A More Conservative Texas?

[Nbadan]

The day after the primaries, a number of journalists commented that Dan Patrick’s victory signaled a shift to a more conservative Texas.


Geez, how much more conservative can Texas get? The answer is a bit frightening.

Envisioning a more conservative Texas is like the ghost of Christmas future who warned Scrooge of his fate if he didn’t change his ways. Just like Ebenezer, if voters could catch a preview of what life could be like with the Tea Party at the helm in Austin, they might think twice about their vote in November.

And perhaps, this glimpse into the future might motivate non-voting Texans to head off our impending disaster.

There’s no doubt that Patrick’s victory was a referendum against David Dewhurst more than a nod in favor of Patrick. After his defeat by Ted Cruz, Dewhurst became the wealthy career politician that Texas came to disdain. What I fear is that November voters will continue to allow labels to dominate their choices, not thinking about the resulting effect of a more corrupt and extreme crop of Tea Party politicians.

There are only five things that voters need to know about Dan Patrick:

1. He wants to stop the “invasion from Mexico”.

2. In 2013, he made Texas Monthly’s list of Worst Legislators of 2013

3. He vowed to obstruct any equal pay legislation.

4. He voted for $5.4 billion in cuts to education.

5. He was the only opponent of the Veterans Entrepreneurship Program.

The leak of his mental health problems was a low blow, but anyone who’s observed Patrick’s past behavior has few doubts about his "problematic" personality. To get the backstory, read Mimi Schwartz’ 2007 article “Here Comes Trouble”.

Patrick’s campaign was funded by donors like Tim Dunn and James Leininger, so we can expect a full frontal assault of public education. He’s made no secret about his disdain for public education and his love affair with Christian private schools.

A more conservative Texas means all state services are in dangerous peril. Texas won’t even look like Texas. Molly Ivins once remarked that Texas was like Mississippi with better roads. A more conservative Texas will ensure we won’t even get better roads.

A more conservative Texas means an assault on those who live in poverty. A more conservative Texas means fewer opportunities for social and economic mobility. A more conservative Texas guarantees that oil, gas, real estate, and insurance will be writing Texas legislation. A more conservative Texas guarantees to kick the legislative can down the road; the payday vampires and the quality of our environment will be decided by municipal governments.

Columnist Paul Burka calls this slide to the extreme right, the revenge of the “know nothings”. I agree. This class of politicians is about as “know nothing” as any group I’ve witnessed in Texas’ past.

An example? Before you vote for Sid Miller for Ag Commissioner, you better ask him if he knows the difference between a vaginal wand and a farm implement. He didn’t back in 2013. It took a Democratic woman to demonstrate the procedure on the floor of the Texas House.

It’s depressing in one way, but in another, it’s a ray of hope. It won’t take long for Texans to become weary of a gridlocked Texas Legislature, the control of more dark money, state services privatized and assigned to somebody’s uncle, the loss of religious freedom and the death of public education.

Eventually, there will be a political U turn and the pendulum will move back to the Left. I think it is happening behind the scenes right now. Those who are working against this Tea Party pandemic of hatefulness, corruption, and racism should have no illusions it will be difficult, but we shouldn’t become disillusioned just because voters don’t get it.

They will. Eventually…

And I will be more than happy to say, “I told you so.”

http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-05-30/more-conservative-texas#.U46avyi8i51

[boutons_deux]

and SBOE Christian Taleban supremacists putting Biblical shit and perverted history in text books.Retrograde TX is fucked and unfuckable.

[RandomGuy]

The day after the primaries, a number of journalists commented that Dan Patrick’s victory signaled a shift to a more conservative Texas.



http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-05-30/more-conservative-texas#.U46avyi8i51

Fine by me. The more conservative the state GOP gets.. the easier it will be to finally wrest control from the nutters that have hijacked the Repulican party.

[TeyshaBlue]

Fine by me. The more conservative the state GOP gets.. the easier it will be to finally wrest control from the nutters that have hijacked the Repulican party.

Absolutely. Still praying for the complete splintering of the GOP to make room for a moderate voice.

[Nbadan]

Fine by me. The more conservative the state GOP gets.. the easier it will be to finally wrest control from the nutters that have hijacked the Repulican party.

Texas will be paying (alot more) for decades for the damage these nutters will do to education alone...

