Politico reports on a new Obama-led, top-down effort to build a “grassroots” effort to turn red Texas blue. The effort will be built around some of the usual suspects, including shadow party honcho Matt Angle, and some new ones astroturfed by Obama’s personal political force, Organizing for Action.
Republicans in the state should and will take the new effort seriously, for three reasons: It will be well-financed, and some of its top officers will have learned quite a bit from losing so many races, so consistently, for so long. No Democrat has won a statewide race here since 1990. The third reason is the most significant: As Texas grows, more blue-state refugees move here and the state’s demographics are changing rapidly. So far those demographics have not changed the state’s voting patterns. It’s redder today than it was 10 years ago, with more Republicans elected to local and higher offices overall than ever before. The Democrats failed to mount a serious challenge for the open Senate seat last year, a sign that if anything that party’s atrophy has not been remedied.
Democrats involved in the turn-Texas-blue effort have, at last, begun to admit that their racist strategies have not paid off for them.
Democratic Houston Mayor Annise Parker said her party couldn’t afford to wait passively for population change to turn Texas blue. Instead, they should dig in for a longer, harder campaign to make it a swing state.
“We have been waiting in Texas for a very long time for the Latino vote to come into its own and turn the tide. But many of us have decided that we can’t wait for that. We have to do the old-fashioned work of going out and talking to Texans,” said Parker, who didn’t rule out a statewide campaign “when I am done [being] mayor.”
This has been the Democrats’ problem for a generation. They refuse to admit that the state’s conservative, small-government policies have helped Texas become the economic powerhouse that it is. They refuse to acknowledge that they lose because their values are wildly out of step with the majority of the state. They refuse to acknowledge that their policies would be as bad for Texas as they have been for California. They run on race and gender, not issues, and when they lose, they blame the majority of Texas who vote against them, not themselves.
And they refuse to learn. Take their approach to last year’s open Senate seat.
The party fielded a strong candidate for governor in 2010, former Houston Mayor Bill White, only to see him lose by 13 points to incumbent Gov. Rick Perry. Two years later, Democrats recruited retired Gen. Ricardo Sanchez into the open-seat Senate race, presenting him as a candidate who could appeal to conservative voters and energize Latinos. Sanchez withdrew several months later after raising a paltry sum for the race.
Sanchez flopped, and Texas Republicans nominated Ted Cruz, who went on to win and is already a massive star after just a few weeks in Washington. Sanchez would never have resonated with the state’s majority. It has nothing to do with his skin color or name (obviously, as Cruz won the seat) but because of his role in the Abu Ghraib scandal and because Democrats wanted to run him solely based on his skin color and his Hispanic name.
“We have been waiting in Texas for a very long time for the Latino vote to come into its own and turn the tide. But many of us have decided that we can’t wait for that. We have to do the old-fashioned work of going out and talking to Texans,” said Parker, who didn’t rule out a statewide campaign “when I am done [being] mayor.”
Yes the demoncrats can’t wait to go out in Obama style and infect everyone in Texas with a perverse lying spirit. With the accuser of the brethren mentality employed by the left, it should be apparent to all who their father is. But if you are greedy and hateful, unwilling to take responsibility for your own actions you are a prime target for the demon king. Texans beware.
The strategy isnt just to passively wait for demographic change, but at to purposely sabotage border and immigration law enforcement at the national level and push amnesty as an active strategy to change the voters of Texas and all across this nation. The old communist move used to be to kill the uncooperative citizens, now the new move is to import new citizens, who are beholden to them for welfare bennies and their citizenship. Whilst creating, inflaming, and promoting inter-group greivance and hostility, and Identity Politics.
This isnt going to end well, I can tell you that. A balkanized population inflamed with inter-group resentment, will produce what it always does.
PS – Any immigration reform package should ABSOLUTELY NOT include a Pathway to Citizenship (which grant voting rights). This needs to be spread far and wide amongst conservatives. Legal status (like permanent residency, guest worker visas) yes….Citizenship NO….aditionally Jus Soli which grants citizenship as birthright to those born in US territory, needs to be abrogated. This is a must.
Even legal status will eventually lead to a bumper crop of little birthright citizens. It just postpones the problem.
Abrogating Jus Soli, remedies that problem.
In Texas “the state’s conservative, small-government policies have helped Texas become the ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE that it is”!
All new comers should hear this message clearly and frequently. Texans need to maintain and appreciate the vital roots of Texas prosperity, particularly in a nation with blue states taxing and spending themselves into a “death spiral.” And … with our rapidly spiraling debt as a nation, our nation potentially heading into a Cloward Piven death spiral itself.
