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Source: (consider it) Thread: Texas GOP
Nicolemr
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# 28

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I debated if I should start this here or in hell, but since the idea of starting a hell thread kind of scared me, I decided to reign in my venom and start t here instead.

A friend of mine elsewhere posted this little gem about the Texas Republican Party Platform:

Texas GOP platform: criminalize gay marriage and ban sodomy, outlaw strip clubs and pornography

What the hell? Are we going backwards in time? My only hope is that this is so conservative that it'll turn off the few remaining moderate Republicans and cause the final marginalization of the far right.

But seriously? Going back to making specific sex acts illegal even between consenting adults? Whatever happened to "getting government out of the people's lives"? Making oral and anal sex illegal for everyone? Well there goes a big chunk of _my_ sex life... and I'm not even gay!!

WTF Texas, wtf???

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Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Campbellite

Ut unum sint
# 1202

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Texas has always been home to the reddest of the red minded Republicans. So polititians try to out-do one another on how right-wing they are. That race to the right is now leading to its logical conclusions.

Can we give them back to Mexico. Please?

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Suffering for Jesus since 1966.
WTFWED?

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mousethief

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# 953

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Minimum oversight of corporations; maximum oversight of bedrooms. That's always been the Republican way.

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Boogie

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# 13538

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Why on earth do they care how consenting adults enjoy sex?

I truly do not get it.

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multipara
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# 2918

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Might lead to dancing....

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quod scripsi, scripsi

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mousethief

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# 953

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Boogie: Because God™ doesn't like it, and God is incapable of enforcing His morality here on earth for some reason, so we have to do it for Him.

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Crœsos
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# 238

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Keep an eye on this. Texas is the lynchpin of the modern GOP, so crazy ideas that get into the state party platform have a way of turning up in the national platform ten or fifteen years down the road.

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Humani nil a me alienum puto

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Eliab
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# 9153

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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Because God™ doesn't like it, and God is incapable of enforcing His morality here on earth for some reason, so we have to do it for Him.

Why oral sex though? I get the anal thing - that's the sort of thing that gays do and as the blessed Saint Fred teaches, God hates them - but oral sex surely isn't tainted in the same way.

Unless it's bad because it's not procreative, but in that case, why isn't contraception on the banned list? Or masturbation?

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"Perhaps there is poetic beauty in the abstract ideas of justice or fairness, but I doubt if many lawyers are moved by it"

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Olaf
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# 11804

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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Minimum oversight of corporations; maximum oversight of bedrooms. That's always been the Republican way.

[Killing me]

"Small government" at work. Worrying about the important things.

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mousethief

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# 953

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quote:
Originally posted by Eliab:
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Because God™ doesn't like it, and God is incapable of enforcing His morality here on earth for some reason, so we have to do it for Him.

Why oral sex though? I get the anal thing - that's the sort of thing that gays do and as the blessed Saint Fred teaches, God hates them - but oral sex surely isn't tainted in the same way.

Unless it's bad because it's not procreative, but in that case, why isn't contraception on the banned list? Or masturbation?

I don't think it's the procreation. I think it's that for good fundy married couples the only acceptable sexual activity is tab-a slot-b copulation in the missionary position. Oral sex is what (unmarried) teenagers and gays do. That's my theory, anyway.

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Horseman Bree
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# 5290

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It'll be fun to watch them actually try to ban porn and strip clubs, particularly when it becomes obvious how many of their own flock will be outraged.

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It's Not That Simple

Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
Boogie

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# 13538

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From the link -

The Lone Star state initially passed a law barring sodomy in 1860. Violators faced anywhere from five to 15 years in prison. The ban was overturned in 2003


2003?? Good grief, where have these people been?


