This was the session that pushed Texas further to the right, at a time when it seemed least likely to do so — as the state becomes younger, less white and less Republican.
By Edgar Sandoval, David Montgomery and Manny Fernandez
June 1, 2021
AUSTIN, Texas — It was a literal exit strategy: Texas Democrats staged a last-minute walkout on Sunday to kill an elections bill that would have restricted voting statewide. The quorum-breaking move — a decades-old maneuver favored by Democratic lawmakers — worked, in dramatic fashion.
But by Tuesday, the reality of their short-lived triumph had settled in. The bill was very much still alive, with the Republican governor vowing to call lawmakers back to Austin for a special session to revive and pass the measure. It was a top legislative priority for the Republican Party, and would have been the final achievement in the ultraconservative session that concluded on Monday.
On Tuesday, Democrats staggered out of the session that included passage of a number of other aggressive measures, including a near-ban on abortion and a bill allowing the carrying of handguns without permits. And Republicans, who seven months ago staved off a high-profile, top-dollar campaign by Democrats to flip the State House for the first time in nearly two decades, applauded themselves for a series of conservative victories.
“Elections have consequences,” said State Representative Craig Goldman, who represents part of Fort Worth and is the treasurer of the House Republican Caucus. Of the Democrats, he said, “They spent over $50 million trying to gain control of the Texas State House and they didn’t do it.”
Indeed, this was the session that pushed the state further right, at a time when it seemed least likely to do so — as Texas becomes younger, less white and less Republican, and as it continues to reel from the twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse of its power grid during a winter storm that killed more than 150 people statewide.
Texas legislative politics reverberate far beyond the state’s borders because of its size, its pull in Congress and its economy. The session provides a window into the partisan warfare being waged at the statehouse level around the country — in states they control, Republicans are tightening their grip on the levers of power as the demographics shift around them.
Like a lot of statehouses, the Texas Capitol is filled with part-time lawmakers. Its members — who typically meet once every two years for 140 days — are paid a salary of $7,200 and earn a living elsewhere. One of the authors of the gun bill owns an East Texas insurance agency, and another is an orthopedic surgeon. A writer of a measure that sought to ban transgender students from playing on sports teams based on their gender identity is a certified public accountant. One of the lawmakers who helped draft legislation to financially punish large cities if they cut their police budgets is a banker.
On a recent afternoon beneath the salmon-colored dome of the Texas Capitol, a lobbyist chatted in the halls with a sales representative for a drilling fluids company. That sales rep was State Representative Tom Craddick, who served years ago as the first Republican speaker of the Texas House since Reconstruction.
“Some people play golf,” Mr. Craddick, 77, said. “I’m in the Legislature.”
In past decades, Mr. Craddick and his fellow conservatives have consistently put their stamp on the biennial legislative sessions in Austin that begin in January and end in May. They gained national attention for banning sanctuary cities and requiring voter ID, among other measures.
But the tenor, the players, the combativeness and the times have changed.
This became one of the most conservative recent sessions in Texas, with bills that had died in previous sessions for being too extreme now viewed as middle-of-the-road in the post-Trump era. Last month, in the span of a feverish few days, lawmakers passed the bill banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when many women are not even aware they are pregnant, after a similar bill died in the 2019 session. And they approved the bill to do away with the state’s handgun permit and training system, after similar efforts failed to gain momentum in past years.
Another factor has been the disappearance of the moderate Republican guardrails.
In past legislative sessions, Bush-style Republicans, including the former speaker of the House, Joe Straus of San Antonio, blocked many bills put forth by the far right, including killing a so-called bathroom bill in 2017 that would have restricted which bathroom transgender people can use in public buildings and schools. Mr. Straus and many of his moderate allies are gone now from the Legislature, replaced in large part by pro-Trump Republicans who have taken to criticizing Gov. Greg Abbott for not being conservative enough.
