The TXGOP had Initiatives and Referendums on their plank up until they took control of the Lege and Governership. Then they quietly dropped it. If the day comes in the far, far future where the Democrats once again rule Texas, you can bet it will make a return. It will be a cold day in hell when the state government gives up that much control, no matter which party is in power. Which the article does say, to be fair.
Basically, unless you have enough money, Texas is where you come to be ruled over, not to rule.
Just saw this over on Mastodon. I can’t stand that these pricks are still in charge. And the fact that we still have massive voter disengagement allowing them to stay there is all the more depressing.
I mean, would you vote in Texas? Where everything’s so gerrymandered that attempting any kind of blue takeover requires extensive cooperation with rural areas. And sure, you might say that gerrymandering doesn’t apply to the governorship, however it does apply to the accessability of polling locations. Combine that with a general feeling that democrats see Texas as a lost cause and aren’t interested in actually sending their best, and, well, you really shouldn’t be surprised when most Texans are so disillusioned with the system that they can’t drag themselves out to vote.
Edit: didn’t realize this was in a Texas community. The sentiment still stands though.
So I reject the idea that Texas is a lost cause. If we were, Republicans wouldn’t still be trying so hard to suppress our voice. If we could just get the turnout we would win the state-wide offices. Then we could tackle the gerrymandering and have a representative legislature. We just have to actually get out and vote, instead of the craptacular 2022 midterm <50% turnout that saw Abbott, Patrick, and Paxton all reelected.
I also live in Texas, and I do vote, but it’s hard to get myself to do so and even harder to believe it’s actually making a difference. I didn’t mean that democrat voters feel that it’s a lost cause, it feels like the party itself views Texas as a lost cause or is treating Texas like a heel. The reason is because the politicians they send tend to either actively push for gun control or have done so in the recent past. That’s an extremely hard sell in Texas. Sure, you could say, “oh, but people would still vote against them because they’ll just assume that said politician is anti-gun 'cause they’re blue” but that itself seems like a bit of a lost-cause mindset.
Idk, I guess my point is that it feels like the democrats are putting forward politicians without actually looking into what would be successful in Texas. Combine that with me having become cynical and jaded, and I have a hard time believing that they’re actually trying if not straight-up using Texas as a heel for more liberal states.
In the case of Beto in 2022, I think you’re right that the party wasn’t doing anything to compete in the state. But I think Beto only ran because the DNC wasn’t putting up anyone. The primary was 5 or 6 no-name folks with zero experience. One didn’t even have a web site. So Beto won the primary with over 90% of the vote. He didn’t really look like he wanted it at all, because clearly his comments on gun control during his presidential run tanked any future state campaigns.
We need someone like Howard Dean back in charge, with the fifty state strategy that paid off in 2008 and 2012. I think Beto can do that for the party within the state, if other candidates will step up. Seems like we have decent options to take on Cruz in 2024.
Lookie here, we’ve got the king of Texas telling people who isn’t allowed LMAO!!
Like anyone takes the cock pretending to run the farm seriously. Puff out that chest and cock-a-doodle-doo! You look big to the other chickens, at least.
Well, I guess if the King of Texas says it, it must be true LMAO!!
It’s so funny that you think anyone gives a fuck what you say about who is welcome. Look at you, special little guy! You’ve got a VEWY IMPOWTANT JOWB to do, keeping us all safe from the wrongthinkers LOL!!
Can I check with you on fashion advice, too? Do I need to buy a denim suit to fit in with y’all good ol’ boys? Or are you more about the white hoods? Do these chaps make my ass look too skinny? I just want to make sure you think I’m cool!
What sundown town do you run, anyway? Nothing funnier than impotant little men thinking they’re big shit.
Disengagement is the wrong term when “disengaging” people is a deliberate political strategy. Also your state is famous for stuffing ballot boxes. That history lingers.
I say disengaged to reflect the sentiment of giving up due to the suppression. Biden came within a million votes of winning Texas in 2020, amidst 66% voter turnout. Turnout dropped to under 50% in 2022 and Abbott/Patrick/Paxton coasted to victory. The suppression only works at the state level because the targeted voters disengaged from the process. If we had instead doubled down and gotten up to 70% turnout, we may have seen a Democratic sweep at the state level.
I live in Austin and this is the first I’ve even heard about this happening, meaning they didn’t exactly make waves. Ignoring these guys is the best strategy. They want counterprotests so they can try to rile them up and try to draw attention. They thrive on attention, so we should focus on trying to defeat them politically while ignoring them as much as possible
I think response needs to be exceedingly lopsided. Either nobody pays attention to it, or a counter protest group of significantly larger size shows up.
If they’re protesting a specific place or event, yes, show up in force to show solidarity. If they’re just out there randomly walking the street like this, thinking people will feel intimidated, ignore that shit
Nonsense. Just need voter turnout to skyrocket enough to overcome gerrymandering to take the state-wide offices. Then we can work on fixing the gerrymandered districts and voter supression.
They’ve been emboldened by far-right candidates winning elections. Gerrymandering districts has contributed to those wins, by forcing the primary candidates to be more hard-line than the rest, as they don’t have to compete for moderate voters in the general. Fixing the elections will snap back to reality the fact that these extreme views are not shared by the majority of society.
Not to belittle the heat wave, the effect of the water break change doesn’t come into effect o until September. So they aren’t really related as of yet, other than shitty and coincidental timing.
There’s multiple sources mentioning this. But here’s one.
Also doesn’t the law deal with water breaks at work? OPs examples were all people doing their own thing. I think we’re all in agreement though that if people are dying from the heat right now that it will get a lot worse once this legislation takes effect.
texasobserver.org
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