Even the poll on the news site only gives a choice of 'No. They are taking it too far' which looks like they should be taking it somewhere. I need a - 'No. There is nothing whatever wrong with gay sex' button or I feel it would be a tacit 'yes'

Ho hum, the waggon wheels of progress seem to be turning slowly backwards in Texas [Frown]

[ 27. June 2010, 08:19: Message edited by: Boogie ]

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Garden. Room. Walk

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Ender's Shadow
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# 2272

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A highly qualified and otherwise liberal Psychotherapist friend of mine (he was once in a gay relationship) surprised me at the virulence of his reaction against the present tide of Porn that the Internet is 'blessing' us with because of the damage that it does. I suspect that the Texas GOP therefore may be onto something there and may find surprising allies in that cause.

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mdijon
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# 8520

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You make the assumption that not thinking porn is a good thing would lead your friend to think that banning it is the way forward, and that he would also tolerate criminalizing homosexuality as a necessary part of that.

I suspect any support for this will come from the very most likely and predictable corners.

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mdijon nojidm uoɿıqɯ ɯqıɿou
ɯqıɿou uoɿıqɯ nojidm mdijon

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Horseman Bree
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# 5290

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According to Barna research, the proportion of "consumers" of porn among born-agains/evnagelicals is just as high as or higher than the proportion among other Christians or the great unwashed don't-care-if-they're-Christians

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It's Not That Simple

Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
mdijon
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# 8520

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Although it wouldn't be completely inconsistent to cast oneself as a helpless sinner who would be helped if the occasion for sinning was banned.

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mdijon nojidm uoɿıqɯ ɯqıɿou
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Boogie

Boogie on down!
# 13538

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quote:
Originally posted by mdijon:
You make the assumption that not thinking porn is a good thing would lead your friend to think that banning it is the way forward, and that he would also tolerate criminalizing homosexuality as a necessary part of that.

I suspect any support for this will come from the very most likely and predictable corners.

I agree.

The porn issue is totally separate from the others - why lunp the two together anyway?

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Garden. Room. Walk

Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008  |  IP: Logged
mousethief

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# 953

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quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
From the link -

The Lone Star state initially passed a law barring sodomy in 1860. Violators faced anywhere from five to 15 years in prison. The ban was overturned in 2003


2003?? Good grief, where have these people been?

Texas.

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Amanda B. Reckondwythe

Dressed for Church
# 5521

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Which gave rise to one of the Rocky Horror Picture Show audience lines:

Frank N. Furter: "It's no crime giving yourself over to pleasure."

Audience: "It is in Texas!"

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Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Crœsos
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# 238

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quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
From the link -

The Lone Star state initially passed a law barring sodomy in 1860. Violators faced anywhere from five to 15 years in prison. The ban was overturned in 2003


2003?? Good grief, where have these people been?

Texas.
Bear in mind this law wasn't overturned by the Texas legislature, but rather the U.S. Supreme Court. A lot of states still had sodomy laws on the books in 2003, but it was Texas that was actually enforcing theirs.

I recall that Justice Scalia, who wrote a dissent claiming that there is a public interest in monitoring other people's sex lives, reacted somewhat negatively when some student asked him at Q&A following a speech he gave whether or not he sodomized his wife. Apparently the public interest only applies to other people's sex lives.

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Humani nil a me alienum puto

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Nicolemr
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# 28

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quote:
Why oral sex though? I get the anal thing - that's the sort of thing that gays do and as the blessed Saint Fred teaches, God hates them - but oral sex surely isn't tainted in the same way.

Unless it's bad because it's not procreative, but in that case, why isn't contraception on the banned list? Or masturbation?

Oral sex both because it _is_ something associated with what homosexuals do (think of the pejorative use of the word "cocksucker", for instance) and also because it's not "normal" genital/genital sex, and theefore in the minds of a certain type of person is "dirty" and "unnatural".

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Beeswax Altar
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# 11644

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I don't know what they are thinking.

Any law to ban sodomy is unconstitutional. Texas can select not to recognize same sex marriage in any way. Criminalizing it would surely violate the first amendment right to freedom of religion.

They can't ban strip clubs in Texas. In the Longview-Tyler area where I lived, there were at the time at least 8 strip clubs. Those are just the ones I passed on major highways. Many of them were totally nude. You could tell because they were BYOB. Ban porn? The only Drive In Theatre in the area showed porn. This is East Texas. We aren't talking about Houston or Dallas and certainly not Austin.

