to see a Texas secession. I'm anxious to see with whom they would become allied. Probably need someone with an Army for defense, or maybe their home grown militias would suffice. Louisiana and Mississippi share some similar philosophies regarding education and health care. They might be able to assist Texas. Oh, wait, they are pretty much at the bottom in both of those areas. Really would just love to see it happen though...
2
Phil Gramm, Tom Delay, and Dick Armey. What a crew! I'd take one Louie Gohmert over that bunch squared. Yeah, that trio got things done--the wrong things. Louis is so demonstrably stupid, nobody takes him seriously enough to let him write any law of greater import than to name the highway running through Pigknuckle.
3
Texas belongs to Mexico, anyway. Maybe, we make Fox the provisional governor as Mexico integrates the unruly back into the fold.
If you live in Texas you must subscribe to Texas Monthly just for Mimi Swartz! Her take on her state in her column today is rather surprising but welcome. Texans don't like to be irrelevant. Austin appears to be the only bright spot, in spite of being the Texas capitol where its Republican politicians must convene but with the University of Texas' main campus and its Silicon Valley business trappings, it feels like a very blue city. That would make it an oasis in a cultural and political desert.
7
When they threaten to secede, I say "please, please do so immediately." What I wonder is why the west coast states don't make similar threats/plans. CA, WA and OR could assemble themselves into a self-sufficient, politically-sane, independent republic with an economy among the top ten in the world. And the drain on our tax proceeds and ethical values from the likes of Texas would cease to be an issue.
3
Texas may be fertile ground for Democrats in 2032, but not today. In 2008, a good year for the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama lost Texas by 11.77 percent. In 2012, the margin was 15.78 percent. In both elections, Georgia with its 16 electoral votes, Arizona with its 11 electoral votes, and Missouri with its 10 electoral votes were more attainable than Texas with its 38 electoral votes, while North Carolina with its 15 electoral votes swung from the Democratic to the Republican column.
Should changing demographics make certain states less reliably Republican, we will see that in places long before Texas changes from Red to Blue. And should North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona, replace Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as the swing states to watch on election night, it will be along time before Republicans win the presidency.
Should changing demographics make certain states less reliably Republican, we will see that in places long before Texas changes from Red to Blue. And should North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona, replace Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as the swing states to watch on election night, it will be along time before Republicans win the presidency.
4
That's been my prediction as well. Barring some calamity, the GOP has written itself out of any national electoral contests, setting the stage for years of grinding hand-to-hand political combat, pitting the federals against the local rabble-rousers. But that's what you get when your politics stops being about something, and starts being just an exercise in tribalistic fundraising. "Give us money because we're not Democrats". If your 'ideas' are just warmed-over soulless Ayn Rand-isms, its going to be a long twilight into the 21st century.
2
Outlaws, horse thieves, cacti--scarce rainfall in about half the state resulted in a perverse sense of pride over being here, at all. Until oil, tough going for many who were on the other side of Highway 287 where cotton was king. Education was of such relatively little value that so-called worthless land was given to The University of Texas which resulted, again after oil discovered, in UT's endowment at one point surpassing that of Harvard. Never had the kind of belief in education found in other, older states w/o natural resources. The ethos of the place still steeped in mythology of the cowboy, oil well, individualism, nativism due to the border w/Mexico. Now the state is about half Hispanic. The Anglos are fearful: of drought, the Ogalala going dry, maruding Mexicans and terrorists, Yankees and their socialist ideas, although aggie coops have been around as long as farming in the state. Union soldiers who were killed by the Texans who were Confederates have a special small cemetery in Comfort---there's a special perverse longing for the past. Yes, the techies have arrived, but they are seemingly in virtual reality, donating as Michael Dell does for hospitals and many other civic ventures, but their presence in the political arena doesn't match donations. There is a vacuum and more reasonable folk need to stand up and be counted. Government by the GOP has rendered the state to a new low in many areas.
3
I used to be proud to say I was from Texas, now I'm embarrassed. Texas is a beautiful state, and Texas Republicans are fighting to pollute it, pave it, and keep Texans in poverty and uneducated. I don't know if I want my kids to grow up here.
9
Texas GOP Creed -
Remember the Alamo
Forget the Community
I got mine, don't take mine
Go get yours!
In sum, Texas will have politicians that care about them, when the Texan population starts caring about each other. Until then - rugged individualism rules. It's not your politicians' fault.
Remember the Alamo
Forget the Community
I got mine, don't take mine
Go get yours!
In sum, Texas will have politicians that care about them, when the Texan population starts caring about each other. Until then - rugged individualism rules. It's not your politicians' fault.
3
I was stationed in Texas in the 70s. It was great. Maybe someone will come along who will make Texas great again.
3
Stop electing crazy people with big mouths.
says the person who comes from the state where the GOP governor tried to poison an entire city...
says the person who comes from the state where the GOP governor tried to poison an entire city...
8
Good article, but the same political irrelevance is true for most states except the swing states. Texas is not unique. Now, when it comes to governmental dysfunction under one-party control, the identity of the party does seems to matter. Just look at the opposite case of California. All else being equal at a personal level, where would most people rather live, Texas or California?
4
Somebody help us !!!!!!
Please.
The stupidity coming out of Austin and the people who represent us is unrelenting.... and they are soon going to hold a legislative session.
Oh My!
I starting watching Austin when there were about 3 Republican state representatives and witnessed the long term attack by their national party to grab Texas and make it redder than blood.
Can't the Democratics initiate another long term assault to return Texas to blue ...or least neutral?
How about educating the illiterate voters at the community levels and make them understand what has been taken away from them only for the sake of keeping stingy Republicans holding onto their money ... those with money don't want to invest in society's future.
Our roads and the future of education is at stake.
Please help now...these guys are too much and I'm losing my son since he has had enough of bad politics and is moving out of the state.
Please.
The stupidity coming out of Austin and the people who represent us is unrelenting.... and they are soon going to hold a legislative session.
Oh My!
I starting watching Austin when there were about 3 Republican state representatives and witnessed the long term attack by their national party to grab Texas and make it redder than blood.
Can't the Democratics initiate another long term assault to return Texas to blue ...or least neutral?
How about educating the illiterate voters at the community levels and make them understand what has been taken away from them only for the sake of keeping stingy Republicans holding onto their money ... those with money don't want to invest in society's future.
Our roads and the future of education is at stake.
Please help now...these guys are too much and I'm losing my son since he has had enough of bad politics and is moving out of the state.
4
Reading the comments one couldn't guess that working Americans continue to move to Texas and away from New York in record numbers!
5
Well, it's true that lots of people are moving to Texas. 3 million Latinos, more or less, since 2000. Which bodes well (or ill, depending on your perspective) for the blue future of the state....
https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/18/minorities-drove-texas-growth-ce...
However, New York is not losing people overall. It's had a net population gain of more than a million since 2000. All you have to do is look it up at Census.gov.
https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/18/minorities-drove-texas-growth-ce...
However, New York is not losing people overall. It's had a net population gain of more than a million since 2000. All you have to do is look it up at Census.gov.
2
The Texas electoral college votes should only count if they are for Hillary.
3
Texans like to ballyhoo their "exceptionalism." Well, Texan IS exceptional, and in a very good way. Of course, in order to enjoy the good kind of exceptionalism you need to be white (preferably male), older, rich, employed in the awl bidnis or tech industry, conservative Christian, have access to Cadillac-level medical care (including abortion when needed),send your kids to private schools and be red-meat Republican. As you might expect, only a small percentage of Texans fit this description.
On the other hand, if you're poor, have no health insurance, pregnant, work in the service industry, struggle to find good schools for your kids and wear the mandatory yellow donkey sewn onto the front of your shirt, you feel a completely different kind of exceptionalism.
So, yes, Texas is exceptional, for all its citizens.
On the other hand, if you're poor, have no health insurance, pregnant, work in the service industry, struggle to find good schools for your kids and wear the mandatory yellow donkey sewn onto the front of your shirt, you feel a completely different kind of exceptionalism.
So, yes, Texas is exceptional, for all its citizens.
4
I am nearly all the things you describe but I am more progressive than Bernie Sanders. That's what you find in Texas also.
2
Texas appears to have reached their zenith in fame worldwide. Norwegian idiom for crazy is now known as going "Texas".
4
Texas, like the rest of the south is lost to the Democrats for a long time. It appears the Texas gerrymander will forestall any natural evolution of the electorate. Maybe it will be Georgia to evolve purple first. It appears NC is backsliding.
The best thing a democrat is to keep his/her head down and avoid talk of politics altogether. The republicans in the south are too crazy and too much in the ascendancy right now to brook any dissent. The ignorance is stupefying!
The best thing a democrat is to keep his/her head down and avoid talk of politics altogether. The republicans in the south are too crazy and too much in the ascendancy right now to brook any dissent. The ignorance is stupefying!
4
"Governor “Oops” must believe his fellow Republicans are as memory-impaired as he is." Republicans are not the only memory-impaired voters. All media seems to forget that Trump was one of the prime movers of the birther movement. One of the stupidest things that our right-wing geniuses bought hook, line and sinker. Trump ought to show just how dumb the American electorate is. Make Sarah Palin his running mate. I bet he'd still win.
This is interesting. Texas politics is way out there, but I like that place in a lot of ways. I lived in New Mexico for five years and spent a lot of time at conferences and meetings in San Antonio, Austin, Houston, San Marco, and Dallas. I fell in love with the lunar landscape of West Texas the first time I drove through it, and I love the north-Mexico flavor of parts of the state. Hill country west of Austin is enchanting. Tex-Mex food can be great and atomic-hot Texas chili is FABULOUS.
I have just talked myself into a vacation out there.
I have just talked myself into a vacation out there.
1
Julian Castro (HUD, ex-San Antonio mayor) is going to be the democratic VP pick. Texas is a majority minority state and democrats plan to fight and win back Texas if not in the coming election then the next and if not then, then Mr. Castro can run for President after 8 years as VP and I just must say it, ”Don’t Mess with Texas.”
3
Combine Texas's lack of access to women's healthcare/family planning services, and the Zika virus which from yesterday's news will likely take hold in Texas, you are likely to see a wave of future severely handicapped Texan children. Will see how the Republicans come to their rescue. Why bother preventing future suffering, leave it to God's will and Texans' prayers.
6
Mimi, many of us share your frustration, but the HUGE population of low-information voters in our beloved state does not show any sign of diminishing anytime soon. Now that we replaced a mentally handicapped governor (Perry) with a physically handicapped one (Abbott) we are stuck.
I wish that you, and other journalists, would press Abbott at his next press conference to release the report on Jade Helm. (What did the Texas Guard discover when he ordered them to "monitor" the U.S. Army?) More pressure on our Texas leadership to follow up on their nutty proposals might shine a bit of light on just how sorry they are at actually governing. It's like all they want to do is hold press conferences i.e. Jade Helm and trans-bathroom fights. Make them follow up AFTER the announcements. Can you do that for us, please?
Signed, long suffering in Pecos County.
I wish that you, and other journalists, would press Abbott at his next press conference to release the report on Jade Helm. (What did the Texas Guard discover when he ordered them to "monitor" the U.S. Army?) More pressure on our Texas leadership to follow up on their nutty proposals might shine a bit of light on just how sorry they are at actually governing. It's like all they want to do is hold press conferences i.e. Jade Helm and trans-bathroom fights. Make them follow up AFTER the announcements. Can you do that for us, please?
Signed, long suffering in Pecos County.
9
For the first time in years, moving to Kansas is an upgrade.
8
Texas must stop electing pinched nosed radio hosts and wannabe presidents and find a politician who wants to improve things at home: Texas has a lot of poverty and ignorance and hunger and bad schools.
4
Texas has a lot of poverty and ignorance and hunger and bad schools.
=====================
Sounds like Oakland
=====================
Sounds like Oakland
As a Texas expat, I can't help but affirm most of this. The new governor, Abbott, is another chip from the same block, and all major Texas Republicans are really jokes. And the state is suffering for it. The one thing I would correct is that I don't think the Democrats moved left. I think the hold of the Civil War just finally loosened. Democratic policies in 1980 were not so different from 1930 in Texas. It's just that Texas voters, who had always been conservative, but hated the party of Lincoln, finally decided to move to the conservative party. Bill Clements punched through the dike, and then it was inevitable.
4
One of the biggest reasons I left Texas (after living there for five years) was the constant upheavals over whether evolution or creationism should be taught in science classes. (If you're wasting time arguing about that, you're NOT spending the time on improving the system.) Later I found out that a plank in the 2012 Repub platform condemned critical thinking. The general homophobia, xenophobia, and lack of knowledge of the outside world were off the charts, and the fundamentalist piety coupled with ferocious anger towards the poor and minorities were both two-faced and just plain ugly.
I have a daughter. No way did I trust Texas schools to teach her what she needed to know or Texas in general to influence her towards being an admirable, informed, and honest human being. She was the biggest reason I left.
I have a daughter. No way did I trust Texas schools to teach her what she needed to know or Texas in general to influence her towards being an admirable, informed, and honest human being. She was the biggest reason I left.
18
Don't believe the hype. Texas is very liberal. Heck the pot smoking Willie Nelson lives here. The whole Republican thing is all about money. They believe in science yet feign ignorance. The fossil fuel industry is powerful and global warming threatens their profits. Be patient. Eventually Hispanics will rise up and take over. As a culture they take care of each other. Hispanics are not into the divide and conquer methodology used by Republicans. They are other regarding.
7
Let's hope that Texas' monopoly on willfully ignorant politicians inspires the state to secede. Then Donald Trump can build a wall there too so illegal Texan immigrants can't get into the real United States.
3
I've lived in Austin for more than 25 years and have seen the same degeneration of political culture in Texas that Mimi describes so well. It has a parallel in the public education offered by the state, just recently declared by the Texas Supreme Court, no liberals they, as barely meeting Texas constitutional muster. Governor Abbott called their decision a “victory for Texas taxpayers and the Texas Constitution." It is only a victory for those who have no interest in an educated citizenry. When voters spend more time thinking about hunting and football than they do about education, health, and justice, they won't bother with evaluating politicians - all they need to know is which one is the most "conservative" and who dangles that carrot in front of them. Truly intelligent politicians with no scruples play that game like experts. They ride us hard, put us up wet, and for the most part, we don't know better. Those who do still presume the most hell-bound soul shouting he is a conservative is better than every saint who fails that litmus test. The average Texan thinks there's no better place to be, and it had that potential once and could again. I'm tempted to say Texas deserves its plight, but that's blaming the victim. I'm not giving up on the people of Texas - they are good-hearted and courageous. They just need to drop their sanctimonious belief that greatness is inherited instead of created, pay more attention, and get to work.
104
Too true.
Personally, I can't abide that "know-nothing-&-proud-to-be-an-ignoramus" swagger.
Personally, I can't abide that "know-nothing-&-proud-to-be-an-ignoramus" swagger.
5
Aaaaaaabbot ... is such a sad joke.
3
When can we expect the happy tidings of secession? Where can I sign up to work for that campaign? With friends like these, America doesn't need enemies.
I was a professor at University of Texas at San Antonio for five years. Among my fondest memories:
(1) The state treasurer was Jesse James; upon his death, it was discovered that Jesse had been storing millions of state dollars in non-interest bearing checking accounts at favored banks. Later, thousands of dollars were found in shoe boxes in his home. No one seemed to give it a second thought.
(2) When Jesse died, he was replaced by Grover Cleveland III.
(3) Texas US Representative Young, of Corpus Christi was rumored to be keeping young female assistants on his staff and paying them twice the going rate for such aides in return for their sexual favors. When asked about this by reporters, he responded: "There is absolutely no truth to these allegations and I categorically deny them--and even if they were true, I would still categorically deny them."