Even in the deep blue California clone state of Maryland, a Local
Poll has indicated: Most Maryland residents don’t think Martin O’Malley [Our leader's brother from another mother - jg] should run for president.
Surely a fair portion of the “new comers” can be encouraged to reflect on the impact of the political policies they fled from and gently ease themselves into Texas enviable and rewarding Red State Conservatism.
In Texas “the state’s conservative, small-government policies have helped Texas become the ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE that it is”!
You could have substituted “United States” and “the nation’s” into that statement and it would have been true up until recently. Unfortunately, the socialists in the media and academics have refused to acknowledge this, and our country is hell bent on becoming an economic also-ran instead of the powerhouse it was.
Texans, beware, your lovely state is slowly filling up with the bluest of the blue who are going to where the jobs are. Just last year, my very leftist niece and her even more leftist “wife” bought a house outside of Austin, and just love it … except for the “rednecks” which they try to avoid.
In my home state of NC, many years ago during the debate about whether or not to build a state zoo, Jesse Helms suggested that we just build a fence around Chapel Hill and call it even. Can TX do that with Austin?
We wish, we wish!!!!!!
Dallas county has a hispanic lesbian sheriff.
– California, Bryan, with the Blue Meanies moving there, you cannot say it was a surprise. San Jacinto time is now.
The real advantage of Texas is the elimination of the corporate and income tax. Corporations are flocking there to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, 260,000 in 2012 alone, nearly one in seven new jobs in the country. The unemployment rate has dropped to 6.1%.
The best news is that Gov. Rick Perry is creating jobs at the direct expense of high tax loser blue states like California. Red states win, blue states lose…as it should be.
Look for more states to go flat tax like Texas.
The flip side of not having an income tax is the almost corresponding high rate of property taxes in many Texas communities. This seems to minimize white flight from public schools in the state – you dont see the number of and enrollments associated with the “academies” in the southeastern states or the catholic schools of the NE and rust belt, because you are heavily invested (and have less to spend on private tuition) vis a vis the property tax. This is also reflected in the “darn, now I need to home school” response seen from many Texans on this site on many article’s discussion boards – e.g. private schools tend not to be the first choice.
With demographic changes reflected in K-12 enrollments and namby-pamby responses to recent school violence, there might be less willingness to allow the property tax to “make up” what the lack of income tax doesnt provide.
School Choice solves that problem. I favor School Choice, Privatization, and Vouchers funded at the State Level that Follow the Child.
The best news is that Gov. Rick Perry is creating jobs at the direct expense of high tax loser blue states like California. Red states win, blue states lose…as it should be.
But how many of those who move to Texas in search of those jobs won’t bring their politics with them? They may appreciate no income tax but won’t many of them still vote the way they always have? Didn’t that happen to New Hampshire and Nevada? People moved out of the neighboring high-tax states and brought their redistributionist politics with them. Texas, beware.
I’ll second that! Colorado used to be a reliably conservative place. But we now have 3 of LA’s weirder suburbs; Aspen, Vail and Telluride. The CA expats came looking for relief from CA and brought their need for control with them. We’ve become so bad that we now refer to Boulder, CO as the “Peoples Republic of Boulder” and the infestation is spreading.
Precisely. Texas parasitizes the rest of america by promising corporations a free hand to treat people as slaves and destroy the environment. It’s race to the bottom economics and texas has proven they are the lowest of the low.
But somehow you’re proud of that. Equal parts sick and sad, really.
Right. Unemployment well under the likes of California constitutes “slavery.” You liberals really are idiots.
Bryan — take a look at the historic wealth desparity charts and lets see if the fellow makes some kind of justifiable attempt when suggesting that people (the majority) have become slaves to the wealthy and a corrupted capitalist system. Such data is a primary tool (weapon) of the democrats progressives! Seems to me that it would behoove the GOP of today, too recognize the data’s sad fact and figure out how to overcome it and deny the dems progressive this powerful tool. Just a suggestion. Use to be a time when the 33 1/3 rule applied and wealth distribution was more equal but that disappeared completely by the mid to late 70s. I throw in the 70s as a point of reference when look at charts. Here just one of so many.
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1
Slavery is a real thing. It’s the actual ownership of real people by other real people. Stop defining it down. You’re doing a disservice to truth and minimizing real evil.
The ultimate irony from zeke. A person who prefers that the 1% should take guns away from the 99%.
Durn Bryan! This is the 21st century!
