Texas has some serious problems politically and they are not all due to Republican gerrymandering. The most intractable problem and the one that’s most frustrating to Texas Liberals is the fact that we cannot get people to vote. It’s not limited to the Latino population certainly because conservative Latinos vote in droves, and there are literally millions of Caucasians who don’t vote, have never voted and swear they never will vote. BOTH groups love to gripe and whine about the results of the elections they don’t participate in but when you try to point out that they could have made a difference, they bleat about how awful “both sides” are. It’s as reliable as when you squeeze a rubber duck, you get a “quack”. Tell those guys that the Democrat would have made their lives better and “quack!”, out comes the “both sides” argument, usually accompanied by an eye roll, chock full of amusement and haughty derision at your naivete.
Along with the lack of participation or perhaps more accurately as a product of it, Republicans in this state take pride in being bat shit crazy. Louie Gohmert cannot stand to have someone like Paul LePage upstage him by saying stupid shit. Gohmert just has to be the stupidest elected official in the United States. He wallows in it, he soaks in it until his fingers are all pruney. Similarly, Dan fucking Patrick just cannot be out-bigoted by North Carolina Republicans. It’s a matter of personal pride with him that no other official in any other state is going to out-hate him in his adopted one. Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Ted Cruz, in the statehouse as well as the Federal government, we just have one venomous nest of snakes when it comes to Texas Republicans. They’re like a giant ball of water moccasins on Clear Lake.
Yes, Texas has some major, major problems that will probably take generational work to fix. Some probably don’t think it’s worth it. After all, the heat is oppressive and one needs SPF-45 just go out to your mailbox and you should see it in the summer! But Texas is also my home and always has been, other than a few years I spent in the service of our country and then in doing some idle wandering. Much more important to Daily Kos readers, there were 38 electoral votes in Texas in 2016 and that’s only set to go up. So apart from saving my own home, I’m working to flip the national elections too. Just think if Texas was a cert for Dems like New York and California! Wow! We would be unstoppable for the foreseeable future! I’m not saying that it’s not going to take work but I would like to see a lot more effort by the DNC to flip the state than they’ve shown in the last 40 years, (the years with Howard Dean as Chair excepted).
Many of these Statehouse Republicans, who are absolutely convinced that they must make a greater, Yuuuuger showing of intolerance and downright petty meanness than anybody else in the country, are now attempting to pass legislation to make it illegal for a Texas transperson to use a public restroom for any gender other than the one listed in their birth certificate. This would render people like me unemployed and unemployable and to make matter worse, it would prevent us participating in society in most official ways. Think you might need to pee while standing in a long line to vote? Better not go vote then! You could be arrested. Wait for a driver’s license two hours or more? Forget that unless you’ve been fasting without liquids all morning. Forget Jury duty, forget doing business at the social security office or city hall and where are you going to go for emergency care if your local ER is in a government owned building? You can see how devastating such a law would be to transpersons. I say transpersons to include transmen as well, though Patrick and his horde of zealots never mention transmen, only transwomen.
And they say it’s not about bigotry….
Anyway, when the Texas Leg met in 2017, the Senate quickly and overwhelmingly passed Dan fucking Patrick’s “I hate transpeople” bill and it headed over to the House for consideration. There it ran into a wall in the form of Speaker of the House, Joe Straus (R) San Antonio. He tabled the legislation, citing the economic impact of similar legislation in North Carolina. It never got a vote in the regular session and when the session expired, that was it for SB-6….or was it? Mr. Igotmine, a.k.a. Greg Abbott called a special session in order to, among other things, help carpetbagger Dan fucking Patrick realize his dream of preventing transwomen having a place in society. In fact, Patrick wanted to hate so very much that he added a tweek or two to his bill and sent two other Senators who also fervently support potty monitoring to try to get Straus on board with the hate train. His response was epic. He wouldn’t even read the new bill but dismissed it saying:
“I’m not a lawyer, but I am a Texan. I’m disgusted by all this. Tell the lieutenant governor I don’t want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands.”
Of course Dan fucking Patrick’s office denies that he was pwned like that but I think we can reasonably infer who is lying. There are many things that Straus and I will never agree on but this isn’t just about protecting businesses and the revenue they bring in. He sounds like he’s got a reaql conscience which is vanishingly rare among conservatives these days. In a fairly recent interview with the New Yorker, Straus seems to suggest that the bill will never get a vote as long as he’s House Speaker, saying when asked about it:
“The Governor would have the option to call as many 30-day sessions as he would like”
Seeming to suggest that it will never get out of his committee no matter how many special sessions were called by Governor Igotmine.