The state’s Republican leadership thrived in the Obama era, in much the same way that California’s Democratic leadership relished being the liberal antidote in the Trump era. Now Texas Republicans are playing the antagonist once again during the Biden administration, all while intraparty skirmishes have broken out and far-right grass-roots activists prepare for next year’s Republican primaries.
“They’re flexing their muscle going into the 2022 primaries, so they’re all looking over their right shoulders and I think that’s driving a lot of this,” said State Representative Chris Turner, who is the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “They certainly are pushing the envelope in a way they haven’t before.”
Republican lawmakers, including Mr. Goldman, deny that any of their work this session was payback against the Democrats for a hard-fought election last year. They said they were given a mandate by Texas voters when Democrats who needed to flip nine net seats to take control of the House gained none.
“When the people of Texas see that onslaught of dollars and a lot of negative campaigns and they aren’t persuaded to ditch their Republican representative for a Democrat, it tells Republicans that people are embracing their point of view,” said State Representative Jim Murphy, chairman of the House Republican Caucus.
State Representative Jarvis D. Johnson, a Democrat from Houston, said this had been a particularly partisan session. He cited but one example: the dismissive Republican response to his efforts to abolish Confederate Heroes Day, an official state holiday in Texas.
“Last session I was able to get a committee hearing on this,” Mr. Johnson said. “That’s something I could not even get this year.”
Mr. Johnson had a heated exchange on the House floor with a Republican lawmaker over the role of slavery in the Texas Revolution, one of many confrontations and arguments between Democratic and Republican legislators.
“As long as you’re a white, Christian evangelical, gun-loving, Bible-toting, race-baiting person, hell yeah, Texas is for you,” Mr. Johnson, who is Black, said in an interview. “They got all kinds of freedoms for them. Believe me, I’d like to tell you that I’ve got a lot of friends on the other side of the aisle. But I can’t lie to you like that.”
In Texas, it has long been the case that Democrats can only stall legislation. It is nearly impossible for them to push forward bills in tune with their vision of a more progressive state.
Recently, the beleaguered party saw one way out of the transgender sports bill: Keep talking past the deadline to pass it. And so the Democratic lawmakers did. After the clock struck midnight, they cheered and transgender activists waved flags in the chamber.
They also used last-minute stalling tactics to successfully kill two other bills in the House that had been priorities for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the presiding officer in the Senate who later criticized his Republican colleagues in the House for not working hard enough.
When the speaker of the House, State Representative Dade Phelan, was stopped at an entrance to the Senate last month because he lacked a required wristband showing he had a negative coronavirus test, it started an intraparty debate over whether he was denied entry to the chamber. The incident only heightened the perception that the two Republican-led chambers that Democrats accused of advancing such a divisive conservative agenda were themselves divided.
“There’s always some level of factions just because we’re like any family,” said Mr. Murphy, the Republican caucus chairman. “There’s the ones that have cheese pizza and those who want pepperoni. But we’re all going to sit down for dinner.”
It has been decades since Molly Ivins, a sharp-witted liberal writer known for mocking the political status quo, famously called the Legislature “the finest free entertainment in Texas.”
In 1979, in a move not unlike what the Democrats pulled off this weekend, a dozen Democratic senators known as the Killer Bees hid offsite to prevent the Senate from reaching a quorum on election legislation. State troopers were dispatched to round them up. Officers thought they nabbed State Senator Gene Jones but discovered, after flying him to Austin in a helicopter, that they instead had his brother Clayton. When Clayton Jones was asked why he went along with the mix-up, he said he had never been in a helicopter before.
Decades ago, during one of his epic filibusters — in which lawmakers have to keep speaking except when allies ask questions and not leave the floor even for restroom breaks — State Senator A.R. Schwartz, known as Babe, was surrounded by his Democratic colleagues in a corner during a long question. He urinated into a wastebasket. His allies then cleared out, taking the wastebasket with them.
Molly Ivins-style moments of levity still occur, though not as frequently.
During a recent discussion over a measure that would restrict the breeding of unlicensed dogs and cats, pet banter and chuckles flowed. The bill’s sponsor, State Senator José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat, called the moment bittersweet, and fleeting.