(4) The head of my division called me, the then Chairman of the Undergraduate Humanities Program at UTSA, into a meeting with him, another humanities professor, and a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents. The Regent wore a huge ring, with a huge diamond set in a saddle mounting. He wanted our program to provide him with independent studies courses so he could get a BA in Humanities. We declined to meet his request.
(1) The state treasurer was Jesse James; upon his death, it was discovered that Jesse had been storing millions of state dollars in non-interest bearing checking accounts at favored banks. Later, thousands of dollars were found in shoe boxes in his home. No one seemed to give it a second thought.
(2) When Jesse died, he was replaced by Grover Cleveland III.
(3) Texas US Representative Young, of Corpus Christi was rumored to be keeping young female assistants on his staff and paying them twice the going rate for such aides in return for their sexual favors. When asked about this by reporters, he responded: "There is absolutely no truth to these allegations and I categorically deny them--and even if they were true, I would still categorically deny them."
(4) The head of my division called me, the then Chairman of the Undergraduate Humanities Program at UTSA, into a meeting with him, another humanities professor, and a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents. The Regent wore a huge ring, with a huge diamond set in a saddle mounting. He wanted our program to provide him with independent studies courses so he could get a BA in Humanities. We declined to meet his request.
4
I don't get it. If Texas is irrelevant, why is it the subject of a NYT Editorial?
Of course Texas is relevant. Texas has a lot more electoral votes than New York, when the reverse was true not long ago.
Texas is a showcase laboratory for conservative ideas. It showed us that you can have lots and lots of people with concealed carry permits, and so called assault weapons without any increase in homicide rates or shooting. It showed us that with right-to-work laws and low minimum wage lots of companies are relocating there - e.g. Ford's massive F-150 assembly plant that used to be in Michigan.
But most importantly, Texas showed us that it could grow, attract more residents (vs. NY and MI seeing people flee), despite what the clowns do in Washington.
Of course Texas is relevant. Texas has a lot more electoral votes than New York, when the reverse was true not long ago.
Texas is a showcase laboratory for conservative ideas. It showed us that you can have lots and lots of people with concealed carry permits, and so called assault weapons without any increase in homicide rates or shooting. It showed us that with right-to-work laws and low minimum wage lots of companies are relocating there - e.g. Ford's massive F-150 assembly plant that used to be in Michigan.
But most importantly, Texas showed us that it could grow, attract more residents (vs. NY and MI seeing people flee), despite what the clowns do in Washington.
6
This isn't an editorial. It's an op-ed.
2
It's easy to get. It stems from the fact that the people running the Texas government are masters of the long-con. Put together a few programs that look good in the short-term (right-to-work, or more accurately "right to starve slowly") and use those that to attract those with below-average long-term thinking skills. Then gut the education system so as to produce more of that type. Extra electoral votes is an added bonus.
Then play up essentially irrelevant social wedge issues to divert attention from the real economic ones. And when your policies do produce measurable harm -- and here's where we get to the "shiny toys that go bang" silliness -- massage the statistics, charge the definitions, or just plain forbid real hard research on the subject in order to camouflage the reality.
The secret to any successful long-con or Ponzi scheme is to make it look good to the mark over the short-term. Texas has certainly got that part right. But the truly catastrophic harm comes which the people running the con (Bernie Madoff comes to mind here) begin to believe that that their illusions (or hallucinations) actually has something to do with the production of real wealth in the real world. That's when entire civilizations come down.
Hopefully, in the case of Texas, the damage will be limited to those dumb enough to initiate the process. But I'm not optimistic.
Then play up essentially irrelevant social wedge issues to divert attention from the real economic ones. And when your policies do produce measurable harm -- and here's where we get to the "shiny toys that go bang" silliness -- massage the statistics, charge the definitions, or just plain forbid real hard research on the subject in order to camouflage the reality.
The secret to any successful long-con or Ponzi scheme is to make it look good to the mark over the short-term. Texas has certainly got that part right. But the truly catastrophic harm comes which the people running the con (Bernie Madoff comes to mind here) begin to believe that that their illusions (or hallucinations) actually has something to do with the production of real wealth in the real world. That's when entire civilizations come down.
Hopefully, in the case of Texas, the damage will be limited to those dumb enough to initiate the process. But I'm not optimistic.
2
All of the facts you cite are too difficult for progressives to bear. All they can do is fall back on calling Texas conservatives "icky"
Who else fervently wishes that Molly Ivins were still with us? She could eviscerate Donald Trump in two paragraphs.
9
We need her more than ever.
4
That ole Molly, she was so effective at "eviscerating" the Bush family that members only served two terms in Congress, two terms as governor, two terms as vice president and three terms as president.
Heckuva job, Molly!
Heckuva job, Molly!
Texas will have finally and definitively gone off the rails after they elect Mary Lou Bruner to their State Education Board, a woman who believes that there were dinosaurs on Noah's Ark, but they didn't survive because they were babies (the big ones wouldn't fit) and couldn't procreate.
9
It is purposeful. They know she is intellectually stunted and choose her to finish off the public system. Privatize is the Republican mantra.
7
The nature of our republic makes it easy for a state to stand out as very red or very blue. We are citizens of our state foremost and citizens of the United States second.
1
As your passport comes from the United States of America I'd say you've got that backwards.
1
Mimi,
So, following your logic, California and New York are irrlevant because they have large political majorities. And Moonbeam and Nancy Pelosi are less strudent than Ted Cruz.
Hey, I'm a Texan and I refused to support both Cruz and Perry. That doesn't mean I support your candidates or politics. Or that votes in one state are more relevant than another.
So, following your logic, California and New York are irrlevant because they have large political majorities. And Moonbeam and Nancy Pelosi are less strudent than Ted Cruz.
Hey, I'm a Texan and I refused to support both Cruz and Perry. That doesn't mean I support your candidates or politics. Or that votes in one state are more relevant than another.
1
Texas Democrats can take some comfort from what happened in Alberta, Ted Cuz's home province and the most Texas-like part of Canada. Alberta was ruled and misused for generations by a Conservative Party that most people assumed was in power forever. However, in the last provincial election, the government was taken over by a left-leaning party and the Conservatives were reduced to a small minority. There were many reasons for this: a split of the right-wing vote between corporatists and populists; dissatisfaction with the performance of the establishment party; and a rise in the progressive vote among urban voters, immigrants and millennials.
Know hope. Change can be a long time coming, but when it happens it can arrive suddenly.
Know hope. Change can be a long time coming, but when it happens it can arrive suddenly.
8
You "forgot" to mention that they won only because the conservatives split into two parties. Given her terrible record, if they unit next time, they will lose 2 to 1.
Texas is representative of the greater Republican Party & Conservative movement - right wing hypocrites parsing the Constitution to advance their radical agenda. Otherwise, known as the anti-tax small government crowd....take away their federal money & see what happens. I'd love to see Texas secede from the US - and they can take most of the backward South along for the ride. Good riddance.
3
For a state that has so much going for it, I'm baffled by the scientific ignorance of the leading Texas politicians. The fact they win elected office is even more baffling.
6
I believe it was the Civil Rights Acts and similar legislation that turned Texas red like all the other southern states and not by a leftward shift of the Democrat Party. Unless of course you consider civil rights a leftist issue.
5
Exactly. It really started with Nixon's Southern Strategy, and nailed down by Reagan's 1980 cynical campaign speech in Neshoba County (MS).
2
OK, I've heard it so often it's now just idiotic:
"Don't mess with Texas!"
"We do everything big in Texas!"
"We wear cowboy hats, non-ironically, in Texas!"
"We have good food in Texas!"
"We are strong, despite all the bad people we're afraid of!"
Please, please, please secede. Go away. Be your own country and start a new and sterling example of a right-wing haven. It will become an amalgam for the hatefully dispossessed, an anti-magnet for immigrants hoping to find a caring democracy, and a reason for Jon Stewart to burst triumphantly out of retirement. Please secede. It's the least you could do.
"Don't mess with Texas!"
"We do everything big in Texas!"
"We wear cowboy hats, non-ironically, in Texas!"
"We have good food in Texas!"
"We are strong, despite all the bad people we're afraid of!"
Please, please, please secede. Go away. Be your own country and start a new and sterling example of a right-wing haven. It will become an amalgam for the hatefully dispossessed, an anti-magnet for immigrants hoping to find a caring democracy, and a reason for Jon Stewart to burst triumphantly out of retirement. Please secede. It's the least you could do.
7
In Colorado we have had a decades long allergic reaction to Texans.
Back in the 70's a friend who worked at a major ski resort told of a meeting where all employees were told to stop gobbling at the Texans who had come to ski.
It seemed like Texas money was trying to buy all the good places in Colorado and they weren't even being polite about it.
This year I really hope T rump picks Perry as his running mate; I await the ads showing the republican candidate for vice-president pitching the idea to his state party that Texas should secede from the Union.
On another bit of zaniness from the Texas gop...how does it feel to go up into one of those Houston sky scrappers knowing that in Texas it is against state law for municipalities to enact fire codes?
Just askin'.....
Back in the 70's a friend who worked at a major ski resort told of a meeting where all employees were told to stop gobbling at the Texans who had come to ski.
It seemed like Texas money was trying to buy all the good places in Colorado and they weren't even being polite about it.
This year I really hope T rump picks Perry as his running mate; I await the ads showing the republican candidate for vice-president pitching the idea to his state party that Texas should secede from the Union.
On another bit of zaniness from the Texas gop...how does it feel to go up into one of those Houston sky scrappers knowing that in Texas it is against state law for municipalities to enact fire codes?
Just askin'.....
4
Cynicism, plain old ignorance or, maybe, outright bigotry on the Texas right? If it's any comfort to Ms. Swartz, Texas is hardly alone among the knuckle-dragging states. This is small comfort, however, to the rest of us who have better ways to spend time than to obsess over where people pee.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
www.endthemadnessnow.org
4
Enough of the laughter ... I've lived here for 51 years ... I asked you to quit laughing!
You may not realize how tough it is to be open to new ideas, a social moderate/liberal, someone who does not demonize Obama, someone who supports a solution to healthcare issues, who wants a legal and meaningful path for immigrants to become citizens and assimilated into US culture while sharing their own.
You can't offer new ideas without your friends ostracizing you. One can hear the sound of your name being crossed off the "invite" list. You see the scrunched up face of people who once were moderates but are now right wing extremists.
It's an intellectual prison.
You may not realize how tough it is to be open to new ideas, a social moderate/liberal, someone who does not demonize Obama, someone who supports a solution to healthcare issues, who wants a legal and meaningful path for immigrants to become citizens and assimilated into US culture while sharing their own.
You can't offer new ideas without your friends ostracizing you. One can hear the sound of your name being crossed off the "invite" list. You see the scrunched up face of people who once were moderates but are now right wing extremists.
It's an intellectual prison.
227
More like an intellectual desert with one of the largest jail and prison systems in our country.
3
I truly feel for you. I spent 20 years in Dallas for work and when I left it felt like I was released from prison.
5
With the occasional oasis, still, before they secede, some of us would like to leave.
1
Many good points in this piece. For a state that gave us so many good politicians, like LBJ and the others cited, Texas has surely gotten stupider, Rick Perry and John Cornyn being glaring examples. Wake up, y'all.
3
When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act into the law of the land, Texas turned Red.
1
I am glad that reps hate PC talk - so this is for them
these sister dating, illiterate, trogs can pick themselves up and go.
The nation owns TX just as it did the south. Texans hate the nation there are 185 more to choose from - go
we can use most of Tx for the only thing its good for - a toxic waste dump
these sister dating, illiterate, trogs can pick themselves up and go.
The nation owns TX just as it did the south. Texans hate the nation there are 185 more to choose from - go
we can use most of Tx for the only thing its good for - a toxic waste dump
1
What if we hadn't let Texas join the U.S.?
2
I was intrigued to receive a solicitation yesterday including a clip of Rep. Lamar Smith putting into the Congressional record that Fox News is the most reliable news source in the land. Along with his attempt to set aside the weather record in favor of biased sources (even his preferred authorities admitted they were wrong) and demanding every email over many years from all the scientists concerned with a publication in Science which a "whistleblower" said was "rushed" (actually, publication in such a journal is never rushed) and insisting that our climate and weather have been politicized. The earth itself is a conspirator, he insists. Republicans have the one true word, and reality doesn't matter.
There you have it. He has an opponent:
http://www.wakely2016.com/
There you have it. He has an opponent:
http://www.wakely2016.com/
6
It's really odd how people stereotype (and hate) entire states, like so many commenters wishing that Texas secede from the U.S. There are more liberals in Texas than in most blue states. Clinton and Sanders received a combined 1.4 million votes in the March Texas primary.
86
This will matter when Texas has a chance of going blue in the general, and when it starts electing the occasional non-nut-job to Congress. Until Texas stops peeing on the rest of us by e.g. sending people Ted Cruz and John Cornyn to haunt us, stops voting to bloody secede, and stops making such a show of being such a collection of backward-looking, angry, regressive twits, the stereotype will stand.
6
And yet the state still elected Abbott, Patrick and Paxton to lead.
Gee, that makes the total number of liberals in Texas equal to... well... Rhode Island maybe? 1.4 million votes is NOTHING. It is literally less than 1/3 of 1% of this country.
All I'm getting from this is, 'I wish Texas was Democrat but it isn't, and that stinks. Also, Republicans are a bunch of idiots.' What would be interesting is to have a Texas Republican - however stupid he may be - defend his position in the Times, but I lost hope for hearing the other side of the story a long time ago.
2
There is no reasoned defense for the other side of the story, dman...
2
Wait! Ted Cruz had an Op-ed piece in the NYT just the other day. It was terrible and full of his typical fear mongering, but still...
5
There’s no denying low Latino turnout and gerrymandering as factors in Texas redness; in fact, during the last decade the Texas legislature redistricted not once but twice the better to gerrymander. But another factor is that Texas Republicans attracted more Latinos than elsewhere. Rick Perry, in one of his rare profiles in courage (or was it another oops?), said that people who want to deny Dreamers an education “have no heart.” George Bush the Lesser ran 20 points stronger here with Latinos than in California, where Prop. 187 turned a swing state solid blue with the help of Latinos. Perhaps Trump will provoke a similar transformation. GOP gerrymandering was also facilitated by the fact that census year 2010 was an off-year election. The 2020 redistricting election will also be a presidential election, when turnout and the lingering Trump turnoff should both help Democrats.
1
If Texas was bulldozed into the Gulf I don't think 99% of Americas would care. A third world swamp of Creationists, secessionists and gun nuts, there would probably be a rejoicing in the land as it sank beneath the waves. (We would probably miss Austin.)
8
As a matter of fact, I wish Texas could change enough for me to walk back my longstanding suggestion that we give Texas back to Mexico and let the Mexicans try to figure out how to bring some sanity to the place. Part 2 of that suggestion was that we also cut loose the southern tier of states and annex Canada, thereby reducing America's crazy quotient and raising its sanity index.
3
And Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho should be re-opened to settlers, but only to those who are card-carrying Social Democrats.
1
I don't know. When Michigan can put someone like Rick Snyder in the governor's office (or Maine someone like Paul LePage) then the insanity seems to be spreading north.
The question becomes one of why we Canadians would be willing to admit even the less-insane of our southern neighbours into our much better governed federal-constitutional monarchy? What could possibly be in it for either Her Majesty, or we her loyal (and universal single-payer health-care system enjoying) subjects?
The question becomes one of why we Canadians would be willing to admit even the less-insane of our southern neighbours into our much better governed federal-constitutional monarchy? What could possibly be in it for either Her Majesty, or we her loyal (and universal single-payer health-care system enjoying) subjects?
2
My wife and I spent election night 2004 in Victoria BC. After a delightful evening, during which we had a great dinner together and pretty much ignored the election results, we woke to the shocking news that the Cheney-Bush regime would be providing us with 4 more years of misrule.