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Olaf
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# 11804

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quote:
Originally posted by Beeswax Altar:
Criminalizing it would surely violate the first amendment right to freedom of religion.

That is an interesting line of thinking. If one's religion permits such behavior, would governmental interference be a first amendment violation? (As I see it, this would only be a first amendment violation if the action itself were necessary for the practice of the religion, but I'm not an attorney.)
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Beeswax Altar
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# 11644

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On second thought, it might not be as cut and dry as thought. Still, the state has to have a compelling interest to infringe on the free exercise of religion. Even if you allow that the state has a right to not legally recognize gay marriage, what is the compelling interest in telling religious groups they can't perform religious ceremonies called marriages for same sex couples.

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-Og: King of Bashan

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Crœsos
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# 238

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This could be the new big thing in state Republican platforms. According to the Montana Republican Party Platform (about a third of the way down the webpage):

quote:
Homosexual Acts

We support the clear will of the people of Montana expressed by legislation to keep homosexual acts illegal.

Locking up gays. It's not just for Texas anymore!

Given that she occasionally goes hunting with her father in Montana, I wonder if anyone would be willing to ask the state GOP how much time they think Mary Cheney should do for her lesbianism.

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Humani nil a me alienum puto

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mousethief

Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953

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Dammit, Scotty, NOW!

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Lyda*Rose

Ship's broken porthole
# 4544

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quote:
Originally posted by Beeswax Altar:
I don't know what they are thinking.

Any law to ban sodomy is unconstitutional. Texas can select not to recognize same sex marriage in any way. Criminalizing it would surely violate the first amendment right to freedom of religion.

They can't ban strip clubs in Texas. In the Longview-Tyler area where I lived, there were at the time at least 8 strip clubs. Those are just the ones I passed on major highways. Many of them were totally nude. You could tell because they were BYOB. Ban porn? The only Drive In Theatre in the area showed porn. This is East Texas. We aren't talking about Houston or Dallas and certainly not Austin.

Adding such things onto a platform is a cheap and easy appeal to the religious, far right. Most such planks don't have a chance in hell of passing into law, or if in law making it past the courts. With your right-wing, Republican buds needing no persuading, there isn't much political capital expended to vote something onto a platform. So there is a lot of bang to the buck in such finger pointing at the libruls and keeping to the fore the far right version of the moral highground.

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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano

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mousethief

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# 953

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Which is pretty much the game the GOP has been playing with American Evangelicals since 1980. Make it look like you're down with the con-evo morality, so they will vote for your hand-outs to megacorporations, deregulation, and so forth.

The genius of the Tea Party is that you have actually gotten them to internalize the hand-outs to megacorporations, deregulation, etc., as their desired policy, and you don't have to use the morality as a subterfuge any more. They probably just continue it out of force of habit.

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apostate630
Apprentice
# 15425

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Folks, I've not read the above posts closely, so pardon if I duplicate some comments.

It's been over two years since the late, great Molly Ivins shuffled off this mortal coil. But before she departed us for paradise she pointed out a simple truth.

There is a progressive tradition in Texas. Lyndon Johnson came out of that. The Texas Dems decided when Reagan was president that they had to be more like Republicans.

A big mistake. Texas Dems just stopped voting. Which is why the lunatic fringe of the GOP now holds the state in thrall.

I used to think I'd like to retire to Austin, or San Antonio.

No longer. Texas really is Hell, and will remain so for longer than I'll be alive.

Posts: 46 | From: Ohio | Registered: Jan 2010  |  IP: Logged
Olaf
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# 11804

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quote:
Originally posted by apostate630:
I used to think I'd like to retire to Austin, or San Antonio.

No longer.

You might as well write off the whole south altogether--from Florida and Georgia all the way over to Arizona.

It seems that the farther toward the poles one travels, the more the "liberal" leanings kick in.