Apart from the support on trans issues, Speaker Straus is not like a typical Texas conservative. He is one of the oh so few truly moderate Republicans left. On social policy, health policy, etc., he is to the left of the vast majority of what one would consider a typical Republican these days. For some context, yes he's still a hard right turn away from Godemperor Reagan but he’s not the typical Texas Republican. I honestly think he keeps getting handily reelected as Speaker so the fire breathers will have an excuse to back down from some of their more insane promises to their constituents. He’s their foil, their bolt hole, their cover for backing down on the nuttiest promises that they so glibly make.
It’s been my experience that when a Republican shows empathy, it’s because he or she is very close to a person or persons struggling with similar issues but for whatever reason he’s opposed to this abominable law, I recognize an ally when I see one. Though he’s not my Rep., we occupy the same county and I felt that a little encouragement was due. I went to his webpage and left a word or two for the Speaker:
Dear sir:
Although you are not my Representative in Congress, (I live in district ***), I would like to express my gratitude and admiration of your firm stand against anti transgender legislation in this state. Though we are of different parties and will probably not agree on much, I found a quote from you that really impressed me while reading the news earlier:
“I’m not a lawyer, but I am a Texan. I’m disgusted by all this. Tell the lieutenant governor I don’t want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands.”
That is something we have in common: unlike Dan Patrick, we are both Texan. Patrick's bigoted bill would not only cost business hugely, it would render me and many like me unemployed and unemployable. Not only that but I wouldn't be able to participate in society. I wouldn't be able to do jury duty for example or have any case that I might bring heard in a court of law. Getting my driver's license renewed would be problematic if the wait was long. In short, right now I am a functioning, law abiding, productive member of society, not to mention a veteran but Patrick wants to shut me out, turn me away and put me on the street. If that bill becomes law, I will have no choice but to move out of state.
So once, more, thank you for standing firm. Patrick used to be a sportscaster in Houston, (which is where I'm from) and he's from Baltimore, Maryland. When I was in the service, I couldn't wait to get back to Texas where folks who knew you and knew you to be a good person would welcome you and help you if needed. I don't need a carpetbagger like Dan Patrick to come down here and tell me I don't have the right to work and support myself anymore. He wants to turn me into a criminal and a dweller on the fringes of society.
The man is a bigot, pure and simple. He claims to be worried about women and young girls being accosted in bathrooms by transwomen, (funny he never mentions transmen) but that doesn't happen. Ever. This is about Patrick being a hateful jerk and getting satisfaction out of crapping on the vulnerable. Even though I'm not Republican, if I lived in your district I'd have to consider making an exception so you would remain Speaker. Stay strong!
Thanks!
That was a first for me. In all of the letters and emails I’ve written politicians, there has only been one that was positive toward a Republican and that was it. Though as I’ve acknowledged, there’s very little he and I will ever agree on, I have to recognize an ally when one comes along. In this age of Il Duce Arancia and his group of merry deplorables doing everything they can to turn this nation into a living hell for anyone not rich, white, male, Christian, cisgender and heterosexual, it’s rare to see a Republican stand up for the powerless and I for one am grateful, regardless of that stupid “R" by his name.
I know that there will be some who will be appalled by my praise for a Texas Republican but the reality is that if Joe Straus wasn’t Speaker of the House, that abominable bill would be an abominable law right now. Partisan purity isn’t so important to me that I won’t give credit where it is due. Ideally of course we would have a Democrat in that seat, leading a House with a Democratic majority but at this point I’ll take what I can get. I hope that you’ll join me in applauding a Republican for doing the right thing this one time.
Thanks, Mr. Straus!
Monday, Jul 10, 2017 · 10:21:55 AM +00:00
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MargaretPOA
Updated: The Dan Patrick this diary refers to is Lt Governor Dan Patrick who used to be sports anchor for Channel 11 News in Houston, not sportscaster Dan Patrick who is still broadcasting today. The former is the subject of this conversation, the latter has no relevance to it, other than some commentators who insist that I am mistaken to have said that the former Dan Patrick got his start as a sports broadcaster, a statement which is clearly, demonstrably true. I had no idea this other guy even existed, not being much of a sports fan. Please stop suggesting that I’m conflating the two. I am not.