I Don’t Know Which Is Worse

today the TX legislature could vote to abolish the elections official in the state's largest county. this is new territory; no one i spoke with was aware of any precedent for the state getting rid of a local official in just one county without its consenthttps://t.co/Aa9hfF4J4p

— jen rice (@jen_rice_) May 22, 2023

This action by the Lege (which is sure to pass, and no, I’m not sanguine the courts can do anything, not since CJ Roberts declared the year of Jubilee and repealed the VRA. Precisely what it protected against has been happening ever since, but that’s freedumb, right?), is bad enough.

The replies at Twitter are worse. They read like my NextDoor threads: full of sound and fury, signifying ignorance. Just absolutely mindless rants blaming the Governor (but not the Texas Senate where this obscenity originated) or the county administrator (who is not in charge of elections, the county clerk is. The Lege allowed for the creation of county election administrators because the largest urban counties needed them. Now, based on a few precincts unable to accept ballots for a few hours while voters could easily access another working precinct, Harris County could be forced into new elections just because the Texas SOS says so), or claiming Harris County is corrupt (it isn’t), or just generally having no clue at all.

Some bewail the fact this issue isn’t getting any attention, which is true. Texas traditionally ignores the Lege when it is in session, and our ignorance reaps the whirlwind. Public education is about to get shafted with such underfunding many districts will lay off teachers in the fall. The clear intent in the Legislature is to create publicly funded private schools for those who can afford it, and screw over everybody else. As even the politically conservative Superintendent of the local school district puts it, they’re hell-bent on creating a system for the haves, and to hell with the have-nots. But that’s not banner headline news in even the Texas Tribune. “Objectivity” is its own narrative, and is the God of news which must be served.

Don’t be surprised if it takes the voters a few years to figure this out.

So it goes.

I expect the public will blame the schools, because the Lege won’t be around for two more years. The brief but spectacular legislative calendar was meant to limit the harm government could do; but they’ve learned to use that to their advantage.

Judging by the comments on Twitter, they’ve mastered that particular shell game very well. And Texans have no one but themselves to blame.