[Aztecfan03]

Texas will be paying (alot more) for decades for the damage these nutters will do to education alone...

That will be nothing compared to Common Core.

[Th'Pusher]

That will be nothing compared to Common Core.

Explain to we in your own words what's wrong with the common core

[scott]

Explain to we in your own words what's wrong with the common core

Each individual state should have the right to ensure the idiocy of their children

[TeyshaBlue]

Explain to we in your own words what's wrong with the common core

Are you intrested in an answer to this, Push? Ive got a couple of HSO's from this thread...so does dan.

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=221227&page=2&p=6807148&viewfull=1#post6807148

[Nbadan]

Texas GOP Platform Draft Endorses Gay Conversion Therapy


A draft of the Texas Republican Party's new platform embraces gay conversion therapy, arguing that it is a viable option for "patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle."

The Texas GOP convention kicks off Thursday, and one of the tasks of delegates is rewriting the party's platform.

The current document, adopted in 2012, sharply condemns equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. There are multiple sections dealing with the issue, including language that reads: "We affirm that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country's founders, and shared by the majority of Texans."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/05/texas-gop-conversion-therapy_n_5454875.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[boutons_deux]

Praying for a "moderate" TX?

:lol

TX' 99% is fucked and unfuckable, like the 99% in every red state.

[angrydude]

Texas GOP Platform Draft Endorses Gay Conversion Therapy


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/05/texas-gop-conversion-therapy_n_5454875.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Pretty sure that (or something more extreme) has been in the platform for a long time. Hardly news.
The only people who have the time/interest to go to political conventions are old people anyway.

[boutons_deux]

Pretty sure that (or something more extreme) has been in the platform for a long time. Hardly news.
The only people who have the time/interest to go to political conventions are old people anyway.

seems like the open carry assault weapon assholes also have the time.

[m>s]

Watching liberals rant and make no sense is hilarious, one of my favorite pastimes. Lol at the author being hopeful of a "swing back to the left." We'll take up arms and start kicking in doors before your sickos ever control our state. Even the minorities here are more to the right than in other states, I personally convert Hispanics into gun owners.

[Clipper Nation]

:lol Liberals
:lol Thinking Texas will ever be a lib state

[boutons_deux]

16 Wacky Ideas In The Texas Republican Party’s New Platform (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/06/19/3450942/xx-wacky-ideas-in-the-texas-republican-partys-new-platform/)


http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Rick-Perry-Thumbs-e1403191900750-638x323.jpg

1) Pornography Should Be Treated Just Like Cocaine

Texas Republicans “encourage state and federal governments to severely prosecute illegal dealers and manufacturers of addictive substances, including pornography.” They also support “the enforcement of laws regarding all forms of pornography, because pornography is detrimental to society.”

2) Social Security Should Be Phased Out

The Texas GOP platform calls for “an immediate and orderly transition” away from Social Security and towards “a system of private pensions based on the concept of individual retirement accounts.” It also supports “gradually phasing out the Social Security tax,” a proposal which will starve the program for funding. According to a 2012 study, Social Security keeps over 20 million Americans from falling into poverty (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/14/690661/social-security-poverty-77/).

3) Texas Should Veto Federal Laws

“Nullification” is an unconstitutional doctrine (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/01/1945191/alabama-senate-passes-bill-nullifying-all-federal-gun-laws/) which claims that states may invalidate federal laws within their own borders. It’s also explicitly repudiated by the Constitution, which provides that duly enacted federal laws “shall be the supreme law of the land (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremacy_Clause); and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” Nevertheless, the Texas GOP platform calls for the state legislature to “ignore, oppose, refuse, and nullify any federal mandated legislation which infringes upon the states’ 10th Amendment Right.” Although the platform is vague regarding how Texas Republicans interpret the Tenth Amendment, the top Republican in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry, has argued that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/09/13/317543/video-rick-perry-calls-medicare-and-social-security-unconstitutional/) all violate this amendment.

As a bonus, the platform also claims that the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies should have to get a Texas sheriff’s permission before they can investigate federal crimes.