2. One who is abjectly subservient to a specified person or DOMINATING INFLUENCE: “I was still the slave of education and prejudice” (Edward Gibbon).
3. One who works extremely hard.
4. A device (as the printer of a computer) that is directly responsive to another
One can be a ‘slave’ to many things such as ones debt they can’t afford or a wife who has to constantly pickup after her slob husband, etc.
Lighten up and enjoy life!
You know nothing about me. I do enjoy life. Many liberals want to rob me of that joy by dictating what I do and what is proper to think. They insult me, trash my beliefs and stick their tongues out at me when I try to persuade them to see reason. You’re one of them. This, I do not enjoy. Especially given the left’s history of mass murder, genocide and destruction of individual liberty. Either you know that history and are fine with it, or you don’t, and are a fool.
This slavery thing is treading on ban territory. The party that you support fought a war to preserve actual slavery. That’s a fact. Look it up. Many in the party that you support supported the Soviets and today support the likes of Castro and Chavez. Also a fact, which you can look up, but you probably don’t have to. Now you’re likening slavery to less than perfect financial circumstances, which is ludicrous and immoral, but you’re doing it to advance state control over the individual.
Which is closer to actual slavery — less than optimal job conditions, which have always existed and will always exist, or living life under an increasingly all-powerful and unaccountable state?
That’s not a trick question.
Really, you ever been to Texas?? “promising corporations a free hand to treat people as slaves and destroy the environment”.
Got references? Or are you just spouting nonsense…
Yes, I’ve been there.
“Got references? Or are you just spouting nonsense…”
You need references to see what’s before your eyes? The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is widely known to be an enabler and not a preventer of industrial pollution. Texas ranks in the bottom ten of all states in terms of pollution. Example:
litter http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=stevespacek
toxic chemical pollution http://scorecard.goodguide.com/ranking/rank-states.tcl?type=mass&category=total_env&modifier=na&how_many=100
pollution from coal plants http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/paltman/toxic_power_the_20_most_expose.html
Should I go on?
“texas so far has proven to be the lowest, the most willing to sacrifice every decent aspect of life in return for a slightly lower unemployment rate.”
Come now. Hyperbole is one thing; wildly inaccurate assertions are another.
I’ve lived a number of places around the country and can’t say the “quality of life” was noticeably better anywhere else. The climate, maybe, but certainly not the economic health of most places. California used to be the promised land, the economic dynamo of the country with such a beautiful climate. Well, the workers and producers are baling now, and it’s not because of “climate change”.
@Tlaloc
I think you ought to go back to Texas and loudly proclaim your “truth” in some good blue collar bars. Maybe in Midland?
Far be it from me to question your analysis, but something here is drawing folks from all over the country. I don’t think it’s slavery or foul air or water.
We do have some disadvantages in regard to the latter because the petroleum and petrochemical industries are mainstays here and with a hot, humid climate, controlling air pollution is difficult. But great progress has been made and things are a lot cleaner now than in the 60′s and 70′s.
They come for the jobs. Why are the jobs there, though? It’s not because corporations give a damn about the texas point of view. It’s because the texas point of view promises corporations a free license to abuse people and the environment (that’s what regulation prevents, duh).
It looks good for texas which artificially inflates it’s own economy at the expense of everyone else, thus encouraging everyone else to cut back on regulation even more- which is exactly what I described race to the bottom economics. And again, texas so far has proven to be the lowest, the most willing to sacrifice every decent aspect of life in return for a slightly lower unemployment rate.
Yay.
I lived in a blue state. I now live in a red state. None of your comments square with any of the reality that I see with my own eyes.
hmmm
I live in texas, and i love it here, I couldn’t be more happier. There is a reason jobs were created for our own life, so that we can provide our families with what they need. I just hope it stays red and the liberals stay away. Those liberals who don’t want to stay in their own blue state just rather perfer to ruin other states by fleeting there, and that is why they are blind and they think that they can do better for other states, but in fact they are making it worst with their own ideas. The liberals are the ones that voted for more stuff. That is the reason they should stay in their own blue states since, they are the ones that wanted big governments, big spending, more taxes, etc.. if they are the ones that created that mess and voted for that, they should stay there if that is what they wanted in the first place. It’s like they don’t want to clean up their mess, instead they want to create another one. Move to another blue state. since you like being in a blue state.
