...whether trying to kill off one’s supporters and their school children is good governance or good political strategy.*2/ The new @dallasnews/@UTTyler survey shows a whopping 54% of Texans surveyed think the state is on the wrong track. Just 41% approve of @GovAbbott’s job performance, @toddgillman and @EmilyECaldwell report. #txvote #txgop #GOP2022 #Election2022
— John Gravois (@Grav1) September 19, 2021
SCOOP: Beto O’Rourke is preparing to run for governor of Texas in 2022, with an announcement expected later this year, Texas political operatives tell Axios. https://t.co/4MtYtpVMdK
— Axios (@axios) September 19, 2021
Whether that gives Beto or McConaughey an opening is still more a leap of faith (or a headlong dive off a moving train 🚆) than a given. Self-preservation is not the sure thing it is presumed to be. Alabama is literally shrinking in population, by death rate v. birth rate (i.e., not emigration). Does anyone expect Alabama to turn blue? Or just elect a Democratic Governor?
Act accordingly in Texas.
Here the rural parts of the state run the urban parts simply by dint of showing up to vote (no, literally. The Lege happily determines what the urban areas of Texas can and cannot do, while the rural areas and smaller towns are apparently happy those "big city liberals" are getting their just desserts). Urban voters don't vote; of course, that's partly because Texas is the hardest state to vote in, in the union. Much harder to vote in urban areas than rural/small towns, too. The Lege just saw to that, again..@daveweigel voice - In Calif even the blue collar diners are hipster coffee shops
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) September 19, 2021
“I went to bed really wanting to put a For Sale sign in front of my house,” said Pickens, 50, as she sipped a chai tea latte outside Artisan Coffee in Janesville https://t.co/oAWUxXp4WZ
But aside from that, where do we go for our sympathetic ear and news stories about what's next for urban Texas?
*The last poll I heard about had Abbott at 43%, but still well ahead of any other contenders. A two-point drop seems more within the MOE than anything else. If good times are comin’, they’re sure comin’ slow.
Looking at the LA Times story, what jumped out at me is how many of the rural Republicans in CA seem to have all the lifestyle markers that would be more typically stereotypically associated with "liberals." So much for the habits of the affluent, college-credentialed white types as being a sign of liberalism. I think it's ironic that a lot of those are the kinds of things that seem to drive rural conservatives up a wall, when it's not brown and black skin and accented English.
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