“It was one of the few light moments we’ve had,” Mr. Menéndez said. “Everything else has been very contested, heated culture wars.”
Simon Romero and John Schwartz contributed reporting.
Edgar Sandoval is a reporter with the National desk, where he writes about South Texas people and places. Previously he was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles, Pennsylvania and Florida. He is the author of “The New Face of Small Town America.”
Manny Fernandez is the Los Angeles bureau chief. He spent more than nine years covering Texas as the Houston bureau chief. He joined The Times as a Metro reporter in 2005, covering the Bronx and housing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/us/t ... icans.html
How the Texas Legislature Works Today
Re: How the Texas Legislature Works Today
Texas G.O.P. to Renew Voting Push as Abbott Calls Special Session
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, was forced to call for the special session after Democratic lawmakers staged a walkout last month to temporarily foil a major G.O.P. voting restrictions bill.
By Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein
June 22, 2021
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Tuesday called a special session of the Texas Legislature that will begin on July 8, a move that revives Republicans’ effort to enact what are expected to be some of the most far-reaching voting restrictions in the country.
Mr. Abbott, a Republican, had pledged to call for a special session after Democratic lawmakers staged an eleventh-hour walkout last month that temporarily foiled the Republican effort to overhaul the state’s election systems and delayed other G.O.P. legislative priorities.
Now the new session restarts the clock.
Mr. Abbott did not specify on Tuesday what proposals the special session would address, but a Texas Republican legislative staff member confirmed that the session would address the state’s voting laws. Texas Republicans may also pursue other legislative goals, including an overhaul of the state’s bail system.
Republicans will have to start the process from scratch, but it is possible they will simply use the final version of the bill that failed to pass in May as a starting point. Given that the party has control of both chambers of the Legislature, its leadership could pass a new bill along party lines.
The initial voting bill, known as S.B. 7, contained new restrictions on absentee voting; granted broad new autonomy and authority to partisan poll watchers; escalated punishments for mistakes or offenses by election officials; and banned both drive-through voting and 24-hour voting, which were used for the first time during the 2020 election in Harris County, home to Houston and a growing number of the state’s Democratic voters.
The walkout by Democrats, which left Republicans short of the 100-member threshold necessary for a quorum to continue business, infuriated G.O.P. leaders in the state, who cast blame across the State Capitol for failing to pass one of Mr. Abbott’s — and one of former President Donald J. Trump’s — legislative priorities.
Mr. Abbott was so frustrated that he said he would veto the part of the state budget that provides funding for the legislature, including its staff members — a threat he followed through on last Friday.
Last week, the Texas Democrats who organized the walkout made a pilgrimage to Washington in a last-ditch effort to persuade recalcitrant senators to pass federal voting reforms that were headed to certain failure on Tuesday.
“We knew he would call us back to pass the voter suppression bill,” State Representative Gina Hinojosa said on Tuesday after Mr. Abbott’s announcement. “That’s why we flew to Washington to plead our case to the U.S. Senate. As the minority party, we can only block the G.O.P. attack on democracy for so long.”
While the Democrats were able to halt the passage of the voting bill through the late-night exodus, it was built upon months of opposition and legislative maneuvering against the bill that helped lead to its demise, holding lengthy question-and-answer periods and extensive debates to force late-night votes and delays in the process.
But voting will not be the sole item on the agenda in Texas. Mr. Abbott signaled that he wanted multiple priorities addressed before the Legislature returns in September for what is likely to be a contentious battle over redistricting.
The governor has indicated he wants a bill passed to overhaul the state’s bail system, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, also a Republican, has called on the Legislature to pass a bill limiting transgender athletes from competing in school sports and another bill seeking censorship of social media companies.
The Texas Legislature shifted sharply to the right during the most recent legislative session, passing aggressive measures that included a near-ban on abortion and a bill allowing the carrying of handguns without permits.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/us/p ... e=Homepage
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, was forced to call for the special session after Democratic lawmakers staged a walkout last month to temporarily foil a major G.O.P. voting restrictions bill.
By Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein
June 22, 2021
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Tuesday called a special session of the Texas Legislature that will begin on July 8, a move that revives Republicans’ effort to enact what are expected to be some of the most far-reaching voting restrictions in the country.
Mr. Abbott, a Republican, had pledged to call for a special session after Democratic lawmakers staged an eleventh-hour walkout last month that temporarily foiled the Republican effort to overhaul the state’s election systems and delayed other G.O.P. legislative priorities.
Now the new session restarts the clock.
Mr. Abbott did not specify on Tuesday what proposals the special session would address, but a Texas Republican legislative staff member confirmed that the session would address the state’s voting laws. Texas Republicans may also pursue other legislative goals, including an overhaul of the state’s bail system.
Republicans will have to start the process from scratch, but it is possible they will simply use the final version of the bill that failed to pass in May as a starting point. Given that the party has control of both chambers of the Legislature, its leadership could pass a new bill along party lines.
The initial voting bill, known as S.B. 7, contained new restrictions on absentee voting; granted broad new autonomy and authority to partisan poll watchers; escalated punishments for mistakes or offenses by election officials; and banned both drive-through voting and 24-hour voting, which were used for the first time during the 2020 election in Harris County, home to Houston and a growing number of the state’s Democratic voters.
The walkout by Democrats, which left Republicans short of the 100-member threshold necessary for a quorum to continue business, infuriated G.O.P. leaders in the state, who cast blame across the State Capitol for failing to pass one of Mr. Abbott’s — and one of former President Donald J. Trump’s — legislative priorities.
Mr. Abbott was so frustrated that he said he would veto the part of the state budget that provides funding for the legislature, including its staff members — a threat he followed through on last Friday.
Last week, the Texas Democrats who organized the walkout made a pilgrimage to Washington in a last-ditch effort to persuade recalcitrant senators to pass federal voting reforms that were headed to certain failure on Tuesday.
“We knew he would call us back to pass the voter suppression bill,” State Representative Gina Hinojosa said on Tuesday after Mr. Abbott’s announcement. “That’s why we flew to Washington to plead our case to the U.S. Senate. As the minority party, we can only block the G.O.P. attack on democracy for so long.”
While the Democrats were able to halt the passage of the voting bill through the late-night exodus, it was built upon months of opposition and legislative maneuvering against the bill that helped lead to its demise, holding lengthy question-and-answer periods and extensive debates to force late-night votes and delays in the process.
But voting will not be the sole item on the agenda in Texas. Mr. Abbott signaled that he wanted multiple priorities addressed before the Legislature returns in September for what is likely to be a contentious battle over redistricting.
The governor has indicated he wants a bill passed to overhaul the state’s bail system, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, also a Republican, has called on the Legislature to pass a bill limiting transgender athletes from competing in school sports and another bill seeking censorship of social media companies.
The Texas Legislature shifted sharply to the right during the most recent legislative session, passing aggressive measures that included a near-ban on abortion and a bill allowing the carrying of handguns without permits.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/us/p ... e=Homepage
Re: How the Texas Legislature Works Today
TexasReich update from NYT today :
Ban 24-hour voting and drive-through voting; prohibit election officials from proactively sending out absentee ballots to voters who have not requested them; add new voter identification requirements for voting by mail; limit third-party ballot collection; increase the criminal penalties for election workers who run afoul of regulations; limit what assistance can be provided to voters; and greatly expand the authority and autonomy of partisan poll watchers.
But the new bills do not include two of the most contentious provisions from the previous iteration. There is no longer a limitation on Sunday voting (it can now begin at 9 a.m.) and there is no provision making it easier to overturn an election.
New voting laws are at the top of a lengthy wish list of conservative legislative goals that Gov. Greg Abbott laid out in a proclamation on Wednesday establishing the special session.