We proceeded to the Canadian Bureau of Immigration, just one block from our hotel and sought asylum, only to learn that we were not desirable immigrants. We are retired and would not be providing Canada with job skills for positions that a Canadian citizen could not fulfill, and further, we are not entrepreneurs who would create jobs for Canadians.
I then played my trump card: "But we are citizens of a former British Crown Colony. Surely that counts for something?" No sale. (Remember, as George Carlin used to ask, when "trump" was a clean?)
We proceeded to the Canadian Bureau of Immigration, just one block from our hotel and sought asylum, only to learn that we were not desirable immigrants. We are retired and would not be providing Canada with job skills for positions that a Canadian citizen could not fulfill, and further, we are not entrepreneurs who would create jobs for Canadians.
I then played my trump card: "But we are citizens of a former British Crown Colony. Surely that counts for something?" No sale. (Remember, as George Carlin used to ask, when "trump" was a clean?)
Texas has nothing on Idaho, the "hate state". Our cuckoos are every bit as crazy as Texas'.
7
TEXAS PURPLE? If so, it's only from strangulation for being hanged by it's Red GOP political dodos. I recall a story, perhaps apocryphal, where the governor asked the physically handicapped in the balcony to stand and be recognized. The Republic of Texas will be mightily impoverished if the governor does not capitulate and expand medicaid in the state, if only for the billions of dollars in "tainted" federal money that will thence be forthcoming. The yellow rose of Texas is being transformed into funerary white lilies and mums. Does the sash adorning the wreath read, RIP GOP? The GOP obstructionism in the TX legislature is trickling down to other states. In PA where I live, it took the legislature 6 months to override Gov. Tom Wolf's budget increasing spending on education and other social programs. I'm not sure whether they also wanted to overrule any taxes on gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale. To quote a former governor, Ed Rendell, It's a trillion dollar business and it's insane that they're not going to tax it. Those are examples of the march toward the goal of Grover Norquist to shrink government til it's small enough to fit into a bathtub and then drown it. It sounds more like a historical Witch Hunt from New England, than TX. And the GOP in TX supports Trump who confuses 7/11 with 9/77 and tweets that Paris is in Germany? The way that TX is headed is painfully obvoius. And it's not up! Ya never know. Maybe TX will do better if Trumped.
Sort of like, the more African Americans (or Hispanics) vote Democratic en bloc, the more they become irrelevant?
Is New York "Blue but Not Relevant?"
What a silly column. Not everybody who doesn't share your sensibility is irrelevant -- maybe to the NYT editorial board, but not to anyone who lives outside that bubble.
Texas is doing just fine. If only New York City were as well managed and financially sound.
Is New York "Blue but Not Relevant?"
What a silly column. Not everybody who doesn't share your sensibility is irrelevant -- maybe to the NYT editorial board, but not to anyone who lives outside that bubble.
Texas is doing just fine. If only New York City were as well managed and financially sound.
3
I have a Palestinian friend who has lived in Texas since he graduated from college. I nearly fell off my chair when he told me he always voted Republican. There must be something in the water.
1
Perhaps more common sense than you realize?
He should vote Democratic. They love to give our jobs away to foreigners.
Texas is its own universe -- like California, or Manhattan for that matter.
Perhaps that fact explains why most Texas Republican politicians simply don't understand just how unpalatable they are outside Texas; just this side of loathed. Loathed. Uncouth barbarians. They couldn't be elected dog catcher outside Texas. This is why Cruz' and Perry's presidential campaigns were little more than vanity publications written in a foreign language. Like most foreign movies, they simply "don't travel".
California might produce another President in my lifetime; New York, too. But the stupefying economic disasters that made Bush-42 so infamous also broke Texas' presidential chalice. Most Texans might not believe it to be so, or that they are blamed by much of the country for the awful catastrophes President Bush left President Obama to clean up. But, they are. Ask Jeb if you don't believe me. Which is why I doubt that that aforementioned "much of the country" will risk another Texan president of any political color (but most certainly not Red) anytime soon, if ever; or even a vice president.
Perhaps that fact explains why most Texas Republican politicians simply don't understand just how unpalatable they are outside Texas; just this side of loathed. Loathed. Uncouth barbarians. They couldn't be elected dog catcher outside Texas. This is why Cruz' and Perry's presidential campaigns were little more than vanity publications written in a foreign language. Like most foreign movies, they simply "don't travel".
California might produce another President in my lifetime; New York, too. But the stupefying economic disasters that made Bush-42 so infamous also broke Texas' presidential chalice. Most Texans might not believe it to be so, or that they are blamed by much of the country for the awful catastrophes President Bush left President Obama to clean up. But, they are. Ask Jeb if you don't believe me. Which is why I doubt that that aforementioned "much of the country" will risk another Texan president of any political color (but most certainly not Red) anytime soon, if ever; or even a vice president.
123
Yes, I know. Bush-41 and -43, no "Bush-42". Typos. Typos.
Jeb is from Florida.
1
Texas, California and Manhattan are there own "universes" as you say BUT ...
Jeb Bush is not a Texan.
There was no "Bush 42". George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st president. His son was the 43rd. Bill Clinton was the 42nd president.
Jeb Bush is not a Texan.
There was no "Bush 42". George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st president. His son was the 43rd. Bill Clinton was the 42nd president.
1
Again NYT editorial board, stop with the hypocrisy and the charade. Quit putting up writers like Ms. Swartz who criticize conservatives seeming to long for a nice moderate center. Ms. Swartz doesn't want Texas to be a "swing state like Florida", she wants it to be a blue state like NY and California and everyone knows it, including the NYT editorial board. Here's a challenge for you, if the NYT is equally interested in strongly red of blue states becoming purple swing states then find for me a single editorial or op-ed in the NYT calling for a move to the center in either NY or California. Reality is if you go county by county in NY and Cal. you find the majority of counties are center right politically but they are dominated by the left wing, highly populated cities of NY, Albany, San Francisco and LA. And Ms. Swartz and the NYT editors are perfectly fine with that reality. So quit feigning a sadness or longing for moderation and political compromise in red states like Texas. Just be honest about what you want, that Texas be just as reliably blue and left wing as NY and Cal. are. And notice when Ms. Swartz talks about the crazies in Texas politics she never utters the following 3 words. Shelia... Jackson... Lee (D-TX, Houston). Shall we reopen her congressional discussion with NASA officials of whether the Mars rover was able to capture pictures of the flag Neil Armstrong planted on his Apollo 11 mission??? Or the 400 year old U.S. Constitution, or...
3
(Not Mark) You are so right! They don't want purple they want blue everywhere! They have no interest in compromise at all.
Mark, there's plenty of compromise in Texas, NOT.
1
They should let Texas along with the rest of the evangelical, ultra conservative southern and midwestern states secede. This national divide of states versus federal rights goes back hundreds of years, a major source of discord before even the American Revolution! You can't reason with a group that is so ardently anti-science and pro-religion.
8
Thank you so much for writing this insightful piece. This helps to solidify my desire to never live in Texas. I know that if I ever see a job posting with TX in it, I will ignore it and not waste my time.
1
(Not Mark) Don't believe the leftist propaganda! Come down for a visit and see what a friendly and beautiful state it is. There are lots of outdoor areas for hiking and camping, really beautiful and lovely cities too, not to mention some great little towns. Come down to San Antonio, it's a beautiful city with lots of history and culture. The weather is better than where you are too!
1
This gay Buddhist, who happens to live in Houston, uses his irrelevant vote to support the Green Party. There are large numbers of peaceful environmentalists here. As long as I remain in the state, I'll use my vote to support what I want. Jill Stein came to Houston four years ago and I gave her my vote. I'm ready to go back, Jack, and do it again.
4
As dismayed as i am over the slow emergence of a purple Texas, all I need to do is spend a few days in a swing state like my native Missouri during election season to realize that there is at least the upside of not being constantly assaulted by demagogic political commercials. But now Missouri seems to have drifted off to "North Arkansas," so maybe it's safe to venture there this year.
2
In Texas, what I've seen is this: Republicans never ask themselves if they are right about an issue, never question themselves or their party. Democrats always question their own beliefs and use their consciences to decide what is fair and just.
8
(Not Mark) Oh please. Democrats always believe their way is best and never ask for any other opinion. I'm an independent and have talked with many people about different issues. Libertarians, greens, republicans are always willing to debate, democrats have only one default, their way is best and they are the most wonderful people in the world. Just more virtue signaling.
1
I don't know who you talk to, but my experience has been basically the opposite, although I'll admit that the Greens are generally cool when it comes to real discussion. Republicans act as though no one else has any business having an opinion and threaten or insult you if you dare to express one. Libertarians get mad at the drop of a hat and seem to think that everyone is out to get them. Democrats love a good debate, but start to feel depressed and lose hope when the complexity of the world's problems once again hits them.
It's time to call Texans on their hysteria over operation Jade Helm. If an entire state is filed with fools they should be shamed.
7
LBJ gave the explanation for Texas going Republican years ago. It was the civil rights bill, which turned all of the South from the Democrats to the Republicans.
Of course, the South had had Southern Democrats who were just as racist as the Southern Republicans would be. However, the Southern Democrats were not so anti- government.
Of course, the South had had Southern Democrats who were just as racist as the Southern Republicans would be. However, the Southern Democrats were not so anti- government.
1
Unfortunately, Florida is not that far behind. A recent GOP candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Mario Rubio, referred to President Obama as an "animal". Shameful!
8
Didn't Texas recently suggest seceding from the Union?? Well, PLEASE - GO FOR IT !!!! The rest of us will be better off without you!
13
texas pols are an embarrassment to the human race. So were gramm, the bug killer and army. texas democrats in the shivers era were not democrats. They were republcans in disguise.
1
Is the only agenda of god-bless-Texas to fight and sue the feds, and its own cities and school districts?
Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and A.G. Paxton are powerful self-serving hypocrites who are arming and aiming to take on a Hillary Clinton presidency, having honed their knives against Obama. If the Civil War was a war and Vietnam was a police action, then what we have shaping up is the Civil Police Action, with all sides funded by us. I do believe that this state (and others) will be able to demonstrate that government is indeed ineffective, perhaps evil--just like they've been saying. And I haven't even mentioned abortion rights, voting rights, environmental regulation...
It is small solace to know that the TX republican convention just wrapped up and that, naturally, these over-adrenalized folks are now swarming out looking for microphones to foam on.
Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and A.G. Paxton are powerful self-serving hypocrites who are arming and aiming to take on a Hillary Clinton presidency, having honed their knives against Obama. If the Civil War was a war and Vietnam was a police action, then what we have shaping up is the Civil Police Action, with all sides funded by us. I do believe that this state (and others) will be able to demonstrate that government is indeed ineffective, perhaps evil--just like they've been saying. And I haven't even mentioned abortion rights, voting rights, environmental regulation...
It is small solace to know that the TX republican convention just wrapped up and that, naturally, these over-adrenalized folks are now swarming out looking for microphones to foam on.
3
With the music in Austin and other things, Texas seems like a fun place to visit and Texans I've met have been very cool. It is too bad that politically it is so hateful and backward.
7
Also too bad that Austin and San Antonio are the only places in Texas that are fun and cool.
1
An absurd article. Naturally, when a state is reliably in one camp or the other, it loses leverage, but not necessarily relevance. Last time I checked, Texas still was the 2nd largest state in terms of population, and thus in terms of electoral votes. More relevant than, say, New York, which ranks 3rd.
When the Times publishes articles like this, they give validation to the equally absurd prejudices of people like Ted Cruz.
When the Times publishes articles like this, they give validation to the equally absurd prejudices of people like Ted Cruz.
2
Texas is both Red and irrelevant. By the time it turns Purple it will be so far behind the curve of history no one will notice or care. It's history is irrelevant.
DD
Manhattan
DD
Manhattan
6
Molly Ivins said it best. Texas is just Mississippi with good roads. It's a beautiful state but the best view of it that I ever saw was its reflection in my rear-view mirror as I drove away 14 years ago.
225
Molly borrowed that from Larry McMurtry
1
I was born in Texas. Heck, my great-granddaddy fought for Texas in the War again Northern Aggression. But I am a Democrat, always have been, always will be. When I despair, I think of Molly Ivins. If she could take it, so can I. You just need a sense of humor. As my daddy used to say, this too shall pass.
You may live in a college town, but you are facing the Texification of your state!
The "national Democratic Party’s decades-long shift to the left"? If by that, you mean, its embrace of civil rights in the 1960s, you are correct. Non-Texans often think of Texas as epitomizing the rugged Southwest, but it was, and is, the heart of the Confederacy. The current dominance of the Republican Party has more to do with race than any ideological shift by the Democrats.
14
(Not Mark) It was never the 'heart of the confederacy' for goodness sake! Read up on the history. Texas had a large population of German and Czech immigrants that were pro-union and the state was never able to over come them. At the time of the civil war the frontier ended in San Antonio and it was indeed the rugged west (although the majority population spoke German). Race is definitely not a big issue here, not nowadays with the immense population increase we have seen in the last few years. You need to get out more.
1
Texas the heart of the Confederacy? Really? As for racist- I have to admit that Texas has a lot of bad points (especially the politicians) but it really isn't as racist as a lot of other places in the U.S. My husband and I are a mixed race couple and have been married over 30 years. We've never felt uncomfortable anywhere in Texas, unlike other areas (including the Midwest) where we were made to feel unwelcome. Texans are many things, but not generally racist!
Texas, where I was born and raised, is part of the decades long Republican southern strategy. Built on racism, states' rights, and fundamentalist religious values, that strategy has turned Texas into a schizophrenic place: a first world technological infrastructure and a third world government. The state is essentially run by a cabal of anti-intellectual thugs and their hirelings. But they control the gerrymandered electoral apparatus and no one else has been able to break their grip. So while there are millions of smart and broad-minded Texans, they are governed by ignoramuses who are repugnant to them. I happen to be in Texas as I write this. It is truly a sad example of the disconnection between electoral politics and governance in the USA.
280
Two-faced, yes, but not "schizophrenic."
This could have (and should have) been written about Arizona. It is the same story with a different cast, both Republicans, and, sadly, dispirited never organized Democrats.
2
succesion now, succesion tomorrow and succession forever! Take your ball and go home now Texas. Maybe Mexico will have you back.
6
The word is secession
8
Texas, what is wrong with that Lone Star? George W., Rick Oops Perry, Fire and Brimstone Rafael Cruz, what gives? Texans have a penchant for picking the worse of the worse, the most thick-headed numbskulls in the country to lead them down the road to perdition. When they wanted to secede why did we bother to lift a finger in opposition? Let them go.
DD
Manhattan
DD
Manhattan
8
one word: secession
3
Sometimes election results are so lopsided that I suspect some kind of ballot fraud or vote rigging . . . although maybe that is exactly what excessive gerrymandering and voter suppression amount to.
15
I've lived in Texas off and on, mostly on, since 1965. In the haze of selective memory I've watched the local mindset devolve into its current state - and the current state isn't pretty. This used to be a place that valued diverse ideas and challenged people to think creatively and optimistically about the future. Those days are gone. Today Texas is ruled by fear. A sizable segment of the population wants to secede form the union, carry guns in the open and shut down any discussion or debate. To many in Texas, its 'my way or the highway'. The descent into ignorance and intolerance has been dramatic and seems to be gaining speed. In the end, though, nature will surely prevail. No pendulum can swing can swing forever in one direction.
188
The "my way or the highway" started with Governor G.W. Bush and his lackey, Karl Rove. Then it got amped up after 9-11 when he declared, "You're either with us or against us."
2
Cynicism or ignorance? Equal parts of both. The politicians are cynical and the rural white religious voters are just plain ignorant. A match made in heaven.
21
Hey, one of the big reasons that Texas doesn't matter is the winner-take-all system of the Electoral College. Instead of competing for votes, presidential candidates compete for states and they give up where it looks prohibitive to win a majority vote.