Mr. Preston:
While it is a great article you have prepared, you really shouldn’t use Ted Cruz as a validation of Texas’ statewide acceptance of Hispanic candidates. He’s descended from a country (Cuba) 2 dead Castro brothers away from being an innocuous Costa Rica-like haven. Cuba, unless you know something about where those missiles from 1962 were aimed, was never a direct sovereign adversary of the Texas Republic. I do know better than to say Cruz got elected because he’s “light” – so are many reconquistas and some of our brightest conservatives are “dark or tan” Latinos.
The real litmus test is always going to whether Texas can elect even a multi-generational Tejano (let alone someone who may now or in the past deign to call themselves Mexican-American) with conservative bonafides. Maybe the Alamo is just too much to overcome.
Si, si puede!
It is too bad that Hispanics vote Democrat so frequently… it ruins the Tejano brand. As long as the Hispanic is a genuine crusty conservative of the sort I run into around town, probably former military and genuinely proud to be Texan, race won’t be a factor. A Texan should know better than to get stuck on the pigment… that’s what Democrats do.
Some race-obsessed Texans need to visit the Alamo after a refresher history course. Texas wasn’t pure white Murrika, suddenly attacked by the stealthy brown hordes of Genghis Lopez de Santa Ana. It was part of Mexico that rebelled with several others when the Centralists ditched Mexico’s 1824 constitution, a pretty good one by most standards. It has always been a product of a blend. Texas is its own thing, and has been by right of arms since 1836, but Tejanos have been a part since the beginning.
WHUAT? THE FUDGE? ARE YOU TALKIN? ABOUT?
he’s not passing your Hispanic litmus test? He passed ours. Texans. thought.he’d. be. a. good. senator.
Extra racism isn’t no- racism, it isn’t understanding. it’s just dumb-a$$.
Californians actually get a little squidgy if they have kids. Texas flunks. You can flunk kindergarten. People in Cali actually think about the emotional fragility of their special little snowflake when considering where to move. I know someone who moved back to Cali b/c they couldn’t take their kids coach telling the kid to practice, if that kid wanted to do well. Texas teachers also have after-school tutorials, if that kid is failing whichever standardized test. This is considered tiring, and too much.
Every kid can read by the end of first grade, or they flunk. Kids get tested for dyslexia, they get tested for vision and hearing problems, they get assigned to different teachers, but by gum, that kid is going to work, learn and pass. Or flunk. There is no self-esteem movement in Texas. There is an achievement culture.
Kids can, and do, flunk kindergarten.
Texas is almost dead middle of all states rankings. The nations top tier States are ranked at 87.8 to 79.5
U.S. Average: C (76.5)
Texas 2012 – (Reprinted in Education Weekly)
Chance for Success: C (73.1)
Early foundations: C- (71.6)
School years: C- (72.2)
Adult outcomes: C+ (76.8)
K-12 Achievement: C- (71.0)
Status: D (63.8)
Change: C (74.9)
Yep much like the public school results of that other Mecca of conservatives CA. You people crack me up. Pretending politics changes outcomes. Or that having the most progressive state tax system insures all boats rise equally. There may be more poor people in TX, but there is WAY WAY more “income disparity” in CA (hypocrites). If you all were so great, you would have never wanted for a single vote once the “Great Society” was launched (and proved so phenomenally successful.)
In any case, I suspect you will be successful in your quest to turn the state blue. Lots of document challenged have DLs. Lots are “citizens” on voter registrations, but foreign nationals on jury duty though so you are going to have to remind them to re-register to vote if they get called for jury duty. The 4 of the 5 largest states means how many electoral votes? I’m afraid I don’t live-eat-breathe politics. None the less it seems we will have one party rule for decades. That always works out well.
oh, mention leprous armadillos. nobody wants to be on the business end of a leprous armadillo. California doesn’t have leprous armadillos.
mention football and sports culture. which is also heavily Fellowship of Christian Athletes. it’s not good to be small, weak, unheroic, atheist, resentful….
mention Future Farmers of America- it’s respectable here. You wouldn’t want Buffy kissing a ****kicker in cowboy boots, right?
aggressive debaters. karl rove would road-test theories on high school debate programs….
oil towns smell like victory….
I really don’t see how Houston Dems keep thinking that nominating corrupt, alcoholic dips**** is going to go over well in a basically dry, hard-nosed state. I mean, I get they all go to Brie and wine parties together in the Heights, but I’m not seeing how they think the rest of the state will like them….
Typical Democrats. Unable to fight based on issues or facts or reason. Instead they have to resort to race or demonizing those who disagree with them. More and more liberals are coming to Texas (legally or illegally). I saw the US map of the election results – three blue sections stood out – Austin, Houston, and part of the border with Mexico. Give the liberal/leftist/progressive/socialist/communist/fascist bas$$$ds time and Texas will go the way of California.