In addition to voting, Mr. Abbott called for new bills to combat perceived “censorship” on social media platforms; ban the teaching of “critical race theory” in public schools; further limit abortions; put in place new border security policies; and restrict transgender athletes from competing in school sports.
After seeking to accomplish all of that in 30 days, the Legislature will convene for another special session this fall to tackle redistricting, which will set up yet another acrimonious partisan fight.
Ban 24-hour voting and drive-through voting; prohibit election officials from proactively sending out absentee ballots to voters who have not requested them; add new voter identification requirements for voting by mail; limit third-party ballot collection; increase the criminal penalties for election workers who run afoul of regulations; limit what assistance can be provided to voters; and greatly expand the authority and autonomy of partisan poll watchers.
But the new bills do not include two of the most contentious provisions from the previous iteration. There is no longer a limitation on Sunday voting (it can now begin at 9 a.m.) and there is no provision making it easier to overturn an election.
New voting laws are at the top of a lengthy wish list of conservative legislative goals that Gov. Greg Abbott laid out in a proclamation on Wednesday establishing the special session.
In addition to voting, Mr. Abbott called for new bills to combat perceived “censorship” on social media platforms; ban the teaching of “critical race theory” in public schools; further limit abortions; put in place new border security policies; and restrict transgender athletes from competing in school sports.
After seeking to accomplish all of that in 30 days, the Legislature will convene for another special session this fall to tackle redistricting, which will set up yet another acrimonious partisan fight.
Re: How the Texas Legislature Works Today
I'm holding my breath waiting for Florida's Ron DeSantis to begin fining Twitter, Google & Facebook for "censoring" his potential political rival for the GOP nomination in 2024.
Interesting, eh?
Interesting, eh?
Re: How the Texas Legislature Works Today
From New Yorker Magazine's Borowitz Report tonight :
Democrats agree to return to Texas if Greg Abbott leaves.
According to a statement, the runaway Democrats have been reaching out to a number of potential countries who might be amenable to giving Abbott asylum.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, ‘This wouldn’t be happening if Rick Perry were governor,’ ” one Houston resident said.
Greg Abbott tries to lure back Democratic lawmakers by offering NPR tote bags.
Displaying one of the bags on offer, Abbott said it was “perfect for carrying around all your liberal needs.”
Democrats agree to return to Texas if Greg Abbott leaves.
According to a statement, the runaway Democrats have been reaching out to a number of potential countries who might be amenable to giving Abbott asylum.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, ‘This wouldn’t be happening if Rick Perry were governor,’ ” one Houston resident said.
Greg Abbott tries to lure back Democratic lawmakers by offering NPR tote bags.
Displaying one of the bags on offer, Abbott said it was “perfect for carrying around all your liberal needs.”
Re: How the Texas Legislature Works Today
Texas Has Broken My Heart
July 14, 2021
By Mimi Swartz
Ms. Swartz is an executive editor of Texas Monthly.
HOUSTON — “Should we be getting out of here?” This is the question my husband, a Virginia native, has asked with growing frequency as he scans the daily headlines at our breakfast table here.
He is not alone. Many of my friends and acquaintances, longtime Texans, including but not limited to die-hard Democrats, are asking themselves the very same thing. Each morning, they wake up to a place they no longer recognize.
In particular, the natural optimism of Texans — part of what we are so proud of and what has made us exceptional (or made us think we were) — has never, in my lifetime, been more under threat.
The culmination of events that brought us to this point was the 87th session of the Texas Legislature. Abortion will be effectively illegal here, with citizens empowered to sue the doctors who perform them and the clinics where they work. Most adults will be able to carry handguns without a permit. Teachers will be restricted in how they can discuss current and past events. The only reason a voter-suppression bill did not pass is that the Democrats took a powder at the last minute to prevent a quorum. (They have done so again, and we don’t know how the sequel will end.)
What was not on the agenda for Texas lawmakers in this session? Let’s see, rescuing our decaying infrastructure — the power grid that failed catastrophically during the February winter storms that left at least 151 people dead — along with desperately needed improvements to health care and education. According to our state leaders, those issues are not as important as keeping trans children from playing in school sports.