California passed an enlightened law whereby all of its Electoral votes will go to the winner of the national majority vote, should there be a divergence. In other words, suppose 51% of Californians supported candidate A but the majority of voters nationally supported B. All of California's electors would vote for B. This is not un-democratic, it is actually favors democracy because it puts the national decision of voters ahead of an individual state's choice.
Our Constitution as a whole is grand and it made the U.S. one of the first constitutional democracies in the world, but it nonetheless contains a slant against democracy. Many of the framers of the Constitution were, generally, deeply fearful of the movement toward democratic ideals, so they compromised it (and us) by creating the Electoral College and allowing state legislatures to pick U.S. senators. The states were fearful of losing power, so a battle that continues 230+ years later was set in motion.
The Electoral College negates the votes of Democrats in Texas, just as it does Republican votes in New York or California. This must change. We can't have "the world's greatest democracy" if we are afraid of it ourselves.
Doug Terry
California passed an enlightened law whereby all of its Electoral votes will go to the winner of the national majority vote, should there be a divergence. In other words, suppose 51% of Californians supported candidate A but the majority of voters nationally supported B. All of California's electors would vote for B. This is not un-democratic, it is actually favors democracy because it puts the national decision of voters ahead of an individual state's choice.
Our Constitution as a whole is grand and it made the U.S. one of the first constitutional democracies in the world, but it nonetheless contains a slant against democracy. Many of the framers of the Constitution were, generally, deeply fearful of the movement toward democratic ideals, so they compromised it (and us) by creating the Electoral College and allowing state legislatures to pick U.S. senators. The states were fearful of losing power, so a battle that continues 230+ years later was set in motion.
The Electoral College negates the votes of Democrats in Texas, just as it does Republican votes in New York or California. This must change. We can't have "the world's greatest democracy" if we are afraid of it ourselves.
Doug Terry
5
It's not about being a 'Texas Hater' as the author asserts.
It is a sense of tiredness with the entire "We're Texas and You Are Not, So You Suck" attitude that is present every time someone brags "I'm from Texas".
It is a sense of tiredness with the entire "We're Texas and You Are Not, So You Suck" attitude that is present every time someone brags "I'm from Texas".
24
A lot of Texas Republican politicians resemble bad, unfunny jokes, like Dubya, Cruz, Perry and that Gohmert guy. I thought it might be something in the water.
3
Gerrymandering is the single biggest problem we have insofar as good government is concerned. The Tom DeLay led effort screwed us royally.
For all you non-Texans reading this opinion piece, please don't toss us to the side of the road just because you constantly hear from people like Cruz and former Governor Rick Perry. Every state has its crazy, self-serving politicians that somehow find their way to the stage. Admittedly we've been on quite a run lately, but I can assure you that there really are a lot of goodhearted, commonsense folks living in this state.
For all you non-Texans reading this opinion piece, please don't toss us to the side of the road just because you constantly hear from people like Cruz and former Governor Rick Perry. Every state has its crazy, self-serving politicians that somehow find their way to the stage. Admittedly we've been on quite a run lately, but I can assure you that there really are a lot of goodhearted, commonsense folks living in this state.
218
if you want to live in America - leave TX
was that plain enough?
was that plain enough?
I'll trade you Chris Christie for a '57 Chevy.
(Not Mark) Get over yourself. I lived in Seattle, the most racist and anti-semitic state I've ever been in. People made racist comments in public! They said they didn't want any of 'those' people coming from California, only people wasn't the word they used. Never heard or saw such racism anywhere else in the states. The casual anti-semitism there was also scary, along with the large population of storm front members. I was very happy to leave that area and feel like you are not part of the US!
Hey! There are more Democrats here than you might think. Gerrymandered districts make it very hard for Democrats to get elected. We are busy registering new voters and if Hillary would just pick Julian Castro as VP, maybe we could begin to head to the purple side.
167
Texas is another country. The next time they try to secede, nobody is going to fight to keep them from leaving, They're welcome to take the rest of the old confederacy - minus northern Virginia - with them. And they can take Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia, too. Those of us outside the South have more in common politically, socially, and culturally with the typical Canadian than we do with the typical Texan. Leave us, please, Texas. You will be neither mourned nor missed.
11
The innovation centers in the major Texas cities Houston, DFW, Austin and San Antonio vote Democrat and produce "relevant" tech leadership, arts and ideas. It's the Rubes in the country and the gerrymandered redistricting that has effectively killed our relevancy from a Texas brand perspective. The movie "W" showed scenes from the 70's and 80's era with GWB learning how easy it is to con the simple-minded Texans. And the Texas Republican majority has enjoyed their rewards since.
I agree with Mimi's point about the Democrats nominating "dog-catcher" level candidates. I'm looking at the man in the mirror despite “our best hope is to become a swing state like Florida”. It's time for us "brain-having" Texans to step up and get involved.
I agree with Mimi's point about the Democrats nominating "dog-catcher" level candidates. I'm looking at the man in the mirror despite “our best hope is to become a swing state like Florida”. It's time for us "brain-having" Texans to step up and get involved.
11
Most of the gerrymandering in Texas is carried out by order of the Justice Department, which forces the state to create districts with large Hispanic majorities or large African American majorities, even though these two groups now outnumber non-Hispanic white voters. And Democrats constantly file lawsuits seeking the creation of even more gerrymandered safe districts for Democrats.
1
Texas could start by dumping Ted Cruz. At the very least, Texas ought to be able to tell the difference between a conservative (however out of touch with reality) and a bald faced liar with the morals of a snake.
18
To me, the most compelling clip from this article is this one: "...they believed in government and governing." I consider it a tragedy that our politicians have turned away from this golden ideal. The notion that all who enter government to provide the best possible protections and services for all citizens appears to have died a painful death, but what has it left in its wake? What kind of country will we have when everything is torn apart and torn down, as so many on the far right seem to want it?
I used to feel very proud of how our government managed to work for the general good of most people, but now I worry about how it will play out.
I used to feel very proud of how our government managed to work for the general good of most people, but now I worry about how it will play out.
10
" In the House, there was Sam Rayburn, Tom DeLay and Dick Armey. " Rayburn definitely doesn't belong in that group. He was central to FDR's New Deal, a dedicated and intelligent Speaker. Texas was a power centrum before the southern strategy made racism more important than good sense.
10
No words are truer than these, "pridefully ignorant pygmies run the political show." That pretty much describes ALL the BIG democracy-destroying money masters who own these republican/libertarian/tea party "pygmies". Have heart, Ms. Swartz and all Texans who despise what the "political pygmies" have done to your state. Wendy Davis got 40% of the vote for governor and that is fabulous in a state that was virtually taken over by money and is as "macho-centered" as Texas. Get out the democrat/independent vote for Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other socially conscious men and women in Texas. It's that simple. PLEASE do it for the sake of The United States of America.
4
Perhaps it is the Democrats' values that keep the Texas Republicans in office. Democrats are abortionists, opponents of First Amendment rights, opponents of Second Amendment rights, central governists, international free-traders, and internationalists.
Maybe Texans understand that the eleven million illegal aliens sheltered by the Democrats damage the job prospects and wages of our younger non-college-educated citizens. Those young citizens have a devastatingly high unemployment rate, the minority subset even more so.
The Democrats, viewing themselves as morally and intellectually gifted, like to dictate vocabulary to Texans. They tell us to call race based institutional and governmental discrimination "diversity". They used to demand we call it "affirmative action" until the SCOTUS ruled that unconstitutional. They tell us to call illegal aliens "undocumented immigrants". They tell us we can't refer to that very small subset of Black citizens that are habitual violent criminals as "thugs".
The Democrats tell us that the disparate incarceration rates of Blacks and Whites is because of racist prosecutors and juries. But the rate of murderers in the Black population is six times that of Whites. And nine out of ten Black murder victims were victims of Black perpetrators.
Maybe Texans understand that the Democrats are holding up Michael Brown as the murder victim of a racist cop in order to fill the voting booths in Black neighborhoods in November.
Maybe Texans understand that the eleven million illegal aliens sheltered by the Democrats damage the job prospects and wages of our younger non-college-educated citizens. Those young citizens have a devastatingly high unemployment rate, the minority subset even more so.
The Democrats, viewing themselves as morally and intellectually gifted, like to dictate vocabulary to Texans. They tell us to call race based institutional and governmental discrimination "diversity". They used to demand we call it "affirmative action" until the SCOTUS ruled that unconstitutional. They tell us to call illegal aliens "undocumented immigrants". They tell us we can't refer to that very small subset of Black citizens that are habitual violent criminals as "thugs".
The Democrats tell us that the disparate incarceration rates of Blacks and Whites is because of racist prosecutors and juries. But the rate of murderers in the Black population is six times that of Whites. And nine out of ten Black murder victims were victims of Black perpetrators.
Maybe Texans understand that the Democrats are holding up Michael Brown as the murder victim of a racist cop in order to fill the voting booths in Black neighborhoods in November.
2
So how come you're reading the New York Times?
6
Hi Dismal:
I get bored just reading articles from sources I always agree with.
I get bored just hanging out with people I always agree with.
I get bored reaffirming my opinions and my facts with people that always agree with me.
How come you're reading the NYTs?
I get bored just reading articles from sources I always agree with.
I get bored just hanging out with people I always agree with.
I get bored reaffirming my opinions and my facts with people that always agree with me.
How come you're reading the NYTs?
3
"Democrats are abortionists, opponents of First Amendment rights, opponents of Second Amendment rights, central governists, international free-traders, and internationalists."
That's just the Birch talking.
That's just the Birch talking.
18
I'm not Texas born, but have lived here for almost a decade. I have lived in many states, so observe the culture here with a practiced eye. My theory is that Texas Republican politicians have mastered the art of harnessing fear. They rule the hearts and minds of many Texans through casting Texas-sized tales of what will happen if we let "the others" have their way. By "the others" I mean anyone who is not born in the U.S. and strictly Christian and Heterosexual. Our state government is extremely dysfunctional right now due to the total control of the Republican party. They pound the pulpit preaching small government, yet do everything they can to control decisions at local levels.
194
What a delightful, insightful, humourous article.
The shepherds have left the state and the sheep just follow the sheep.
The shepherds have left the state and the sheep just follow the sheep.
4
I live in progressive, racially mixed North Oak Cliff, just south of the Trinity River and downtown Dallas. We just elected Audrey Pinkerton to represent us on the DISD School Board. She was a grass-roots candidate whose children attend our local public schools. She was continually bad-mouthed by the Dallas Morning News who was promoting their own inside guy. She ran a very organized, well funded campaign and the people in our area really got behind her with a shared sense of purpose.
The change in Texas will need to come in this way, from the bottom up, one community at a time until it tips blue.
The change in Texas will need to come in this way, from the bottom up, one community at a time until it tips blue.
29
I'm from California and can say that Texas is one of the greatest states in this country, just because they don't act or think the way most liberals do doesn't mean we should write them off.
Different parts of the country have different values and ideas, just different than yours, set so hard to accept?
Different parts of the country have different values and ideas, just different than yours, set so hard to accept?
1
Hard to accept when they have a negative impact beyond their borders. Ex., wanting to re-write text books (creationism, anyone?) tha will be used in other states. Ugh.
12
Like a recent article here from a resident of North Carolina, the writer doesn't want us to view all of Texans as off the rail right wingers . But even the writer lists the recent Texas politicians responsible for her state's
Reputation. New York values certainly sent a message to the latest mess from Texas. Other than passing through airports I have never been to Texas and proudly say I have no intention of ever going there. Il
Reputation. New York values certainly sent a message to the latest mess from Texas. Other than passing through airports I have never been to Texas and proudly say I have no intention of ever going there. Il
North Carolina, so recently a well functioning proud state, is rushing to follow on the heels of Texas. I expect any minute to see that we are voting on secession.
4
I feel this way about California and New York.
I always love your writing, Mimi. It lets me know I'm not the only Democrat in the state. We Dems here joke that if we want to say anything positive about Obama in a public place we have to whisper. That's literally true in some places. My Friday morning breakfast group supports the president and Hillary and is horrified at the thought of Trump, Cruz, or any of the others who were running. But if we get too enthusiastic in our praise (or criticism) we get ears listening in and disapproving faces. A couple of the husbands were in a restaurant not too long ago, discussing politics. Democrats. A man actually came up to their table to tell them they didn't know what they were talking about. They responded that they were professors with PhDs and did know a thing or two. He walked away, totally disgusted.
I'll not live long enough to see Texas turn blue, but that will be a glorious thing.
I'll not live long enough to see Texas turn blue, but that will be a glorious thing.
314
I absolutely agree with you, Pat. I moved to Texas when it was a blue state. Now we have right wing nut jobs in command here and, apparently education, women's health, LGBT rights, gun control, environmental issues, etc. aren't high priorities here. Fortunately, there are some wonderful people in Texas who don't share the far right wing beliefs.
2
The fact that you can't disagree or express divergent opinions is one of the reasons I had to leave Texas at the age of 23, even though I love the place in a variety of ways. There is a belief that there is one "Texas way" and if you don't agree, hey, buddy, we don't need you. This exclusionary attitude it part of what keeps a lot of Texans from developing their own ideas because they would be shutout socially if they did. Dissent is not welcome, just like in China. Divergent views are considered subversive and probably evil, too.
Doug Terry
Doug Terry
7
Never give up, Pat.
It is easy for Democrats from safe, progressive havens to deride the state ... or lump all Texans in the same boat. Same sort of idiotic extremism that fuels the Tea Party or crazier reaches of Bernie Sanders' fan club. Sanity will eventually prevail.
It is easy for Democrats from safe, progressive havens to deride the state ... or lump all Texans in the same boat. Same sort of idiotic extremism that fuels the Tea Party or crazier reaches of Bernie Sanders' fan club. Sanity will eventually prevail.
2
Texans should be remorseful. The author provides a list of Texas' politicians who have not served the republic well. Phil Gramm and Dick Armey played a key role in the economic collapse of 2008. LBJ involved us in a terrible conflict that cost us and Vietnam dearly. The boy wonder, George W. Bush, involved us in a needless war that has ramifications today in the Middle East. Tom DeLay is one of several Republican politicians responsible for our political dysfunction in Washington. Texas elected Ted Cruz a snake oil salesman. Please keep these politicians in Texas,do not export them to Washington.
32
Revisionist history on LBJ. He did not involve us in Vietnam, that crown rests on JFK and his administration of Harvard war-mongers. That LBJ didn't have the nerve to fire them all and pull out is forever to his shame. But LBJ is also the architect and cheerleader of Medicare, Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights act. All progressive policies that changed this nation for the good.
7
More revisionist history. Eisenhower got the American advisors ball rolling when the French pulled out. Don't ignore the JFK interview with Walter Cronkite shortly before his death. Go to the JFK-Cronkite 9/2/63 interview on YouTube and start at the 13 minute mark.
1
Texas wants to be its own country and we should let it. The people who run the state would quickly turn it into a third-world country rife with poverty, disease, and petty disputes with its neighbors and friends alike. All because they don't want to spend any money on anybody who didn't earn it the old-fashioned (at least in their minds) way.
Texas is pathetic.
Texas is pathetic.
374
Texas is not pathetic. Texas politicians are pathetic. There is a difference.
2
So is Florida,Alabama, Georgia, Miss., Idaho, the Dakotas, the Carolinas.
Whoops, not much sanity left anywhere in the good ole USA.
Whoops, not much sanity left anywhere in the good ole USA.
Tough talk from someone whose state will be underwater in 25 years. Say what you want, but at least we are allowed to talk about Climate Change.