I’m of Hispanic heritage with my family’s roots deep in Colorado. I’m sick of the Democrat’s and the “Hispanics are going to vote for us” mentality.
If you’re Hispanic and you want to see what’s the Dem’s have planned for you take a trip. Visit Vail, Aspen, Telluride or Taos. What you’ll find are towns that are deeply Democrat controlled and 2 class societies. The rich Democrats who control everything and the Hispanic slaves that wait hand and foot on them.
One of the reasons the Dem’s control the inner cities is that these people don’t venture outside their immediate surroundings. The Dem’s control the message and the people act like sheep.
Next time you’re tempted to vote for a Democrat ask yourself these 3 questions. Why aren’t Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, DC paradise for the poor?
Why do the school systems in all of these cities rank near the bottom in educational ratings?
Why is unemployment much higher in all of these cities than in the rest of the country?
These cities have been run by Dems for many, many years. If the rhetoric matched the reality all of these cities would be the shinning stars of Democrat policy, however the reality is just the opposite. All of these cities are crowded, dirty, dangerous, nasty places with awful schools and hordes of ignorant residents.
Why is that the reality so clearly different than the rosy promises???
Is it that you’re being played for a fool?
You don’t have to visit those locals you mention, to see what lies ahead regardless, of anybody’s political party affiliation. Just go take a look at the historical progression of wealth desparity depicted in all the charts. U.S. Captialism has become corrupted with the majority slaves to the wealthy failing the great American experiment. Government is corrupted and failed the great American experiment. The people have become corrupted and irresponsible to their constitutional freedoms, failing the Great American experiment. Special interest groups inflaming and dividing the people as enemies to one another.
The future?
“Next time you’re tempted to vote for a Democrat ask yourself these 3 questions. Why aren’t Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, DC paradise for the poor?
Why do the school systems in all of these cities rank near the bottom in educational ratings?
Why is unemployment much higher in all of these cities than in the rest of the country?
These cities have been run by Dems for many, many years. If the rhetoric matched the reality all of these cities would be the shinning stars of Democrat policy, however the reality is just the opposite.”
Bingo!
Great post…I hope everyone reads that closely.
A political party’s money driven movement will not change the Texas politcal landscape! A natural change in demographics will be what chances the Texas political landscape eventually — much akin to California and Florida back in the day. Any state who experiences or publically proclaims to have economic dominance in the nation, experiences some rather drastic demographic changes and not always according to the desires of some, in the end. I can well remember when Texas and the rest of the Plains States were heavily democrat states with far more poor people in each of the states than wealthy people. Big economies in a state is like a magnet for poor people and few experience in sharing the economic success!
Zeke, do you read what you write? “I can well remember when Texas and the rest of the Plains States were heavily democrat states with far more poor people in each of the states than wealthy people. Big economies in a state is like a magnet for poor people and few experience in sharing the economic success!” How do you square this circle.
Read my post above and pay attention to the last sentence.
Okay, I’ll make a point not to reenforce anything you may say in which I agree with. Wasn’t my intent to step on the toes of the intellectual elite around here.
Don’t worry about it, you’re certainly not in the intellectual ballpark of the people you believe you’re rebutting.
Texas is still a state with far more poor people than wealthy. Have you ever been here??? Our schools have 65% economically disadvantaged students with only about 3% of Texas children in private school. This isn’t NY or CA where everyone slightly above middle class sends their kid to private school. (although one Democrat did suggest that on the floor of the State House during the debate over school funding)
Why would you think Texas has some mass of wealthy people? Did you watch too many reruns of “Dallas”?
LOL! I grew up returning the Texas longhorn taunting of Okies. Guess ya’ll still poor sports after all these decades, eh? Are you still mad that the sooners and even the aggies are kick butt football teams and the longhorns down and out? Heck even TAM got smart and moved to the SEC to find competition.
You know what they say about Texas……
Texas Conservatives and Libertarians should take this VERY seriously. Consider that Oregon and Washington, both solid blue states, are strongly red outside of Portland and Seattle. It just takes turning the urban areas, and that is done in the inner cities and Universities. Austin is only the fountainhead of the ‘progressive’ sewer in Texas. The flood will continue in other Cities and contaminate the entire State if not checked. And keep in mind what Democrats do. They register as Republicans, become active, consult and advise, contaminate the agenda, run for office, behave as RINO’s and dispirit Conservative base. That is what has destroyed the Republican Pary nationwide. And they still don’t know it, otherwise the GOP would be purging and fighting, not cowering like an abused dog. I’m leaving Portland for Austin, soon. Its my home. And I sure hope what I find, isnt the same rotted culture that has imbedded itself permanently here. Those of us fleeing these ‘Blue States’ are doing it for a reason. If you’re a Democrat or Libertarian like me, why in hell would you want to transmit that infection, like a cockroach, into your new home? Leave it where it is, or stay where you are living with its pestilence.
