Texas Republicans Know They Are Losing Ground - Embrace Extremism Anyway

[Shell_Seas]

I watched the Texas GOP, so you didn't have to. Here is my takeaway.

https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/texas-republicans-know-they-are-losing


This week, the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) held its 2024 convention. I watched a lot of it, but not all. There are roughly 130 hours of live stream video online from this week.

We can discuss their policies and draconian ideas, but first, I want to spotlight the fractures and internal turmoil I witnessed over the last week. Texas Democrats have an excellent opportunity to pressure these cracks, further weakening the Texas GOP.

A recurring theme emerged during their Committees and on the floor during the General Session. A vocal faction pushed the party to go further right, while a smaller subsection pled them to take more moderate positions.

Here are some of the debates where I saw this:

Whether or not to ban pregnant women from traveling in Texas (because they could be traveling to get an abortion).

Taking the phrase “homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle” out of their platform. (They did not.)

Bans on IVF.

Texit (secession).

[Raven123]

1. Oh my! Banning pregnant women from travel?

The fact that this was even considering is stunning

[wryter2000]

2. Amazing

If I live in Houston, I can't visit my mother in Austin if I'm pregnant. Who the F is going to enforce that?

[Irish_Dem]

6. If it is a state law, the Texas police will enforce it?

[wryter2000]

9. Good luck patrolling all of Texas

And do they really want to give women a pregnancy test? They’d have to watch the women pee on a stick.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Pregnant women will have to be smuggled out of the state.

Hidden in the back of trucks.

Right, cops will have to carry pregnancy tests.
Have women pee on the stick.

Blows my mind how far the US has sunk.

[keithbvadu2]

4. Control of women

[Irish_Dem]

7. Women's bodies belong to the politicians.

[patphil]

3. Actually, the crazier they get the better it is for the sane people to win elections.

Not allowing pregnant women to travel would require them to wear an ankle bracelet like a convicted sex felon.
The next step would be incarceration into pregnancy jails until after birth.
Of course after birth there wouldn't be any concern for the precious child they fought so hard for.
Texas has to stop electing insane candidates.

[Metaphorical]

5. So what was the result of Texit?

I'm not so sure this is a bad thing. As far as I can see, Texas is divided more or less into two regions - East/South of I35 and West of it, and I suspect that most of the crazies are in the west. Texit would tear the state apart, probably along that divide. SE Texas has most of the cities, the gulf coast, most of the refineries, and probably the bulk of the wealth outside of cattle, not to mention most of the population. The West is mainly plains and near desert, but has been gerrymandered to give the GOP a stranglehold on power. West Texas would be landlocked. If East and West were to split, this would actually create a blue state out of what has been a red/purple one, along with a deep red state.

We have a similar situation on the West Coast with "Jefferson", which would encompass lower Oregon and Upper California.That area is deeply conservative, and for the most part is a wasteland - dry, arid, and full of crazies. They've been itching to form their own state (or leave the country entirely) for years. If that happened, then statehood for Puerto Rico would likely be in the cards as well.

[slightlv]

8. While living in San Antonio and Austin

For 20+ years, I always found east Texas crazier than anywhere, especially where religion was concerned. Even had relatives over there. Loved them, but I'd never go to visit... And time spent together was always tense. Seemed like it was akin to the Branson, MO area.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. Why the new platform from the Republican Party of Texas matters

Texas GOP platforms are often ridiculous, but the new installment touts a model that would effectively prevent Democrats from winning statewide elections.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-platform-republican-party-texas-matters-rcna154262

The latest installment is no exception. The Texas Tribune reported over the holiday weekend on state GOP delegates voting on a platform with all sorts of notable ideas, ranging to demanding Bible classes in public schools to seeking UFO information to calling for U.S. military bases to be named after Confederate leaders who took up arms against the United States.

But The Texas Tribune also highlighted one of the state Republican Party’s newer priorities.

Perhaps the most consequential plank [in the platform] calls for a constitutional amendment to require that candidates for statewide office carry a majority of Texas’ 254 counties to win an election, a model similar to the U.S. electoral college. Under current voting patterns, in which Republicans routinely win in the state’s rural counties, such a requirement would effectively end Democrats’ chances of winning statewide office.

It’s been a few decades since a Democratic candidate won statewide office in Texas, and with that in mind, it’s tempting to think Republican officials would be satisfied with the state’s electoral system as it currently exists......

And that's where this newly proposed county-based requirement would kick in, shifting power away from voters in order to ensure Republican rule. As historian Kevin Kruse explained:

If Texas Republicans embrace this return to a county-unit type of system, they’ll actually have created something even more unequal than the scheme concocted by segregationists of a century ago. Harris County, the home of Houston, has a population of 4.7 million, while Loving County has a total population of 64. Harris County has a sizable black population, while Loving is (as far as I can tell) entirely white. But one vote in Loving would mean more than 70,000 votes in Harris.

Kruse added, “It’s staggeringly unequal, and silencing an ‘urban’ vote that is of course now not just coded as more liberal but racially diverse too. And that, of course, is the point.”

This is, in other words, the latest example of Republicans looking at democracy as something that needs to be rigged, rather than a system that needs to be preserved.

Texas is becoming more urban and democratic. This plan is designed to disenfranchise democratic voters in large urban areas such as Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Ft. Worth. This plan shows how scared the Texas GOP is of the demographic trends that show that Texas is turning blue