Race and corruption have always been factors in Texas politics. After LBJ stole the 1948 Senate election from the quintessential "Mr. Texas",Coke Stevenson,it was no accident that JFK, knowing winning Texas was an imperative, put LBJ on the 1960 ticket. Lyndon Johnson, and by implication Texas politics, were the subjects of the two best books ever written on American Politics, Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate" and "Means of Ascent". There is no comparison between the primal political force of Lyndon Johnson and counterfeit Texan Ted Cruz and the affected gravitas of John Cornyn.
17
As a New Mexican and a lifelong Democrat I do think there should be a wall - at the Texas/New Mexico border!
16
Texas is majority minority, so whites show intense political solidarity. If you want to see whites on the left, have an all-white flight state like Bernie Sanders's Vermont.
1
Time to secede, Texas. At least Rick Perry got that right. Or the border wall with Mexico could start at the Texas border and reinstate the land that we took from the Mexicans in the 1840's.
10
Lyndon Johnson was right about many things and although also wrong on some he was one of the greatest Texans and Americans of his time.
He was unfortunately wrong however in one critical respect: When the Civil Rights Act passed, he said that it would cost the Democrats the south for a generation. We are at two generations and counting, and radical reactionary Republicans dominate the region as they did after the Civil War (but with opposite goals). It will take another generation to turn the tide, but it will turn. It will take the hard work of grass-roots organizing to change things in Texas. The Trump candidacy could prove a stimulus.
Dan Kravitz
He was unfortunately wrong however in one critical respect: When the Civil Rights Act passed, he said that it would cost the Democrats the south for a generation. We are at two generations and counting, and radical reactionary Republicans dominate the region as they did after the Civil War (but with opposite goals). It will take another generation to turn the tide, but it will turn. It will take the hard work of grass-roots organizing to change things in Texas. The Trump candidacy could prove a stimulus.
Dan Kravitz
214
Remember when the national Democratic leadership abandoned Howard Dean's "Fifty States" strategy? They brilliantly reallocated ground resources and data mining to intensely targeted campaigns in swing states and constituencies. The Obama win was a product of this strategy.
But they abandoned state and local to ALEC and others. They forgot the old rule, "All politics is local".
The result is that now the Democrats can reasonably expect to win the presidency, and occasionally a majority in the senate. But rubes rule in the countryside, and the rubes gerrymandered electoral districts so thoroughly that I doubt that I will ever again see a Democratic majority in the House in my lifetime. So we have a president who rules the globe, Washington and New York, but not the countryside. And certainly not Texas.
But they abandoned state and local to ALEC and others. They forgot the old rule, "All politics is local".
The result is that now the Democrats can reasonably expect to win the presidency, and occasionally a majority in the senate. But rubes rule in the countryside, and the rubes gerrymandered electoral districts so thoroughly that I doubt that I will ever again see a Democratic majority in the House in my lifetime. So we have a president who rules the globe, Washington and New York, but not the countryside. And certainly not Texas.
31
How can this article not mention the gerrymandering and the non-voting Hispanic population as critical factors in the "redness" of the state? Change either one and the political outcomes in Texas are dramatically different. The Democratic party has been outmaneuvered by the Republicans at the state level for at least a couple decades now, and Texas represents an extreme.
406
I believe that in the mid-terms, over 40% of the Latino voters in Texas voted Republican. This is because few of them voted, and Republicans ALWAYS vote, Democrats not so much, so who is voting against their own best interest? We Democrats are actually voting against our own best interest by not voting, particularly in the mid-terms, and now over 50% of the states are ruled by the rubes.
1
I agree. The gerrymandering issue should be addressed nationally once and for all and not left in the hands of partisan boards that will shew the drawing of the districts in their favor. I do not know the genesis of the gerrymandering concept but I'm sure its basis was to give one party a huge starting advantage.
Yes, I look forward to a similar piece about how Democrats in Illinois have done the exact same thing. They are so opposed to changing it, that they will file lawsuits against any attempt to get a referendum put on the ballot that dares to ask voters if it should be changed.
I don't think you can explain Texas and its lurch to the reactionary right without discussing race and racism. Ms. Schwartz claims that the shift is at least partially due to the leftward shift of the Democratic party, but evidence for that Schmidt's existence is slight. What is clear is that the Republican party is ever more willing to abandon the dog whistle and appeal to racists out loud. Tom Delay and Dick Armey are just two of the many Texan politicians who contributed to this trend.
29
Swartz attributes the current extremist GOP rule of Texas on the supposed leftward tilt of Democrats. But the Democratic Party was actually moving to the right when Karl Rove and George W. Bush defeated Ann Richards. What happened, as Lyndon Johnson feared much earlier, is that the Civil Rights Acts turned the Old Confederacy red.
But even the realignment of the parties does not explain the fact that the previous Republican Texas governor threatened secession and the current one deployed Texas National Guard to safeguard against an invasion by the US military. Nor does it explain the current Texas Republican Party's platform, which calls for the abolition of the EPA, a return to the gold standard and asserts that homosexuality is a "choice."
So the GOP has devolved from a conservative party to a radical one--and even more so in Texas. Why? Because Texas has always been a hotbed of reactionary, far-right politics. Eisenhower dismissed the right-wing "Texas oil millionaires" who wanted to eliminate Social Security as "stupid." And before embarking on his fatal trip in 1963, John F. Kennedy called Dallas "nut country" and was greeted with handbills labeling him a traitor.
The difference now, thanks to Texas' inherent conservatism, Nixon's Southern Strategy, and Rove's electioneering, is there is no counterbalancing force to keep the crazies in check. Texas Republicans simply don't lose elections for being too right-wing, and it' shard to imagine they ever will.
But even the realignment of the parties does not explain the fact that the previous Republican Texas governor threatened secession and the current one deployed Texas National Guard to safeguard against an invasion by the US military. Nor does it explain the current Texas Republican Party's platform, which calls for the abolition of the EPA, a return to the gold standard and asserts that homosexuality is a "choice."
So the GOP has devolved from a conservative party to a radical one--and even more so in Texas. Why? Because Texas has always been a hotbed of reactionary, far-right politics. Eisenhower dismissed the right-wing "Texas oil millionaires" who wanted to eliminate Social Security as "stupid." And before embarking on his fatal trip in 1963, John F. Kennedy called Dallas "nut country" and was greeted with handbills labeling him a traitor.
The difference now, thanks to Texas' inherent conservatism, Nixon's Southern Strategy, and Rove's electioneering, is there is no counterbalancing force to keep the crazies in check. Texas Republicans simply don't lose elections for being too right-wing, and it' shard to imagine they ever will.
26
Poor Mimi. She's planted inside the inner loop of Houston and constantly subjected to an echo chamber of liberal Texan self-flagellation. It plays well in the NY Times, not so much here. As the old line goes: It's a Texas thing, you wouldn't understand.
5
The Texas Model for red states: reduce or eliminate the state's support for public projects ( education, safety net, infrastructure), hope those most effected To self-deport to the blue states. But on the Federal level continue to benefit from the redistribution of federal taxes, eg continue to be a taker, not a maker.
4
We understand. You're dominated by wing nuts, who are able to maintain control largely because of gerrymandering.
2
rs - like I said, you wouldn't understand. Gerrymandering in Texas protects white democrats, at the expense of Hispanics.
When Texas was part of Mexico it produced the esteemed likes of Quanah Parker, Black Horse, Bull Bear, Buffalo Hump and Hears the Sunrise of the Comanche and Lone Wolf, White Horse, Big Tree and Sitting Bear of the Kiowa. When Texas was part of Mexico the half- black African and half-brown Native President of Mexico-Vicente Guerrero- abolished slavery everywhere in Mexico except Texas in 1829. When Texas becomes even more Mexican perhaps the good old days will return.
Since Texas has been part of America it has produced the mighty miracle likes of Barbara Jordan, Molly Ivins, George Leland, Ron Kirk, Henry Cisneros, Julian Castro, Juan Castro and Bill Moyers. Texas can not be blamed for the WASP New England Ivy league blue blood George W. Bush nor the all white half-Cuban natural born citizen of Canada Rafael Edward Cruz. But Perry, Cornyn and Abbot along with the Republican Congressional delegation are all Texas horned toads. Perry and Cornyn make W look like a genius.
Since Texas has been part of America it has produced the mighty miracle likes of Barbara Jordan, Molly Ivins, George Leland, Ron Kirk, Henry Cisneros, Julian Castro, Juan Castro and Bill Moyers. Texas can not be blamed for the WASP New England Ivy league blue blood George W. Bush nor the all white half-Cuban natural born citizen of Canada Rafael Edward Cruz. But Perry, Cornyn and Abbot along with the Republican Congressional delegation are all Texas horned toads. Perry and Cornyn make W look like a genius.
21
Quanah and many of the other Comanche chiefs you name were born after Texas won it's independence from Mexico.
Mexico 1829 law abolishing slavery was ignored throughout Mexico. Mexican President Santa Anna brought two of his slaves with him to the Alamo in 1836 and slave were still being sold at auction in Chihuahua City during the American Civil War. Mexicans gradually converted their slaves to indentured servants for life and used the debt peonage system to bind their descendants to their descendants to the land into the 1900s.
Texas has millions of Mexican nationals, but they don’t want Texas to be like Mexico. Why do you think they fled Mexico for Texas?
Mexico 1829 law abolishing slavery was ignored throughout Mexico. Mexican President Santa Anna brought two of his slaves with him to the Alamo in 1836 and slave were still being sold at auction in Chihuahua City during the American Civil War. Mexicans gradually converted their slaves to indentured servants for life and used the debt peonage system to bind their descendants to their descendants to the land into the 1900s.
Texas has millions of Mexican nationals, but they don’t want Texas to be like Mexico. Why do you think they fled Mexico for Texas?
And your point is what, Mimi? Your meek mea culpa is a waste of column space that could have been put to better use explaining why you've gone to bat for LGBT rights in TX on these pages but have failed to write even one word about the massive shutdown of abortion clinics across TX and the devastating impact that has had on the lives of TX women.
I would also appreciate hearing any insights you might have as to why DC DEM operatives were sent to TX in 2014 and allowed to run Wendy Davis' campaign into the ditch. I certainly hope the same team is not in charge of messaging for Clinton's camp!
I would also appreciate hearing any insights you might have as to why DC DEM operatives were sent to TX in 2014 and allowed to run Wendy Davis' campaign into the ditch. I certainly hope the same team is not in charge of messaging for Clinton's camp!
4
I knew my beloved Texas went off the rails when they elected that Canadian Ted Cruz. But then again John Cornyn is as big of a joke as Ted. The guy that represents my district in congress just wants to build more nukes. At least that does put people to work in his district (white people that is).
Oh and for the people who say "get out and vote" let me tell you something about it here in Texas, most elections are decided in the republican primary. You have the choice of this right wing nut job, or one that is further to the right and is a bigger nut job. The districts are so gerrymandered that the republican always win.
But I can take it as long as they can. See here in Texas we live with rattlesnakes, brown recluse spiders, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. So some Podunk republican politician is not much to worry about.
Oh and for the people who say "get out and vote" let me tell you something about it here in Texas, most elections are decided in the republican primary. You have the choice of this right wing nut job, or one that is further to the right and is a bigger nut job. The districts are so gerrymandered that the republican always win.
But I can take it as long as they can. See here in Texas we live with rattlesnakes, brown recluse spiders, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. So some Podunk republican politician is not much to worry about.
261
Good for you Kevin. As New Mexico is becoming Texanized with our Tejana Koch Brother's Governor, I do the same thing next door. Luckily, we have all those good Democratic Catholics that always vote, although they sometimes get swayed by the Latino last name. For us, we lose when Democrats don't vote. In the mid-terms the fewest Democrats voted in 60 years and we have the first Republican lead House in 60 years. Still, I'd like to see a wall built - on the Texas/New Mexico line.
4
You forgot scorpions.
Kevin, Your message is right on, except for the last paragraph. Redneck Republican politicians go to Washington -- sometimes for years -- whereas rattlesnakes, spiders, tornadoes, hurricanes, and so forth do their damage more quickly and leave. Shrub wrecked the national economy for years. My revenge, whether it has much effect or not, is to vote a straight Democratic ticket (as my father did) in every election. Maybe as the population changes, so will the votes.
1
Yes, Mimi and NYT. Keep thinking that as Democrats move their interests to trangender bathrooms, bending over backward to give rights and citizenship to illegal aliens, do nothing on getting better job opportunities for their citizens, focus on placating and working up specific constituencies in identity politics on steroids that "Texas: Red but Not Relevant."
I can tell you that the Democrat party has become irrelevant for many in the Northeast and MidWest with this strategy which really doesn't address the reasons for the decline in the middle and lower class and their opportunities.
More liberal fantasy that tries to analyze what is very simple. Democratic overreach on social programs, engineering and identity politics are failing. And people want jobs, not talk, not handouts. It's that simple. And the only party that is remotely addressing that is Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
I can tell you that the Democrat party has become irrelevant for many in the Northeast and MidWest with this strategy which really doesn't address the reasons for the decline in the middle and lower class and their opportunities.
More liberal fantasy that tries to analyze what is very simple. Democratic overreach on social programs, engineering and identity politics are failing. And people want jobs, not talk, not handouts. It's that simple. And the only party that is remotely addressing that is Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
2
Both Trump and Sanders have spotlighted problems in America, but they have not developed the right solutions. That will be left to their successors. Both are transitional figures.
No NYT recommends? Why not? Afraid to stick your neck out?
THAT explains the problem.
Bertrand Russell was right- the chief problem in the world today is that it is comprised of two kinds of people, the stupid and cocksure, and the intelligent who are filled with doubt. If the NYT, my NYT cannot take even a slight stand on this, what the Hell are they gonna take a stand on?
I know, I know, the real estate sale of the week. $26,500,000 for an apartment most of us will never get to sniff! Way to go, NYT!
THAT explains the problem.
Bertrand Russell was right- the chief problem in the world today is that it is comprised of two kinds of people, the stupid and cocksure, and the intelligent who are filled with doubt. If the NYT, my NYT cannot take even a slight stand on this, what the Hell are they gonna take a stand on?
I know, I know, the real estate sale of the week. $26,500,000 for an apartment most of us will never get to sniff! Way to go, NYT!
3
Hardly, the Times has taken a clear position in this race, both editorially and withe its reporting.
1
Texas turned red after the Civil Rights Act was passed. Johnson rightly predicted that the south would be lost for a generation. It is no mystery why Know Nothing racists support Trump and the GOP.
20
Texas's economy has been very good, relatively speaking, so the average employed "doing O.K." voter cares not a whit about the millions of poor and uninsured and the pitiful public education system in the state. Texas is not yet ripe for a Democratic populist, but the day will come and he or she will change the landscape for decades.
115
"Texas's economy has been very good, relatively speaking, so the average employed "doing O.K." voter cares not a whit about the millions of poor and uninsured and the pitiful public education system in the state."
When you compare Whites to Whites, Blacks to Blacks, Latinos to Latinos, "foreign nationals" to "foreign nationals", Texas schools are easily in the top twenty percent in the nation.
When you compare Whites to Whites, Blacks to Blacks, Latinos to Latinos, "foreign nationals" to "foreign nationals", Texas schools are easily in the top twenty percent in the nation.
1
Where did you get the idea that Texas school are pitiful? According to the Associated Press, "Texas public school students outscored the rest of the country in science and math but fell behind on literacy tests." Texas leads the nation in two out of three categories.
http://www.oaoa.com/news/education/ecisd/article_a4bf92a8-7c87-11e2-88d9...
http://www.oaoa.com/news/education/ecisd/article_a4bf92a8-7c87-11e2-88d9...
1
"The national Democratic Party’s decades-long shift to the left contributed to the end olican f 100 years of Democratic dominance. (Even Mr. Perry was a Democrat, because, back in the day, nobody in Texas was a Republican.)"
I can't restrain myself either, like all the other 'southern' states, Texas turned Republican because of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1963. Pure racism is at the heart of Texas' conservatism.