I can attest you’re absolutely right. Already happening in large swaths of Dallas – which 25 years ago was America’s most livable big city and now a rancid s__t hole.
White flight to all the surrounding reasonably new ‘burbs.
I’ve witnessed first hand what a massive influx of leftist parasites can do to a great state – for the model, look at Colorado. They don’t correct their mistakes – they simply sponge until the green is gone and move to the next field.
We need to take this very seriously.
The Communist Racist Castro Brothers in Texas make me nauseaus, including their mother.
One of conservatives’ top priorities should be to make Red states hostile territory for Liberals and their agenda. Conservatives must, while they have strong majorities, enact any and all legislation that would serve to keep Leftists out of our states.
Strong limits on abortion. Prohibitions on gay marriage. Very high hurdles for public ‘benefits’. Refusal to enact/build Obamacare exchanges. Strong support for gun rights. Voter ID laws, etc. Make it known to the parasitic, socialistic Left that they aren’t welcome.
I call this the Red State Redoubt: http://www.redstate.com/derkrieger/2012/11/26/the-war-is-lost-time-to-establish-a-red-state-redoubt/
What Ron White calls the “express lane” for the death penalty is a good start, I should think.
That is a good idea, but the problem is Federal Government usurpation of power and enforcing it’s will on the States.
Death Penalty? According to Amnesty International, its Texas and Yemen, for most cases.
The Supreme Court struck down our sodomy laws in 2003. We were the last state to have them on the books.
Yemen was also a top-ten for kidnappings-for-ransom and sadly enough Texas may give them a run for their money soon.
If we weren’t stupidly slowly turning our country into Latin America cuz we’re idiots, none of this would be an issue.
Why are we stupidly turning our country into Latin America should be the issue, not sitting with folding hands and scrambling for ways to deal with the resolve of illegal immigrants to sneak into the United States.
This battle is already lost. No country in the world outside of the PC West, rich in business, poor in values, would put up with such a demographic turnover in such a short period of time in the name of believing in an equality that in fact does not exist in this world – if it does, show it to me. Tell me why Europeans and Americans have to micro-manage Nepal’s children, or Somalia’s hungry, or should micro-manage Egypt’s antique trains.
There are reasons Bolivia is like Boliva, Guatemala like Guatemala, and Mexico like Mexico. A philosophy that believes in a type of osmosis, ala school busing, is a philosophy of idiocy. There is bringing to the table, and there is taking away. PC says one thing, reality another. We are prisoners of race-based liberal PC. It is a monstrous distortion of our American values, a monstrous distortion of our Constitution, and a monstrous distortion of politeness.
Long journeys don’t make one successful. In this case, they simply spread failure.
In the ’80s, not a single theater I visited in a number of Latin American countries didn’t have the ammonia smell of urine, and I went to a lot of movie theaters. Extrapolate that culture’s value’s out – multiply by a thousand in every sector of life. Was America ever like that, let alone the frickin’ 1980′s?
I wouldn’t get to freaked out about engineering social legislation. Texas is a low-transfer payment state.
There’s a huge church base. You’re functionally only mildly franchised if you’re not in a church. So, someone from Oregon is going to come here, and get freaked out by the “message from God” billboards. But- to get to an AA meeting, or a decent, safe childcare place-that person has to go to a church. Or learn how churches work.
Also, it’s been dry for most of its history. Dems are famous drunks. It’s painful reading about them- Molly Ivins, and such. They lose listeners in the first sentence.
Again- Texas cooks the kids into Texans. Pledges, moments of silence, peer pressure, sports. If I said “crying like little girls” about illiterate Cali second-graders transferring in, would I sound mean? Or observant? Or how a class rejects a mouthy ten year old? And that kid spends the year in the principal’s office for not having manners? It’s rough, if you don’t follow the rules.
My first stint in Houston, I came from SF, CA. I got freaked out by the fact that grocery clerks wanted to chat and people wanted to bag my groceries for me and help me to my car. The second time I lived here, we ended up staying for 12 years. I’ve gotten used to retail associates being friendly by now. But when I miss surly, I just head home to WA state to get my fill.