4) Americans Should Not Be Allowed To Choose Their Own Senators

The Seventeenth Amendment abolished an older practice that empowered state lawmakers to choose their state’s senators, in no small part because the old system “led to rampant and blatant corruption, letting corporations and other moneyed interests effectively buy U.S. Senators (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2010/11/15/176968/seventeenth-hate/), and tied state legislatures up in numerous, lengthy deadlocks over whom to send to Washington.” The Texas GOP platform, however, wants to return to the day when the American people could not vote on their own senators. “Full Repeal of the 17th Amendment of the United States Constitution” is one of the platform’s demands.

5) The Problem With America’s Schools Is That They Have Too Much Money

According to the Texas GOP, “[s]ince data is clear that additional money does not translate into educational achievement, and higher education costs are out of control, we support reducing taxpayer funding to all levels of education institutions.”

6) All Federal Agencies Should Be Rendered Impotent

Texas Republicans “decry the appointment of unelected bureaucrats, and we urge Congress to use their constitutional authority to defund and abolish these positions and return authority to duly elected officials” — a sweeping statement that appears to rule out allowing anyone from being paid to implement federal laws. It is not clear whether United States Senators would qualify as “unelected bureaucrats,” if the Texas GOP’s proposal to abolish the Seventeenth Amendment became law.

As an interim measure, before all “unelected bureaucrats” are fired, the platform says that “[e]xecutive decisions by agencies must be reviewed and approved by Congress before taking effect” — a provision that would make it virtually impossible for any executive agency to do anything at all, given the paralytic state of our Congress. The platform also calls for “Elimination of Executive Orders,” and it names once agency in particular as particularly disfavored — “We believe the Environmental Protection Agency should be abolished.”

7) Climate Change Is A Myth

Texas Republicans don’t just want to eliminate the Environmental Protect Agency, they deny the overwhelming scientific consensus indicating that man-made climate change is a real and serious problem. Climate change, according to the Texas GOP, “is a political agenda which attempts to control every aspect of our lives (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/05/3445339/texas-gop-2014-platform-climate-change/).”

8) Congress Must Act Now To Prevent America From Becoming A Muslim Caliphate

The platform urges “the Texas Legislature and the United States Congress to enact legislation prohibiting any judicial jurisdiction from allowing any substitute or parallel system of law, specifically foreign law (including Sharia Law), which is not in accordance with the United States or Texas Constitutions.” Bans on Sharia law are a common proposal (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/31shariah.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) raised by Islamophobic state lawmakers. Yet, in an opinion blocking Oklahoma’s Sharia ban, a federal appeals court explained that the law’s defenders “did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/10/401693/oklahoma-sharia-ban-unconstitutional/) or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma.”

9) God Hates Gay People, And Their Bosses Should Be Allowed To Fire Them For Being Gay

“Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that have been ordained by God in the Bible,” according to Texas Republicans. Moreover, the platform denounces the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit anti-gay employment discrimination, explaining that “government regulations which would coerce business owners and employees to violate their own consciences, beliefs, and principles.”

10) Gayness Can Be Cured

The Texas GOP “recognize[s] the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle.” In reality, people who have undergone such “theapy” describe it as a source of “shame, emotional harm, self-hate, suicidal ideation, and nervous breakdowns (http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/06/05/3445234/texas-republican-platform-ex-gay/).”

11) The Voting Rights Act Should Be Repealed

The Supreme Court recently gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/25/2210121/breaking-supreme-court-kills-key-prong-of-voting-rights-act/), which prevents voters from being denied the right to vote because of their race. Nevertheless, the act’s provision allowing lawsuits challenging state laws that deny or abridge “the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color” (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1973) remains in effect. Texas Republicans want to change that — “We urge that the Voter Rights Act of 1965, codified and updated in 1973, be repealed and not reauthorized.”

Additionally, the platform calls for a wide range of laws that will make it harder to cast a vote: “We support repeal of all motor voter laws; re-registering voters every four years; requiring photo ID of all registrants; proof of residency and citizenship, along with voter registration application; retention of the 30-day registration deadline; and requiring that a list of certified deaths be provided to the Secretary of State in order that the names of deceased voters be removed from the list of registered voters.”