I can't restrain myself either, like all the other 'southern' states, Texas turned Republican because of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1963. Pure racism is at the heart of Texas' conservatism.
33
Agree, and add to that, the Dems have moved to the RIGHT in the past decades. When Obama claimed the Wall street boys who ran this nation into an economic ditch we may never recover from, are "the smartest guys I have ever known," that sealed the rightward tilt.
2
To get an idea of how scary the Texas GOP is I suggest one read their party platform adopted at their recent convention. https://www.texasgop.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/PERM-PLATFORM.pdf.
The document reads as though the GOP will impose their version of "Judeo-Christian" sharia law if possible; separation of church and state notwithstanding.
This document could be a real asset to the Democrats in this current election cycle.
The document reads as though the GOP will impose their version of "Judeo-Christian" sharia law if possible; separation of church and state notwithstanding.
This document could be a real asset to the Democrats in this current election cycle.
20
Actually, our best hope are lawsuits demonstrating flagrant, systematic civil rights violations by the Republican Party, ALEC and the entire rainbow of right-wing tyranny 'think' tanks that effective shred the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and other federal laws that guarantee equal protection under the law.
While both parties participate in the corrupt gerrymandering process, the Republican Party uses it to hijack entire states and the House of MisRepresentatives to sustain their platform of nation sedition.
FROM http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/This-is-how-badly-Repub...
'Data scientists used a formula to determine the compactness and "squiggliness" of every Texas district.
They learned “the districts in gerrymandered states are less compact (more squiggly) than those in non-gerrymandered states.”
Some states let bipartisan committees take care of redistricting.
Texas' corruptly mapped districts create right-wing tyranny; ditto for North Carolina and all Republistan states.
The study says that gerrymandering gives Texas Republicans an extra two seats in the House; this political hijacking effect is replicated nationwide.
Through a strategy called “packing-and-cracking,” redistricting packs Democratic voters into a few districts and dilutes the rest, leaving the GOP with a comfortable majority in the remaining areas.'
The Republican Party is a walking civil rights and voting rights violation.
Sue them !!!
While both parties participate in the corrupt gerrymandering process, the Republican Party uses it to hijack entire states and the House of MisRepresentatives to sustain their platform of nation sedition.
FROM http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/This-is-how-badly-Repub...
'Data scientists used a formula to determine the compactness and "squiggliness" of every Texas district.
They learned “the districts in gerrymandered states are less compact (more squiggly) than those in non-gerrymandered states.”
Some states let bipartisan committees take care of redistricting.
Texas' corruptly mapped districts create right-wing tyranny; ditto for North Carolina and all Republistan states.
The study says that gerrymandering gives Texas Republicans an extra two seats in the House; this political hijacking effect is replicated nationwide.
Through a strategy called “packing-and-cracking,” redistricting packs Democratic voters into a few districts and dilutes the rest, leaving the GOP with a comfortable majority in the remaining areas.'
The Republican Party is a walking civil rights and voting rights violation.
Sue them !!!
156
Well, maybe when I have a few million dollars in legal fees I can just throw away, then I will.
Just secede.
You take more in federal dollars than you contribute in tax revenue. You send people who refuse to govern to national office.
Just get the heck out of the United States. The rest of us don't need your baggage.
You take more in federal dollars than you contribute in tax revenue. You send people who refuse to govern to national office.
Just get the heck out of the United States. The rest of us don't need your baggage.
10
Is Texas not the heart of the "teach Creationism in schools" movement? Is it not the state where when politicians are asked a question about, say, monetary policy, they begin their answer by affirming their belief in the death penalty? It's hard to see a path to Democratic success when a state's pride in its bigness extends to its level of ignorance.
16
Seems Mr.Cruz has his work cut out for him. Good luck Senator
Gerrymandering has a lot to do with republican success in TX. My democratic district was gerrymandered twice in two years to reduce democratic influence.
25
You can't gerrymander a state. You can put a lot of rubes in Congressional seats and seats in the state legislature. What is the reason for the looniness of the state-wide leaders (Governor and Senators)?
1
My excitement level goes up a bit every time I read about a Texas secession plan. Sounds like a great thing for them, getting rid of all this national stuff they hate. In return for making them not responsible for their part of the national debt, we will no longer be responsible for their Social Security, Medicare, or VA benefits.
Deal?
Deal?
587
If Texas wanted to leave the United States and become an independent nation, they would have to pay back billions of dollars that have gone into building highways, rural electrification, hundreds of dams and lakes, and maybe they'd have to buy the numerous military bases back, too. The Johnson Space Center would close, research and support money for the University of Texas and Texas A&M would dry up. In short, they would be paying the rest of us for the next 100 years and they would lose the welfare support that enables low wage employers, like McDonald's and WalMart, to hire people at near starvation wages while the national govt. picks up the slack. It wouldn't be a happy place after a few years. In fact, it would probably wind up like a right wing version of Venezuela where people are dying hourly in hospitals due to lack of treatment and medicines.
Think of this: those hard right politicians wouldn't have Washington to kick around any more. They'd have to blame themselves for the mess they made.
Doug Terry
Think of this: those hard right politicians wouldn't have Washington to kick around any more. They'd have to blame themselves for the mess they made.
Doug Terry
313
I am completely in favor of self determination, whether applied to Kurdistan or Texas. People should have the right to choose the form of government that is right for them, and not be forced to adopt another.
In that light, although I despise the values that the Confederacy stood for, I think world history would have turned out better had they been allowed to secede. The problem of Texas would then not be one for people in the US to debate - and I suspect that Texas would have seceded from the Confederacy many decades ago.
In that light, although I despise the values that the Confederacy stood for, I think world history would have turned out better had they been allowed to secede. The problem of Texas would then not be one for people in the US to debate - and I suspect that Texas would have seceded from the Confederacy many decades ago.
3
Medicare recipients would have to leave, because Medicare does not cover treatment in a foreign country, and there sure as hell would not be anything like that to replace it in the Republic of Texas.
10
"The national Democratic Party’s decades-long shift to the left", says the author of this column, Mimi Swartz, indicating that she is just as out of touch as the many contemporary Texas politicians she laments.
Only from Texas can a decades-long shift to the right be perceived as going in the other direction.
Only from Texas can a decades-long shift to the right be perceived as going in the other direction.
11
Florida has been a swing state for at least 16 years. We're as purple as purple can be in national elections. But if you look at the party demographics of our state government, things don't add up.
Florida Conservatives don't care about national government. They care about controlling school boards, city councils, and the state legislature. Which they do control.
Texas is the same. It's gerrymandered beyond belief, and the GOP runs all the government that really matters.
Florida Conservatives don't care about national government. They care about controlling school boards, city councils, and the state legislature. Which they do control.
Texas is the same. It's gerrymandered beyond belief, and the GOP runs all the government that really matters.
100
Pah. Texas has long thought of itself as separate and special. Why change? And it's not as if the state needs to go cap in hand to DC, like so many other client states. So it gets no attention at election time from the coastal media elites. Big deal.
6
"Is it cynicism or plain old ignorance..." It is cowardice.
L&B&L
L&B&L
14
It's sort of Taliban-lite here. Too many schools are afraid to teach and too many people are afraid to think for fear of being condemned as heretics. So most people just tow the line and convince themselves that selfishness is justified by the invisible-handed market. We have enough free-thinkers and socially concerned folks so that there is some balance. But gerrymandering and intimidation continue to have a powerful dynamic that will take much effort to counter. It looked like the ridiculousness of Trump was going to shake up some people to see the light. But instead many are finding a way to view Trump as a viable candidate. That's one for the creativity of Texans.
124
Nothing new here.
If you don't live in OH, NV, VA, FL or NC, you're essentially a spectator. At least, you won't be bombarded by endless political ads from super PACs.
The election has already been decided in over 40 states.
If you don't live in OH, NV, VA, FL or NC, you're essentially a spectator. At least, you won't be bombarded by endless political ads from super PACs.
The election has already been decided in over 40 states.
24
Mimi, our rescue may depend on the newcomers, many of whom arrive from Cali, whom we can hope will bring some of their voting habits with them.
In particular, we can hope Dems in Texas start trying to emulate California's and Arizona's changes to re-districting that battle gerrymandering, which SCOTUS has upheld:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-upholds...
Perhaps a good harbinger of such things was Hillary's San Antonio speech last fall:
https://www.texastribune.org/2015/10/15/san-antonio-clinton-emphasizes-e...
highlighting her actual campaign experience in Texas, not to mention Bill's, as well as Bill's stated respect for the late Houston Democrat Billie Carr.
In particular, we can hope Dems in Texas start trying to emulate California's and Arizona's changes to re-districting that battle gerrymandering, which SCOTUS has upheld:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-upholds...
Perhaps a good harbinger of such things was Hillary's San Antonio speech last fall:
https://www.texastribune.org/2015/10/15/san-antonio-clinton-emphasizes-e...
highlighting her actual campaign experience in Texas, not to mention Bill's, as well as Bill's stated respect for the late Houston Democrat Billie Carr.
29
I have never seen a comprehensive study on the issue, but my belief is that when people move from the east and west into Texas they tend to take on more than a taste for barbeque and jalapeno peppers. In a few years, they are voting hard right like those around them. They join the parade.
If I am correct, someone (Democrats? Independents?) needs to make a major effort to tell new arrivals it is okay to vote what they believe is right. Like new converts to a religion, some new comers turn into stronger believers than those who were involved all along because of birth.
Texas lacks a true base of citizens accustomed to going against the grain. This is in part a legacy of the Civil War, before, during and after, when the entire south was controlled by a few and the masses had to conform, or else. It is also derived from the rough times of the post-frontier period when the average person just didn't have time or energy for politics. In short, Texas is locked in a dance between its past and present and, without some progressive development and greater openness to new ideas and ways, it could be a dance to the death, environmental ruin being one of the threats on the near horizon.
Doug Terry
If I am correct, someone (Democrats? Independents?) needs to make a major effort to tell new arrivals it is okay to vote what they believe is right. Like new converts to a religion, some new comers turn into stronger believers than those who were involved all along because of birth.
Texas lacks a true base of citizens accustomed to going against the grain. This is in part a legacy of the Civil War, before, during and after, when the entire south was controlled by a few and the masses had to conform, or else. It is also derived from the rough times of the post-frontier period when the average person just didn't have time or energy for politics. In short, Texas is locked in a dance between its past and present and, without some progressive development and greater openness to new ideas and ways, it could be a dance to the death, environmental ruin being one of the threats on the near horizon.
Doug Terry
2
morechoice - Luckily for us, Nate Silver did such an analysis in 2014:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mapping-the-changing-face-of-the-lon...
Things hinge on Dems at the national level helping Texas Dems with a well-funded legal effort that takes apart the egregious gerrymandering before re-districting happens based on 2020 census figures.
Otherwise, it is easy envision this gerrymandering lasting even through the 2020 cycle, since the currently gerrymandered Austin legislature will predictably draw up an equally flawed 2020 map too late to be challenged for that fall's elections, thereby postponing until the 2022 or 2024 cycles the fair district lines.
The best help for Texas Dems is Sen. Raphael, the walking/talking billboard for a Constitutional Amendment allowing recall of U.S. Senators and Representatives.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mapping-the-changing-face-of-the-lon...
Things hinge on Dems at the national level helping Texas Dems with a well-funded legal effort that takes apart the egregious gerrymandering before re-districting happens based on 2020 census figures.
Otherwise, it is easy envision this gerrymandering lasting even through the 2020 cycle, since the currently gerrymandered Austin legislature will predictably draw up an equally flawed 2020 map too late to be challenged for that fall's elections, thereby postponing until the 2022 or 2024 cycles the fair district lines.
The best help for Texas Dems is Sen. Raphael, the walking/talking billboard for a Constitutional Amendment allowing recall of U.S. Senators and Representatives.
15
morechoice - Additionally, when analyzing politics around the country, it's good to keep the local dynamics in mind, which means looking at things from the county level, remembering there are about 3,144 counties/parishes/equivalents in the U.S.
This is when it's important to note Texas has 254 counties, so there are many many many more county officials (judges, sheriffs, clerks, registrars, etc.) per capita in Texas than in other large population states, debunking the convenient myth that is put forth by lots of those mostly conservative officials that Texans don't like government.
As a logical result, with so vastly many more counties and officials than most states, Texans are afflicted with vastly more pandering by those officials, and political bombast.
Illustrating the problem, consider California has 58 counties with 39.2 million population, Texas has 254 counties with 27.5 million pop., Florida's 67 counties have 20.2 million, NY's 62 counties have 19.8 million, Illinois has 102 counties with 12.8 million, Pa. has 67 counties with 12.8 million, Ohio's 88 counties have 11.6 million, Ga. has 159 counties with 10.2 million, NC's 100 counties have 10 million, and Mich. has 83 counties with 9.9 million people, those being the 10 most populous states.
You'll notice the correlation between how conservative a state's politicians lean closely tracking how many county officials there are per capita - readers have to do their own division, since we're out of space.
This is when it's important to note Texas has 254 counties, so there are many many many more county officials (judges, sheriffs, clerks, registrars, etc.) per capita in Texas than in other large population states, debunking the convenient myth that is put forth by lots of those mostly conservative officials that Texans don't like government.
As a logical result, with so vastly many more counties and officials than most states, Texans are afflicted with vastly more pandering by those officials, and political bombast.
Illustrating the problem, consider California has 58 counties with 39.2 million population, Texas has 254 counties with 27.5 million pop., Florida's 67 counties have 20.2 million, NY's 62 counties have 19.8 million, Illinois has 102 counties with 12.8 million, Pa. has 67 counties with 12.8 million, Ohio's 88 counties have 11.6 million, Ga. has 159 counties with 10.2 million, NC's 100 counties have 10 million, and Mich. has 83 counties with 9.9 million people, those being the 10 most populous states.
You'll notice the correlation between how conservative a state's politicians lean closely tracking how many county officials there are per capita - readers have to do their own division, since we're out of space.
2
What strikes me most about Texas is how Gov Perry and others boast of how well they are doing citing their business friendly policies, as if they are an end in themselves, when they have the highest rate of people without healthcare, high rates of poverty (likely many working minimum wages jobs for very profitable businesses) and high crime rates.
That they boast success when they fail to serve so many of their citizens is an indictment of the modern Conservative movement. It seems after all the priority of Republican leaders in the State IS their wealthy business owner friends, and the general welfare of most Texans is not considered an important indicator of success.
That they boast success when they fail to serve so many of their citizens is an indictment of the modern Conservative movement. It seems after all the priority of Republican leaders in the State IS their wealthy business owner friends, and the general welfare of most Texans is not considered an important indicator of success.
282
Sorry, but I can't let this remark go: There has been no "national Democratic Party’s decades-long shift to the left." BOTH parties have in fact shifted to the right since at least the 1980s, if not before. Nixon created the EPA, signed environmental legislation, opened relations with China--he would have no home in today's Republican party. Clinton engaged in a conscious strategy of moving the Democrats rightward. The primary change is that the Republicans are now the home of dog whistle politics appealing to racial and other prejudice, a niche formerly held by the Democrats.
416
Utterly correct. I was there when Ralph Yarborough--among many others--were leading progressive voices in Texas politics; and Texas Monthly is still a strong progressive voice. What shifted Texas to the Republican Party--just like what shifted the South to the Republican Party--was the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s. This is called by political scientists "party realignment" over a particular issue. Sorry: Texas, already a D-state after the Civil War, after FDR was solidly Democratic because of the New Deal realignment. Don't talk to us about some fantasy "shift to the left" in the Democratic Party over decades. The comment writer is wholly correct: if anything, the Democratic Party has shifted to the right. Interestingly, the electorate (and their opinions about policy matters) has not.