Somehow I managed to find a preschool in a school not church. I didn’t have to look too hard. There were several to choose from. After a total of 15 years in Texas I’m still not a Christian, nor are most of my neighbors so you might be over-stating the influence of the churches. But lord knows there are a lot of them. We even have a Hindu Temple in our little suburb.
My kids certainly don’t consider themselves “little Texans”, but they both came to appreciate the educational opportunities they had once they had spent a couple of years in college. Nothing like competing with 900 others to hit the top 7% in order to just get into your back-up school (UT).
yep. it’s a rough state. It’s top 10%.
The top 10% of any graduating class has the right to attend a flagship. That would be UTA, A&M, Southwest, and I’m not sure which others. UTA and A&M are the two premiere schools. Some kids use Harvard as their fail school, if they can’t make it into UTA. Number one, or top five, in most categories.
The guy getting upset about graduation rates, from high school. Yes, crummy schools have 40% drop-out rates. The 60% who do graduate can read, write, do math, work in their fields, or head to college, or join the military. That’s the meaningful statistic. Next door, in Louisiana, they graduate illiterates, with the social promotion theory. Who would you rather interview for a job?
Actually — to nitpick, and to make a point with the nitpicking — the Democrats did win two statewide races in 1994 — Bob Bullock won re-election as Lt. Governor and John Sharp won re-election as Comptroller. Why it’s important is to remember how both won re-election and what it says about the Democrats’ future chances.
When Ann Richards was elected governor in 1990 and Democrats held most (but not all) of the statewide offices, in the wake of Ann’s ’88 “Poor George” speech against George H.W. Bush at the DNC Convention, state Democrats really thought it was time to move Texas to the left to match the other big states run by the party. And the main thrust of that in 1991 was the attempt to pass a constitutional amendment authorizing a state income tax.
To say that Texas voters were not happy with that move would be an understatement. But the only Democrats who got the message of the 1992 state vote — when Bill Clinton and the Dems were winning nationally — were Bullock and Sharp. The lite gov, who was one of the major proponents of the income tax, did an amazing pivot in 1993, and spearheaded the drive in the Texas Legislature to approve a constitutional amendment, approved by voters later that year, which all by banned Texas from ever instituting a state income tax. Bullock also worked closely with George W. Bush during the 1994-98 period and would have won re-election in ’98 if he hadn’t opted to retire. Sharp won re-election in ’94 by emphasizing cost-saving measures out of his office, and would also been re-elected to his seat in ’98, but opted to run for Bullock’s job and narrowly lost to Rick Perry, in a year when GWB won by 49 points over Democrat Garry Mauro.
So the Democrats can win in Texas. But not if they run on the same ideas as national Democrats, which is harder and harder to do the more and more national issues become factors in local elections. Texas Dems are currently pushing the Castro Brothers of San Antonio as their future state race champions, based on the growing Latino population in the state. But their quandary is going to be satisfying state voters while at the same time toeing the line as much as possible to the party’s national beliefs (i.e. — San Antonio’s economy has exploded to the second biggest in Texas in recent years, ahead of Dallas, due to the boom in hydrological fracking for oil and gas in South Texas. Think either of the Castros can keep the party’s anti-fossil fuels crowds happy in Texas and Washington while not telling thousands of their constituents they need to lose their new high-paying jobs to Save the Planet?)
They should pick one Castro twin, bop him over the head with a frying pan and have the likes of Rove and Dick Mahrrriss drill some center-right talking points into the now amnesiac-twin. After a brutal Castro v. Castro primary for some office, the Dems should cut bait with the remaining liberal twin and run behind the newly converted Blue Dog.
@ Bryan – “Which is closer to actual slavery — less than optimal job conditions, which have always existed and will always exist, or living life under an increasingly all-powerful and unaccountable state? That’s not a trick question.”
WOW!! Ban me for copying and pasting ‘all’ the other definitions of slave???? Okay!
As you started out with “you don’t know nothing about me”, the same is true of you with regards to me! I’ve been a republican for longer than you’ve been alive , unless you were born in ’54 or before, and remain one today! I’m just an independent kind of person and don’t allow myself to become radicalized by any person, thing or, especially a political party. I have a very large number of friend from several political parties and Christian brands of faith. We talk about religion and politcs all the time and we don’t berate each other or stick our toungues out at each other. We debate in a civil manner and agree and disagree in a civil manner. Most of us are old enough to have lived through or very close to times such as this political atmosphere before. Our grand parents survived, our parents survived, we have survived, the nation has survived, the constitution has survived. Its nothing more than history repeating itself as it has in this grand old Republic from its beginnings. Everything that goes up will come down! Everything that swings left will leave a small imprint and will then swing right leaving small imprint as time progresses. Past experiences shows that a united nation will overcome the real problems such as national debt and a thriving economy and employment. A divided nation will fall!