Living here has always demanded compromise. I’ve been fortunate — yes, privileged — to have enough money and access to work around much of this. I’ve been able to afford a home in a neighborhood with a good public school for our son, and I have a job that graces me with good health insurance. I soothed my anxiety about climate change by buying a generator between Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and this year’s snowpocalypse.
Like a great many Texans — Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives — I grew up expecting little to nothing from Austin, the seat of state government. Self-reliance is part of the state’s mythology; never mind that most Texans now live in big, modern cities where their survival is not dependent on fighting off Comanches and coyotes and riding out tornadoes.
I made my peace with the drawbacks of living in Texas because, really, there weren’t so many. It has long been possible to live in one of the state’s big cities with only occasional reminders of the stereotypes that have haunted this place for so long. Especially here in Houston, the acceptance of diversity of all kinds — political, sexual, economic, social and more — always makes me think of the best of Texas. The openness that has always been at the heart of our treasured exceptionalism doesn’t just apply to the vast, sometimes hostile landscape; it has allowed me and so many other people like and unlike me to build the kind of life we might never have had elsewhere.
Maybe that meant claiming a tiny house in a neighborhood that was only slightly better and safer than one left behind in a home country thousands of miles away. Maybe that life included landing in the C-suite of an oil company and going home to a 13,000-square-foot mansion that was a knockoff of a consulate in Dubai. Maybe it was simply the chance to make art, practice law or give just about anything a try without the establishment looking down on you. Whatever the dream — even if it was a dumb dream, and I’ve seen many — it stemmed from a deeply rooted hopefulness that I have never seen or experienced to the same extent elsewhere.
I recognized that quality even in the former governors I didn’t much like: Rick Perry, who was a strong proponent of economic development, and George W. Bush, who at least tried to improve the education of Texas schoolchildren and did not see the Texas-Mexico border as a war zone.
But as I look across the leadership landscape today, that optimism has been eclipsed by cynicism. It would be a challenge to find a shred of conviction, much less hope, among the likes of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton — you could throw Senator Ted Cruz in there, too. They seem to be dreaming only of higher office.
It is their preference for darkness over light that rings so false to the Texan in me. I wake up every morning in the fourth-largest city in the United States, a place that provides so many people with endless possibilities. What Texas’ Republican leaders see instead is a state overrun by murderous immigrants, faithless feminists and radical leftists who want to blame the white man for every sin under the sun. I’m waiting for one of them to declare, “This carnage must end.”
Lieutenant Governor Patrick’s public tantrum over “Forget the Alamo,” a book that dared to challenge the mythology around the battle, was either a predictable sop to his base or a refusal to admit that times change and our interpretation of history does, too. Governor Abbott’s stated intention to complete the border wall is just another example of his penchant for closing off the future instead of opening up to it in a way that works for all. Being open to change in all its forms was a lesson I learned in my Texas public school. Maybe that’s why these guys now want to control what teachers teach.
If I know anything about Texas for certain, it is that people here do not like being told what to do. We choose freedom, sometimes bordering on chaos, because we can’t all agree on an exact definition. What is clear is that our leadership seems determined to take it away: the right to vote, to learn and to make decisions for ourselves, our families and our communities.
There’s nothing Texan about that at all.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/opin ... e=Homepage
July 14, 2021
By Mimi Swartz
Ms. Swartz is an executive editor of Texas Monthly.
HOUSTON — “Should we be getting out of here?” This is the question my husband, a Virginia native, has asked with growing frequency as he scans the daily headlines at our breakfast table here.
He is not alone. Many of my friends and acquaintances, longtime Texans, including but not limited to die-hard Democrats, are asking themselves the very same thing. Each morning, they wake up to a place they no longer recognize.
In particular, the natural optimism of Texans — part of what we are so proud of and what has made us exceptional (or made us think we were) — has never, in my lifetime, been more under threat.