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Sober Preacher's Kid

Presbymethegationalist
# 12699

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You should see what they get up to in Alert, Nunavut.

[Disappointed]

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Pigwidgeon

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# 10192

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quote:
Originally posted by Martin L:

It seems that the farther toward the poles one travels, the more the "liberal" leanings kick in.

Such as this example of liberalism?
[Biased]

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Horseman Bree
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# 5290

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Given the comparison to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Canada, I guess you have a clear example of American exceptionalism.

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It's Not That Simple

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Olaf
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# 11804

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quote:
Originally posted by Sober Preacher's Kid:
You should see what they get up to in Alert, Nunavut.

and

quote:
Pigwidgeon:
Such as this example of liberalism?

[Big Grin]

Besides, Juneau is in Southern Alaska.

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Pigwidgeon

Ship's Owl
# 10192

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She quit the job in Juneau.
[Razz]

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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf

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pjkirk
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# 10997

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quote:
Originally posted by Martin L:
It seems that the farther toward the poles one travels, the more the "liberal" leanings kick in.

I noticed this tendency in the US for many things. Elton John's Border Song seems appropriate:

quote:
I'm going back to the border where my affairs
Where my affairs ain't abused!



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Dear God, I would like to file a bug report -- Randall Munroe (http://xkcd.com/258/)

Posts: 1177 | From: Swinging on a hammock, chatting with Bokonon | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras
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# 11274

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quote:
Originally posted by apostate630:
Folks, I've not read the above posts closely, so pardon if I duplicate some comments.

It's been over two years since the late, great Molly Ivins shuffled off this mortal coil. But before she departed us for paradise she pointed out a simple truth.

There is a progressive tradition in Texas. Lyndon Johnson came out of that. The Texas Dems decided when Reagan was president that they had to be more like Republicans.

A big mistake. Texas Dems just stopped voting. Which is why the lunatic fringe of the GOP now holds the state in thrall.

I used to think I'd like to retire to Austin, or San Antonio.

No longer. Texas really is Hell, and will remain so for longer than I'll be alive.

So absolutely true! I would never go back now, even though I had many happy years in Austin.
Posts: 7328 | From: Delaware | Registered: Apr 2006  |  IP: Logged
Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras
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# 11274

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In the interests of accuracy I thought I'd give a little more of Texas' political history, as there have been several transformations since the Civil War. Actually, we might go back to 1861 itself. Although the secessionists prevailed, there was significant anti-secession sentiment in the state and areas where there was little investment in slavery - an absence of slave-holding or only small scale possession of persons in bondage, e.g. a single black family. In any event, the areas of German settlement in the state were generally opposed to secession. The former President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, opposed secession and took the attitude that if Texas did indeed seceed it would revert to its former status as an independent republic and should not join the Confederate States. He went into self-imposed internal exile when Texas did seceed.

After the Civil War, the period of Reconstruction - federal occupation and supervision of state government - continued longer in Texas than in any of the other former Confederate States, due to a lack of local political cooperation and did not end until 1876. That fact alone might give some indication of a certain intransigence amongst the political elite in the state. In any event, following Reconstruction the State was ruled for the next 100 years by a single party of conservative, southern Democrats. The Republican Party, of course, had been associated with the Reconstruction period and would not start their rise to political ascendency in the South really until Ronald Reagan. Although Southern Democrats had a conservative - even reactionary - populist political agenda that largely served the white population, these southern state Democratic parties were nonetheless part of the national Democratic Party and would vote the national party agenda on many issues, including supporting FDR's New Deal. There were home-grown progressives, of whom Texas governor Miriam ("Ma") Ferguson in the late 1920's was something of an early example, even if she was also something of a sockpuppet for her husband, who had himself been governor. Miriam Ferguson openly opposed the Ku Klux Klan and busied herself with commuting death sentences and granting pardons (sometimes naively so, it seems). LBJ, of course, was a later example of a political progressive, although his political beginnings were tainted with institutional corruption and probably a stolen election.