I’m really sorry that America has made you or left you to feel so angry and feeling such despair.
Now I will leave you alone and not comment on anymore of your personal comments since you declared I’m your enemy.
No, the ban would be for obtuseness and rank dishonesty.
Gentlemen,
I come from Chicago. In the original Daley day, Chicago did work. It hasn’t worked well since and an increasingly ugly “Chicago Way” has oozed up out of its sewers. I now live in Maryland, one of the sickest of the blue states heading rapidly to becoming California east. I have worked for a State and the Federal government for substantial years. They are not here to help the citizenry! Any federal employee who would try to make it so, is in great danger careerwise. Been there and done that.
I was generally ignoring politicians and bureaucracies until I began to note they were taxing my earnings away to squander my moneys on their chosen frivolous and self serving waste, while increasingly telling me how my existence must be lived.
Whether progressive liberals recognize it or not … they aren’t worth the money they would demand we spend for their whims.
As for “capitalists” enslaving their employees … unless and until the liberals snap our legs in their chains … if we don’t like the deal we have, we can get up and move, apply for other jobs, and start our own companies.
Peoples need to learn their duty to maintain themselves and those they care for, by “learning to fish,” not learning to be fed by responsible hardworking citizens.
I want my freedom and am willing to assume the responsibilities that entails. I don’t want a government master bleedinng away my earnings, owning me and directing my existence.
I would take Texas as it has been and is under Governor Perry and Mr Preston’s world in a heart beat … given the opportunity.
You guys can go to/stay in California, Illinois, New York, et al and be happy serfs for their dear leaders. Be our guests. Enjoy!
This is what I posted that seemed to offend one person in particular.
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1
As you correctly state, nobody has chains on their legs placed by any employer, but the nations generated wealth by the labor force certainly isn’t in any acceptable degree of parity as it once use to be. Furthermore, one can say they’re doing okay, making a good wage in the middle and upper income brackets but the fact is, a 2012 $1 USD is equal to $1.43 USD in 1950 adjusted for inflation. Then when consider the chart data consider the nations individual debt to income ratios. Not a pretty picture! Of course everybody is free to interpret the data as they wish, but if I was a paid employee and my labor sent the lions share of generation revenue to the top ten percent of wealth holders as my income increasingly become less and less well…..
Falling real wages are a problem all over the country,not just in Texas, and I think probably stem from policies of the “free-traders” -one of whom I used to be — they teach that in college economics courses – lowering tariffs. The effect has been to put labor in the U.S. into direct competition with low wage labor in China and elsewhere. It has even impacted the professions. No American worker can work for what they are paid in Indonesia because you cannot live here for that.
But that’s a discussion for another column.
That old circular, mostly arbitrary inflation thing! But as you say, thats a debate for another day.
Meant to say: 2012 $12.00 USD is equal to $1.43 USD in 1950 adjusted for inflation.
I drive parts of I-35 in Texas most days and see more and more California plates. It’s a little worrisome.
Texas does retain the constitutional right to split into 5 states. May as well research that Nueces River border -that would be one New Mexico-like state below with aa hard-ass Arizona-like state on top. Under the best scenario, for the remaining 3 states, the 3 cities with NBA teams can anchor 3 Georgia-like states (Metro Atlanta is held in check by the rural expanses around it and to the south of it). The Dems would prefer a 2-state solution (big surprise!!?) withI-45 as the divider.
have never forgotten my amazement on my first and so far only visit to the Alamo and seeing how many of the defenders were Hispanic.
Tejanos. We had Tejanos and Texians then. Hispanic is a made-up ethnicity.
Cruz, was most certainly not the choice of the GOP. Dewhurst was. We jammed Cruz down their throats and the state and the country are better off for it.
It is so sad to see how politics still works and what is the inner force of all the racist and stupid thoughts that appear (not only in Texas). People tend to believe the problems are brought to the country by immigration, but it is not true. You can compare it with your neighbour, Canada. With every fifth person born outside of the country, Canada still attracts immigration, which is working well both for the society and newcomers. Any restrictions, racism, and hate towards people who left their homes, families and property in other country is absolutely unnecessary.