10
N. Chomsky has recently observer that an ideological-coalescence has occurred between both political parties that renders them virtually indistinguishable.
2
On what basis can the truth of JHB's post be contested?
1
Texas is what the Republicans think of as their "Denmark." It's the only place that Republicans can point to where at least there's an economy, and something contributed to the rest of the world. The fact that most of the economy was oil and that the contributions the rest of the world appreciates were mostly made by intellectual gastarbeiter and braceros didn't really detract from the model.
"See! If you have oil you can be as stupid as you wanna be, too!"
But with oil at $35/bbl and current production prices Texas is starting to wizen up.
In Texas there has been a Gresham's law about brains: when you don't think it can get dumber, it does. Governor "I'm the Decider" went on to be Prez ... for awhile. It's going to be a long time before America elects another Texan. Governor Goodhair took over, and amazingly he was dumber. His presidential aspirations went nowhere, Clark Kent glasses didn't make him smarter. But now it's Governor Sue-And-Lose -- the guy who calls out the Texas Rangers to "monitor" a US Army training exercise because he claims its a "takeover." He does seem to appreciate however that he has no presidential hopes at all.
The land of Louie Gohmert and Steve Stockman will find a bottom somewhere, after the oil runs out.
"See! If you have oil you can be as stupid as you wanna be, too!"
But with oil at $35/bbl and current production prices Texas is starting to wizen up.
In Texas there has been a Gresham's law about brains: when you don't think it can get dumber, it does. Governor "I'm the Decider" went on to be Prez ... for awhile. It's going to be a long time before America elects another Texan. Governor Goodhair took over, and amazingly he was dumber. His presidential aspirations went nowhere, Clark Kent glasses didn't make him smarter. But now it's Governor Sue-And-Lose -- the guy who calls out the Texas Rangers to "monitor" a US Army training exercise because he claims its a "takeover." He does seem to appreciate however that he has no presidential hopes at all.
The land of Louie Gohmert and Steve Stockman will find a bottom somewhere, after the oil runs out.
331
The stupidity is fractally nested, there is no bottom!
1
Actually our guv called out the Texas Guard, but the result was the same.
"Sighted nothing."
"Sighted nothing."
2
Let Texas secede. Declare it a hostile nation. Invade and take its oil and gas. Build a wall around it - except around its border with Mexico - and make Austin pay for it.
134
The Upper West Side might actually BE a fabulous place if it shared a border with Mexico. The cultural infusion would certainly provide a bit of much needed balance!
1
Yes, that's what we need in New York...cultural infusion
4
:( Austin is a lovely Democratic town. Maybe just build a wall around the Texas Legislature up there on Congress Street.
1
It is hard to be a Democrat. That is it, period.
5
,,,,but even harder to be a republican. Unless Bernie Sanders wins the nomination--a long shot--the 2106 election will be the choice between "the lesser of evils" for most Americans I know. NOT for me! H.Clinton is WAY better than Trump. And she will win easliy in November....
BUT please keep all this "close race" nonsense in the news---as it will scare many to vote DEM--- if only to vote against the idiot Trump.
BUT please keep all this "close race" nonsense in the news---as it will scare many to vote DEM--- if only to vote against the idiot Trump.
3
Sooner or later the endless hand wringing of baffled democrats needs to come to an end. How'z about writing about the facts of life under the regime change from dem to repub. HOW has ignoring environmental protection damaged the state? HOW has the stricture of anti abortion legislation affected birth numbers and drop-out rates? WHAT is the poverty line these days vs. regional per capita income? HOW has poverty or falling graduation rates or diminishing wages changed state revenue? WHAT happens when ignorance replaces knowledge? CAN Texas or the USA function if waterways are polluted and non-caucasian citizens cannot succeed? It is time for op-ed writers to illuminate HOW republican dismantling of protections and will affect the current day - for endangered species, for women, children, the environment, economic reforms, education, workplace safety. Will returning to the policies of the 1950s, for instance, make homosexuality a jailable offense again? Will women be unable to open their own checking account or get a mortgage? Will we see toxic waste once more pouring from factory pipes again? Yes! Let's imagine the state of Texas and the US under complete republican control. Every statehouse, every legislature; from every town clerk to every judgeship, to the highest offices in the land. What, then, o citizens, will the USA be for you?
96
"imagine the state of Texas and the US under complete republican control. Every statehouse, every legislature; from every town clerk to every judgeship, to the highest offices in the land. What, then, o citizens, will the USA be for you?
Saudi Arabia? Kansas? Purgatory?
Saudi Arabia? Kansas? Purgatory?
19
...a terrible nightmare that would be! Our nation is bad enough with this do-nothing republican-led Congress. Add a rep. prez?? no way!
4
The Texas Supreme Court (all Republicans, naturally) just turned down public schools' challenge to the school finance system passed by the Texas Legislature (2/3 Republican, naturally) all the while opining that the finance system is terrible terrible terrible. So, naturally, the Republican Court told the Republican Legislature to fix it. We are not holding our breaths.
59
The log in the eye of Texas is its approach to K-12 education. Whether it's the valorization of high-school football or the adoption of wacky creationist science textbooks, Texas has its priorities in education policy all wrong. Educate your electorate, Texas, and see what happens then!
125
"Educate your electorate, Texas, and see what happens then!"
Why would the GOP want to do that?
Why would the GOP want to do that?
18
Texas doesn't want to be relevant. It wants to secede. It wants to reject federal money for schools and Medicaid expansion rather than submit to federal rules. And most of all it doesn't want to pay federal taxes, but would gladly bask in the protection provided by the US military were it to secede.
93
Oh, those US military installations would be gone too, along with all government goodies. You'd have to stand on your own feet.
I'd love to see how far that Texan bravado takes you.
I'd love to see how far that Texan bravado takes you.
18
I hope this happens. Texas is the king of the red nation. If we lose Texas we gain much much more for the rest of our nation. No more red presidents...No more "make America WHITE again" idiocy. I hope Texas DOES secede...
8
Not to mention Federal Disaster Relief!
5
Separate from the particular politics of Texas, the author's comments about political irrelevancy in presidential elections affects any state that reliably lean toward one party. Thus we end up with presidential elections that are waged in a handful of swing states while people in most of the country - and issues important to them - are ignored (unless they are giving or attending fundraisers, of course).
Another problem: Larger states like Texas (and New York) are underrepresented. With 538 electoral votes overall, there should be one for every 600K people or so. Instead, Wyoming with a population of 586K, has 3 electoral votes - one for every 195K people - while Texas has 1 electoral vote per 723K people. The US Senate is even worse, with Wyoming having one Senator for less than 300K residents while Texas has one Senator per 13.7 million.
I doubt there's much we can do about the Senate imbalance, but the Electoral College has got to go.
Another problem: Larger states like Texas (and New York) are underrepresented. With 538 electoral votes overall, there should be one for every 600K people or so. Instead, Wyoming with a population of 586K, has 3 electoral votes - one for every 195K people - while Texas has 1 electoral vote per 723K people. The US Senate is even worse, with Wyoming having one Senator for less than 300K residents while Texas has one Senator per 13.7 million.
I doubt there's much we can do about the Senate imbalance, but the Electoral College has got to go.
24
This is not a problem of the Electoral College. It's purely and simply the result of the compromise that the Founders made that small states would have as many Senators as big states.
You can argue around the problem and dink with the formula but the only way to SOLVE it is with a Constitutional Amendment recasting the Senate. Everything else is noise.
You can argue around the problem and dink with the formula but the only way to SOLVE it is with a Constitutional Amendment recasting the Senate. Everything else is noise.
2
There's a simple solution to this: the National Popular Vote Compact. It doesn't require a Constitutional amendment, doesn't require any kind of altruism or bipartisanship, only state legislatures acting in their own interest.
See http://nationalpopularvote.com
Since it's clearly good for large-population states and "safe" (red or blue) states, it's an obvious win for Texas. And it's an obvious win for small-d democracy. But it MIGHT not be a win for the national Republican party, if they figure more of the small-population states are "red" than "blue"; I presume this is why Texas hasn't already passed it.
See http://nationalpopularvote.com
Since it's clearly good for large-population states and "safe" (red or blue) states, it's an obvious win for Texas. And it's an obvious win for small-d democracy. But it MIGHT not be a win for the national Republican party, if they figure more of the small-population states are "red" than "blue"; I presume this is why Texas hasn't already passed it.
3
Peter you are right, ending the electoral college would require a Const. Am. (never will happen) However, if the Dems had their act together in 2009, they would have overturned the silly law passed in 1918, topping the house seats at 435. It is no longer a proportionate body, and thus we are not a representative democracy. That number needs to be lifted to infinity and correctly and fairly proportioned. That is in line with the way the Founders saw the H of R and makes sense for our time. We would be stuck with more Texas representation, but we would benefit from big states like CA and NY.
1
Texas, along with other southern states, embodies a paradox of democracy. Popular government is supposed to serve the interests of the majority, but the penny-pinching, mean-spirit policies of our elected leaders benefit only a relatively small minority. Gerrymandering and voter registration laws provide only a partial explanation of this oddity. If we narrow our focus to just those who vote, it remains likely that the majority would fare better under a more liberal regime.
We lack a public philosophy that would justify a progressive conception of government's responsibilities. Generations of Texans have undergone an education, in and out of school, that celebrates the virtues of individualism, while portraying government as an institution that constrains personal liberty. Faithful only in part to the principles arising from the American Revolution, this negative ideal has convinced Texans that government, especially on the federal level, represents bureaucratic inefficiency and the misuse of taxpayer money.
In the absence of any effective campaign to inculcate a more progressive ideal of government's role, this stunted worldview prevails. Nor does it help that most Texans associate activist government with Washington, a regime state officials regard almost as alien. Except on those occasions when the state needs outside aid, the guardians of our liberty routinely denounce federal officials as a threat to the people's autonomy.
Such is life in the Lone Star State.
We lack a public philosophy that would justify a progressive conception of government's responsibilities. Generations of Texans have undergone an education, in and out of school, that celebrates the virtues of individualism, while portraying government as an institution that constrains personal liberty. Faithful only in part to the principles arising from the American Revolution, this negative ideal has convinced Texans that government, especially on the federal level, represents bureaucratic inefficiency and the misuse of taxpayer money.
In the absence of any effective campaign to inculcate a more progressive ideal of government's role, this stunted worldview prevails. Nor does it help that most Texans associate activist government with Washington, a regime state officials regard almost as alien. Except on those occasions when the state needs outside aid, the guardians of our liberty routinely denounce federal officials as a threat to the people's autonomy.
Such is life in the Lone Star State.
67
The Texan's anti-government concern for individual liberties echoes the mood in Colonial Massachusetts in the 1770's. The problem is, there's no chance that these kind of "patriots" could ever come up with something like our Constitution.
4
tashmuit Funny, I always thought they were anti tyranny, not anti government. Which is why they created their very own new government with their own constitution, rather than opting for libertarian anarchy.
2
The illegal immigrant problem is "catastrophic" in Texas and continually getting worse in this country as a tremendous amount of people are on government benefits and not adding to the tax base that supports public education, hospitals and law enforcement. No Hillary Clinton will not be welcome in Texas as her presidential campaign plans include more frivolous spending plans on more already over-loaded social programs.
5
If illegal immigrants are the problem, the SIMPLE solution is to jail those people who hire them. Put a couple dozen employers in prison and nobody will hire illegals, and they will have no reason to come.
... as if Texans were actually interested in stopping illegal immigration.
... as if Texans were actually interested in stopping illegal immigration.
20
Your post is a ten gallon hat full of sweeping unsubstantiated assertions.
As Hillary said, "You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts".
As Hillary said, "You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts".
14
You oughta move to Texas where you kooky views are not only tolerated, but expected.
13
Texas has commingled religion and politics in a very unique, and, frankly, fascinating way. A real, Southern Baptist Christian, is also a "Republican". And, if not, will carefully cloak that fact. The two (religion and party affiliation) have melded together over the 35 years since many found Ronald Reagan's rhetoric on responsible spending in government attractive (but never followed up on the data showing him as the very first, very huge deficit spending President). It has now been long enough that children have been born into "religion" melded politics so that children are now "Christian" and "Republican" for life, not ever doing critical review on the Republican part of that religion half. This melding of religion and party is the most successful method of maintaining party allegiance.....it disables a critical capacity for review, data acquisition, or debate. If you are not Republican, you are going to Hell. End of Story. For many, that is a powerful reason to stay Republican, and, not think too much.
54
I wish everyone in Texas (and beyond) would take a look at "The Redneck Liberal" on YouTube. The guy is from Tennessee but his message is directed at the millions of people across the country who, time after time, keep voting against their own interests. This is certainly the case here, particularly in rural areas.
By the way... my 16-year-old cat has done more for the betterment of Texas than Ted Cruz has. Unless you're a fan of his orchestrating the shut-down, which cost taxpayers upwards of $24 Billion.
By the way... my 16-year-old cat has done more for the betterment of Texas than Ted Cruz has. Unless you're a fan of his orchestrating the shut-down, which cost taxpayers upwards of $24 Billion.
226
The Liberal Redneck worth watching. Vulgar, but very funny.
1
As an outsider, from My Blue Heaven, NY, I have to agree that Texas politicians, with the exception of a certain Mr. Castro, have gotten to be held in pretty ill-repute here in the land of our better (or just slicker) angels. That being said, the Texas syndrome has a spread much larger than its borders, and as Mr. Presumptive has demonstrated, permeates the Empire State and its high-falutin' suburban surroundings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and say it ain't so, Ohio). The heart of His Hugeness' home turf is an enlarged heart. Yup, it's all heart.
7
I know someone who moved to Texas a year ago. I recently asked her how it was going. She said "people are crazy here". Guess that just about sums it up.
106
Texas has commingled religion and politics in a very unique, and, frankly, fascinating way. A real, Southern Baptist Christian, is also a "Republican". And, if not, will carefully cloak that fact.
The two (religion and party affiliation) have melded together over the 35 years since many found Ronald Reagan's rhetoric on responsible spending in government attractive (but never followed up on the data showing him as the very first, very huge deficit spending President). It has now been long enough that children have been born into "religion" melded politics so that children are now "Christian" and "Republican" for life, not ever doing critical review on the Republican part of that religion half.
This melding of religion and party is the most successful method of maintaining party allegiance.....it disables a critical capacity for review, data acquisition, or debate.
If you are not Republican, you are going to Hell. End of Story.
For many, that is a powerful reason to stay Republican, and, not think too much.
The two (religion and party affiliation) have melded together over the 35 years since many found Ronald Reagan's rhetoric on responsible spending in government attractive (but never followed up on the data showing him as the very first, very huge deficit spending President). It has now been long enough that children have been born into "religion" melded politics so that children are now "Christian" and "Republican" for life, not ever doing critical review on the Republican part of that religion half.
This melding of religion and party is the most successful method of maintaining party allegiance.....it disables a critical capacity for review, data acquisition, or debate.
If you are not Republican, you are going to Hell. End of Story.
For many, that is a powerful reason to stay Republican, and, not think too much.
7
Texas has commingled religion and politics in a very unique, and, frankly, fascinating way.
A real, Southern Baptist Christian, is also a "Republican". And, if not, will carefully cloak that fact.
The two (religion and party affiliation) have melded together over the 35 years since many found Ronald Reagan's rhetoric on responsible spending in government attractive (but never followed up on the data showing him as the very first, very huge deficit spending President).
It has now been long enough that children have been born into "religion" melded politics so that children are now "Christian" and "Republican" for life, not ever doing critical review on the Republican part of that religion half.
This melding of religion and party is the most successful method of maintaining party allegiance.....it disables a critical capacity for review, data acquisition, or debate.
If you are not Republican, you are going to Hell. End of Story.
For many, that is a powerful reason to stay Republican, and, not think too much.