12) America Needs More Income Inequality

The platform calls for a broad range of tax reforms that would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans, including a “flat tax,” “[a]bolishment of estate taxes,” “[a]bolishment of capital gains taxes” and “[a]bolishment of the gift tax.” Meanwhile, here’s how wealthy people are currently faring even without the Texas GOP’s tax reforms (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/07/5-facts-about-economic-inequality/):

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/income-inequality-pew.png

13) Children Of Non-Citizens Should Be Stripped Of Their Citizenship

Texas Republicans call “on the Texas Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment that defines citizenship as those born to a citizen of the United States or through naturalization.” Texas lawmakers do not, however, have the authority to unilaterally amend the United States Constitution, which provides that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitu tion).” The words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in this context, only excludes a small group of children (http://americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2010/04/08/7554/immigration-nation/), such as the children of foreign diplomats who enjoy diplomatic immunity to U.S. law.

14) The Supreme Court Should Not Be Allowed To Enforce The Bill of Rights

The platform urges “Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights.” The constitutionality of this proposal isdoubtful (http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-8836.ZC1.html), but it is also unclear whether the Texas GOP has fully thought out whether it makes sense to reduce the power of the conservative Roberts Court. In recent years, the Supreme Court has not simply expanded gun rights under the Second Amendment (http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZS.html), it also appears likely to give business owners new authority to ignore federal laws they object to on religious grounds (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/03/25/3418675/justice-kennedy-thinks-hobby-lobby-is-an-abortion-case-thats-bad-news-for-birth-control/).

15) America Needs To Quit The United Nations

The Texas GOP supports “the withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations and the removal of United Nations headquarters from United States soil.” Additionally, it appears to embrace a conspiracy theory previously touted by one of Texas’ most famous Republicans. The platform “oppose[s] implementation of the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty policies and its supporting organizations, agreements, and contracts which were adopted at the Earth Summit Conference in 1992.” In reality, Agenda 21 is a more than two decades-old non-binding resolution which primarily speaks at a high level of generality about reducing poverty and building sustainable living environments. During his campaign for the United States Senate, however, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed that it “attempts to abolish ‘unsustainable’ environments, including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads,” and that the originator of this War on Golf (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/03/16/446352/tx-sen-candidate-ted-cruz-spouts-paranoid-fantasy-about-united-nationsgeorge-soros-conspiracy-to-eliminate-golf/) is liberal billionaire George Soros.

16) #BENGHAZI!

Finally, the platform embraces the widespread belief among Republican legislators and views of Fox News (http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/05/02/3433637/please-dont-read-this-benghazi-article/) that the deaths of several Americans in Benghazi, Libya was not just a tragedy, but that it is also part of some grand criminal conspiracy by the Obama Administration. Texas Republicans want a special prosecutor to try to uncover what countless congressional hearings have yet to find — evidence of criminal action on the part of administration officials. It also calls for “bringing those responsible to justice, including jail time.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/06/19/3450942/xx-wacky-ideas-in-the-texas-republican-partys-new-platform/

TX Repugs, fucking the TX 99% in every orifice.

[m>s]

some of those are actually good ideas...the others you can shove up your ass fucker

[boutons_deux]

same childish, rabble rousing fantasies, redneck shitbags up north

============

The South Dakota Republican Party passed a resolution at its state convention Saturday calling for the impeachment of President Obama,according to The Sioux Falls Argus Leader (http://www.argusleader.com/story/davidmontgomery/2014/06/21/sdgop-obama-impeachment/11212075/).

"Therefore, be it resolved that the South Dakota Republican Party calls on our U.S. Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States," the resolution reads.

The resolution accused Obama of violating "his oath of office in numerous ways," and mentions the recent trade of five Taliban members for captive U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, among other issues.

Delegates voted 191-176 in favor of the resolution.

"I've got a thick book on impeachable offenses of the president," resolution sponsor Allen Unruh told the Argus Leader.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/south-dakota-obama-impeachment?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29 (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/south-dakota-obama-impeachment?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29)

[Cry Havoc]

It says a lot that the GOP wants to cut funding to education and instead spend it on bombs.

[DMX7]

It says a lot that the GOP wants to cut funding to education and instead spend it on bombs.

It has been that way for a while now.

[Cry Havoc]

It has been that way for a while now.

Oh, I'm aware. It's just that in the past they've usually been a bit more clandestine about it.

[boutons_deux]

nothing clandestine about uncuttlable $700B/year for MIC while cutting long term unemployment, school lunches, child health insurance, refusing to expand Medicaid, etc, etc.

With the Repugs it's ALWAYS guns for the MIC, and no butter for the 99%