The conservative, southern Democrats maintained an almost complete political hegemony in Texas through the 1970s. The election that really mattered was the Democratic Primary. One progressive Democrat who failed to win the Primary race for governor in the early 1970s was a woman called Sissy Farenthold, a leading light at the time of progressive Democratic politics in the state. The era also spawned publications that were a voice of progressive politics in the state, notably the Texas Observer, edited early on by Jim Hightower, who later served in statewide political office. The general interest magazine, Texas Monthly, originally had a quite progressive voice as well. The venerable Barbara Jordan also rose to prominence in that era and was the first African-American to be elected to the state senate since Reconstruction, subsequently serving in the US House of Representatives. This was a hopeful time in Texas politics. Nonetheless the Republicans were increasing in numbers and power as intractable conservative Democrats switched parties. Texas became truly a two party state and the governor's mansion switched parties back and forth. Ann Richards was the last Democrat, and a relative progressive, to occupy the governor's mansion in the 1990s. The sad fact is that true progressives in the Texas Democratic Party were always a minority. The conservative majority in the party became Republicans in the Reagan and post-Reagan eras and now the state seems completely in thrall to that party, with the exception of a few urban counties. Texas is close to being a single party state once again, this time as a Republican one. However, demographics in the state will I think eventually turn it back into a two-party state with a viable, albeit largely moderate-populist-conservative colouration amongst Democratic voters. This will likely happen as early as around 2020. Some areas of the state will remain intractably Republican and very reactionary, especially sections of West Texas and the Panhandle (Midland, Abilene, Lubbock, Amarillo, and smaller Panhandle cities such as Pampa and Borger).

[ 07. July 2010, 12:18: Message edited by: Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras ]

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apostate630
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That's as accurate and succinct summary of Texas political history that I've ever seen. Reminds me of long bull sessions with friends in my Austin years.

I think I overestimated the percentage of actual progressives among Texas Democrats because I lived in a town that was the epicenter of Texas Democratic progressivism (what they used to call liberalism until Ronald (insert obscene gerund here) Reagan fooled most of the people most of the time and made "liberal" a swear word.

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Beeswax Altar
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quote:
originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
Some areas of the state will remain intractably Republican and very reactionary, especially sections of West Texas and the Panhandle (Midland, Abilene, Lubbock, Amarillo, and smaller Panhandle cities such as Pampa and Borger).

Not all of the Panhandle is intractably Republican. I knew of several very progressive people up in Mule Shoe. That was over 10 years ago. They might be dead now.

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Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras
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I knew of several very progressive people up in Lubbock, but that was in the early '70s. Like me they might have all moved away by now or else have either died or apostisied. We were never really anything but a small minority. I knew of Muleshoe as a place where wannabe hippies were given gratuitous haircuts if their cars happened to break down there or if they were imprudent enough to try hitch-hiking around those parts.
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apostate630
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Were I a generation younger I'd think about colonizing Texas, to replenish the ranks of folks who think . . . rationally.

Alas and dammit, irrational and f-word racist describes an alarming percentage of Texas.

And perforce I've withdrawn myself forever from that place.

Vermont used to be "rock-ribbed Republican." It ain't anymore, thanks to the mostly racist Southern lunatics who've taken over the GOP.

And Vermont is where we intend to retire.

We hear it's "a green and pleasant land," save in winter, when it's hip deep in snow, and cold as a contemporary Republican's heart.

I reckon we'll manage.

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churchgeek

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quote:
Originally posted by Campbellite:
Texas has always been home to the reddest of the red minded Republicans. So polititians try to out-do one another on how right-wing they are. That race to the right is now leading to its logical conclusions.

Can we give them back to Mexico. Please?

But we like Mexico.

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mousethief

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quote:
Originally posted by apostate630:
Vermont used to be "rock-ribbed Republican."

What does that mean, please?

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apostate630
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Mousethief, most online dictionaries define rock ribbed thusly;

2. Firm and unyielding, especially with regard to one's principles, loyalties, or beliefs: a rock-ribbed conservative.

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