The culmination of events that brought us to this point was the 87th session of the Texas Legislature. Abortion will be effectively illegal here, with citizens empowered to sue the doctors who perform them and the clinics where they work. Most adults will be able to carry handguns without a permit. Teachers will be restricted in how they can discuss current and past events. The only reason a voter-suppression bill did not pass is that the Democrats took a powder at the last minute to prevent a quorum. (They have done so again, and we don’t know how the sequel will end.)
What was not on the agenda for Texas lawmakers in this session? Let’s see, rescuing our decaying infrastructure — the power grid that failed catastrophically during the February winter storms that left at least 151 people dead — along with desperately needed improvements to health care and education. According to our state leaders, those issues are not as important as keeping trans children from playing in school sports.
Living here has always demanded compromise. I’ve been fortunate — yes, privileged — to have enough money and access to work around much of this. I’ve been able to afford a home in a neighborhood with a good public school for our son, and I have a job that graces me with good health insurance. I soothed my anxiety about climate change by buying a generator between Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and this year’s snowpocalypse.
Like a great many Texans — Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives — I grew up expecting little to nothing from Austin, the seat of state government. Self-reliance is part of the state’s mythology; never mind that most Texans now live in big, modern cities where their survival is not dependent on fighting off Comanches and coyotes and riding out tornadoes.
I made my peace with the drawbacks of living in Texas because, really, there weren’t so many. It has long been possible to live in one of the state’s big cities with only occasional reminders of the stereotypes that have haunted this place for so long. Especially here in Houston, the acceptance of diversity of all kinds — political, sexual, economic, social and more — always makes me think of the best of Texas. The openness that has always been at the heart of our treasured exceptionalism doesn’t just apply to the vast, sometimes hostile landscape; it has allowed me and so many other people like and unlike me to build the kind of life we might never have had elsewhere.
Maybe that meant claiming a tiny house in a neighborhood that was only slightly better and safer than one left behind in a home country thousands of miles away. Maybe that life included landing in the C-suite of an oil company and going home to a 13,000-square-foot mansion that was a knockoff of a consulate in Dubai. Maybe it was simply the chance to make art, practice law or give just about anything a try without the establishment looking down on you. Whatever the dream — even if it was a dumb dream, and I’ve seen many — it stemmed from a deeply rooted hopefulness that I have never seen or experienced to the same extent elsewhere.
I recognized that quality even in the former governors I didn’t much like: Rick Perry, who was a strong proponent of economic development, and George W. Bush, who at least tried to improve the education of Texas schoolchildren and did not see the Texas-Mexico border as a war zone.
But as I look across the leadership landscape today, that optimism has been eclipsed by cynicism. It would be a challenge to find a shred of conviction, much less hope, among the likes of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton — you could throw Senator Ted Cruz in there, too. They seem to be dreaming only of higher office.
It is their preference for darkness over light that rings so false to the Texan in me. I wake up every morning in the fourth-largest city in the United States, a place that provides so many people with endless possibilities. What Texas’ Republican leaders see instead is a state overrun by murderous immigrants, faithless feminists and radical leftists who want to blame the white man for every sin under the sun. I’m waiting for one of them to declare, “This carnage must end.”
Lieutenant Governor Patrick’s public tantrum over “Forget the Alamo,” a book that dared to challenge the mythology around the battle, was either a predictable sop to his base or a refusal to admit that times change and our interpretation of history does, too. Governor Abbott’s stated intention to complete the border wall is just another example of his penchant for closing off the future instead of opening up to it in a way that works for all. Being open to change in all its forms was a lesson I learned in my Texas public school. Maybe that’s why these guys now want to control what teachers teach.
If I know anything about Texas for certain, it is that people here do not like being told what to do. We choose freedom, sometimes bordering on chaos, because we can’t all agree on an exact definition. What is clear is that our leadership seems determined to take it away: the right to vote, to learn and to make decisions for ourselves, our families and our communities.
There’s nothing Texan about that at all.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/opin ... e=Homepage
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