A real, Southern Baptist Christian, is also a "Republican". And, if not, will carefully cloak that fact.
The two (religion and party affiliation) have melded together over the 35 years since many found Ronald Reagan's rhetoric on responsible spending in government attractive (but never followed up on the data showing him as the very first, very huge deficit spending President).
It has now been long enough that children have been born into "religion" melded politics so that children are now "Christian" and "Republican" for life, not ever doing critical review on the Republican part of that religion half.
This melding of religion and party is the most successful method of maintaining party allegiance.....it disables a critical capacity for review, data acquisition, or debate.
If you are not Republican, you are going to Hell. End of Story.
For many, that is a powerful reason to stay Republican, and, not think too much.
20
>>>>
I thought TX was succeeded from the Union? What's the hold up?
I thought TX was succeeded from the Union? What's the hold up?
21
TX is Trumpland, and here's how his White House will look, like 'Dallas' on steroids … http://tinyurl.com/go2op2w
Fawlty Towers meets House of Cards.
Fawlty Towers meets House of Cards.
9
Phil Gram, Tom Delay, and Dick Armey were for effective gubmint and got things done? As the Dixie Chicks (Texans) would say, now there's your problem.....
89
Ms Swartz says that the reason there are no reasonable republicans in Texas is because the Democrats moved to the left. The Democrats have not really moved to the left. Even our most leftist candidate, Bernie Sanders, is calling for a return to tax rates and infrastructure investment similar to the ones under Eisenhower. Also at that time higher education was strongly supported by state governments and the GI bill so college was a lot more affordable.
While Democrats have continues the fight for social equality begun by Jefferson and the founders of this country, the economic policies the Democrats call for are mainstream 1950s. The Republicans have moved quite far to the right.
While Democrats have continues the fight for social equality begun by Jefferson and the founders of this country, the economic policies the Democrats call for are mainstream 1950s. The Republicans have moved quite far to the right.
56
If TX goes blue or even purple, kiss America good bye. Shut the lights. It will be all be over.
3
It is ironic that Texas separated from Mexico, but it is Latinos that need to save Texas from itself by voting Democrat. The angry know-nothing whites are making Texas a joke.
54
Mimi, one need look no further than the Texas Board of Education to see the roots of the state's political backwardness. That and gerrymandering.
82
I know what ya mean. My old home state, Idaho, is "red AND not relevant" a small western state that hasn't had a D in statewide office since Cecil Andrus and Larry Echohawk.
And unlike Texas, the demographics are worsening, with the influx of cashed up conservatives from California and, sigh, Texas, to whom Idaho's conservative rep (and relatively lower property prices ) is like catnip.
Sigh.
And unlike Texas, the demographics are worsening, with the influx of cashed up conservatives from California and, sigh, Texas, to whom Idaho's conservative rep (and relatively lower property prices ) is like catnip.
Sigh.
25
At least Blaine County still tends to vote Democratic. Lots of former Oregonians, Californians and Washingtonians there.
1
I'm reminded of a scene from "The Blindside" movie when Kathy Bates' character is being interviewed by Sandra Bullock's character for a tutoring position. At the end of the scene she feels she must divulge something about herself that would impact whether or not she would get the job. "I'm a Democrat", she almost whispers.
It played for laughs in the movie but it's not so funny when you live here, have experienced in one form or another exactly that scene, but whose grandparents were life long Democrats.
Now the Tea Party Governor, Lt. Governor, Cruz, my Representative, Jeb (Shut down the Import Export Bank because it's....just bad) Hensarling have paved the way for "President" Trump.
Cronyn is considered the Statesman of the bunch because he reached across the aisle to come out against...sex trafficking.
The urban centers are "Blue" but sometimes you feel like you will be made to sew a "D" on your clothes.
The only thing good about this election cycle is that one can retort, "You're really going to vote for Trump?!" and there actually is a hint of embarrassment for having to say yes if one is going to continue to call themselves Republicans.
If the only hope is for them pass on to their "Great Reward", then please, please pick up the pace.
It played for laughs in the movie but it's not so funny when you live here, have experienced in one form or another exactly that scene, but whose grandparents were life long Democrats.
Now the Tea Party Governor, Lt. Governor, Cruz, my Representative, Jeb (Shut down the Import Export Bank because it's....just bad) Hensarling have paved the way for "President" Trump.
Cronyn is considered the Statesman of the bunch because he reached across the aisle to come out against...sex trafficking.
The urban centers are "Blue" but sometimes you feel like you will be made to sew a "D" on your clothes.
The only thing good about this election cycle is that one can retort, "You're really going to vote for Trump?!" and there actually is a hint of embarrassment for having to say yes if one is going to continue to call themselves Republicans.
If the only hope is for them pass on to their "Great Reward", then please, please pick up the pace.
54
"Cronyn is considered the Statesman of the bunch because he reached across the aisle to come out against...sex trafficking." But then that may be perhaps because he believes illegal immigrants are responsible for this. Whenever a GOPer appears to vote sensibly, stop and consider what their motive might be.
2
The new law in Texas allowing concealed carry of handguns on state university campuses, e.g., the University of Texas System components, that goes into effect on August 1, 2016, isn't going to help, either.
Whether you are trying to recruit faculty or students from out of state, can you imagine anything more chilling than that? It's hard enough to recruit top-notch faculty to Texas from the Ivies, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, etc., as I know from personal experience as a dean for several years in the 1990s at one of the University of Texas campuses. And my branch of UT is a Tier One UT-System school, that is, on a par with UT-Austin in teaching, research, and the high quality of its student body.
Whether you are trying to recruit faculty or students from out of state, can you imagine anything more chilling than that? It's hard enough to recruit top-notch faculty to Texas from the Ivies, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, etc., as I know from personal experience as a dean for several years in the 1990s at one of the University of Texas campuses. And my branch of UT is a Tier One UT-System school, that is, on a par with UT-Austin in teaching, research, and the high quality of its student body.
33
Deep in the Heart of Dummies. Texas is after all part of the moocher States known as the South.
24
I'm not sure I agree with the description of irrelevance. The dark forces of backwardness still need their Orc hordes, and Texas supplies them in frightful quantities. I refer you to the influence of these folks on textbook committees, city and town councils, and school boards. The Texas legislature was a bad joke even when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties in Corpus. Every now and then we'd be treated to common sense politicians like Frances Farenthold and Barbara Jordan. (One of Farenthold's relatives is now a representative from my home district, having joined the Orcs). Its of course relevant when a state as populous as Texas opts to keep the blinders on and revel in willful ignorance. By the looks of it, the infection has spread, and now more relevant states are going for Trump.
19
Ms. Swartz must have a LOT of friends in Texas.
But there are many Texans who likely would be deeply offended by this op-ed, dripping as it is with the scorn of the progressively righteous. It's also pretty far off the mark, where, as we're soon to see if we haven't already twigged to it, Hillary's gut convictions probably aren't all that different from Trump's, to the extent that either has any. That would suggest that Texas is very much up for grabs, and even the Kochs (not Texans but representative of what Ms. Swartz suggests is the dominant phylum there) are so contemptuous of Trump that they're said to be considering backing the Democratic contender. It's like the British band playing "The World Turned Upside Down" as Lord Cornwallis surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown, in 1781.
Texas has 38 electoral votes, second only to California's 55 -- and both are winner-take-all states (only two aren't, Nebraska and Maine). The winner needs 270 electoral votes to win, and neither 38 nor 55 can be assumed lost as it could be as tight as a bull's nostrils in fly season.
Texas also is rapidly becoming a purple state, with the rising Hispanic population and the large number of economic refugees from rust-belt states and California, looking for middle-class jobs of which Texas has plenty, and that includes businesses seeking less onerous regulation and lower taxes.
Not so sure anymore that Texas is all that reliably red and QUITE certain that it won't be irrelevant.
But there are many Texans who likely would be deeply offended by this op-ed, dripping as it is with the scorn of the progressively righteous. It's also pretty far off the mark, where, as we're soon to see if we haven't already twigged to it, Hillary's gut convictions probably aren't all that different from Trump's, to the extent that either has any. That would suggest that Texas is very much up for grabs, and even the Kochs (not Texans but representative of what Ms. Swartz suggests is the dominant phylum there) are so contemptuous of Trump that they're said to be considering backing the Democratic contender. It's like the British band playing "The World Turned Upside Down" as Lord Cornwallis surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown, in 1781.
Texas has 38 electoral votes, second only to California's 55 -- and both are winner-take-all states (only two aren't, Nebraska and Maine). The winner needs 270 electoral votes to win, and neither 38 nor 55 can be assumed lost as it could be as tight as a bull's nostrils in fly season.
Texas also is rapidly becoming a purple state, with the rising Hispanic population and the large number of economic refugees from rust-belt states and California, looking for middle-class jobs of which Texas has plenty, and that includes businesses seeking less onerous regulation and lower taxes.
Not so sure anymore that Texas is all that reliably red and QUITE certain that it won't be irrelevant.
6
It does not take a Texan to understand Texas better. I don't find the piece by Ms. Swartz so helpful, which is perhaps because political celebrities live in headlines and understand reality as such. Really, who cares about a fundraiser, a couple failed candidates, and dead/retired political bigwigs?
This presents the reasons to do away with the Electoral College. If the popular vote mattered, blue and red states would not longer matter, just voters. That would be good, very good.
Stop. Remember the down side too. There is a down side. It isn't a simple question.
First, the Electoral College system puts a limit on corruption of the vote. The local parties can capture their state vote, but that is all the damage they can do. They can vote as many cemeteries as they like, they can keep minorities from voting, they can mess with the count, but they can't do more than win their state.
Consider if the Chicago Machine or Jeb Bush's Florida machine messing with the vote for his brother could have offset votes in other states by their shenanigans. They would have, in a flash. We would have had more Florida votes for W than there were people in Florida, if they could have been counted against California votes.
This also protects states with smaller populations but unique interests. They are on both sides, Western states and Northeastern states. Our people are not spread evenly across our land. There must be some account for that, though it is not everything it is something. The Electoral College system is a balance in that. If we toss it out, will we find some other balance, or just no balance at all? There is some justice in having the interests of Maine and Wyoming both considered.
So when tossing that bathwater, careful of the baby.
Stop. Remember the down side too. There is a down side. It isn't a simple question.
First, the Electoral College system puts a limit on corruption of the vote. The local parties can capture their state vote, but that is all the damage they can do. They can vote as many cemeteries as they like, they can keep minorities from voting, they can mess with the count, but they can't do more than win their state.
Consider if the Chicago Machine or Jeb Bush's Florida machine messing with the vote for his brother could have offset votes in other states by their shenanigans. They would have, in a flash. We would have had more Florida votes for W than there were people in Florida, if they could have been counted against California votes.
This also protects states with smaller populations but unique interests. They are on both sides, Western states and Northeastern states. Our people are not spread evenly across our land. There must be some account for that, though it is not everything it is something. The Electoral College system is a balance in that. If we toss it out, will we find some other balance, or just no balance at all? There is some justice in having the interests of Maine and Wyoming both considered.
So when tossing that bathwater, careful of the baby.
37
I've heard the argument that the electoral college protects the citizens of states with smaller populations. Do they really need that protection? Don't those small states have two senators, just as the large states do? With the supposed balance of power between the three branches of government, their senators should give them all the protection they need.
With the electoral college, a vote in a small state is worth more than a vote in a large state. That is not right.
With the electoral college, a vote in a small state is worth more than a vote in a large state. That is not right.
10
I am not sure how changing or dismantling the electoral college somehow threatens state sovereignty in elections not how it supposedly protects it now. Florida's electoral college was very much on Democrats minds as they decided to sue for a recount but not to bring fraud charges in 2000. They recognized that the state's electoral college could step in if the election was deemed invalid. That threat had a chilling effect on calling out corruption. And, no, I don't think less populous states "deserve" an outsized role. We are the only Western Democracy that limits itself to a plurality. Time to shake things up!
2
Regional differences do exist - but Maine's interests are no longer different from the rest of New England's, nor Wyoming's from the West's. The Electoral College, like the U.S. Senate, is an artifact of the divide over slavery. But we're one nation now, tied together by vast transportation networks and mass communications, not "these United States." And there are other solutions for Jeb Bush stealing Florida or Rahm Emanuel stealing Illinois; take partisanship out of vote-counting and criminalize electoral theft. We should eliminate the Electoral College.
2
Psychiatrist and author M. Scott Peck wrote in "People of the Lie":
"There really are people and institutions made up of people, who respond with hatred in the presence of goodness and would destroy the good insofar as it is in their power to do so. They do this not with conscious malice but blindly, lacking awareness of their own evil -- indeed, seeking to avoid any such awareness. ... They will destroy the light in their own children and in all other beings subject to their power. ...
"My second conclusion, then, is that evil is laziness carried to its ultimate, extraordinary extreme. ...
"I define evil, then, as the exercise of political power -- that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion -- in order to avoid extending one’s self for the purpose of nurturing spiritual growth."
The whirlwind in Texas emanates from a perfect storm of intellectual indolence whipped up when people buy arguments from billionaires that we can cut society's funding, those from polluters that regulations keep no one safe (tell that to West) and hurt everyone's prosperity, and those from churches that the Bible should have veto power over the Constitution.
When your populace embraces lazy thinking, you become less relevant. When your Governor salivates to execute ....
Peck's last point might have been excerpted from a review of "Atlas Shrugged," in which a therapist examines those who reside at Galt's Gulch, and hears Cain's echo: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
"There really are people and institutions made up of people, who respond with hatred in the presence of goodness and would destroy the good insofar as it is in their power to do so. They do this not with conscious malice but blindly, lacking awareness of their own evil -- indeed, seeking to avoid any such awareness. ... They will destroy the light in their own children and in all other beings subject to their power. ...
"My second conclusion, then, is that evil is laziness carried to its ultimate, extraordinary extreme. ...
"I define evil, then, as the exercise of political power -- that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion -- in order to avoid extending one’s self for the purpose of nurturing spiritual growth."
The whirlwind in Texas emanates from a perfect storm of intellectual indolence whipped up when people buy arguments from billionaires that we can cut society's funding, those from polluters that regulations keep no one safe (tell that to West) and hurt everyone's prosperity, and those from churches that the Bible should have veto power over the Constitution.
When your populace embraces lazy thinking, you become less relevant. When your Governor salivates to execute ....
Peck's last point might have been excerpted from a review of "Atlas Shrugged," in which a therapist examines those who reside at Galt's Gulch, and hears Cain's echo: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
147
What's the connection between arson, the cause of the West disaster, and pollution? Exactly how did/would regulation have prevented arson?
JPE, regulation about locating explosive material could have saved lives.
16
It may not happen in this election, but demographics will push us into becoming a swing state before long. Look at all the new citizens who will be voting against Trump.
115
'cept THAT Fat Lady ain't sung her song, yet.
2
One of the biggest contributors to the perpetually-Red voting record of the state is an ungodly gerrymandering that has been allowed to stand. A look at lines drawn through Austin alone illustrate how more liberal factions--and there are many--within the state have been marginalized.
Many of us vote Democratic, but see our votes' power diluted by precinct and district lines that favor the bunch of crazies for which the state is known.
Many of us vote Democratic, but see our votes' power diluted by precinct and district lines that favor the bunch of crazies for which the state is known.
496
Gerrymandering doesn't explain why the Republicans have controlled all statewide elected offices (of which there are quite a few in Texas) since Bob Bullock and Dan Morales left office in January 1999.
7
Most of the gerrymandering in Texas is carried out by order of the Justice Department, which forces the state to create districts with large Hispanic majorities or large African American majorities, even though these two groups now outnumber non-Hispanic white voters. And Democrats constantly file lawsuits seeking the creation of even more gerrymandered safe districts for Democrats.
3
We're waiting for y'all to turn blue all of a sudden based on overwhelming demographics.
1