The Republicans run against Hollywood, Massachusetts, and California, and this has achieved a fair amount of success.
I think that we should run against the not-so-great state of Texas.
We should make Texas a sneer, just like Republicans use Hollywood, Massachusetts, and California.
Let's wage our culture ware against the culture of Texas.
It's pathological to begin with.
(Reasons below fold)
Here's why to go after Texas:
- Texas is a place where the civil society is broken. People oppose life without parole because it might prevent some executions.
- There is a myth of exceptionalism about Texas, possibly even bigger than that of Hollywood, and certainly bigger than that of either Massachusetts or California, and it makes spinning myths about them easier.
- The Texas Republican Party platform is really really really scary.
- Texans (Bush, Rove, Delay, etc.) run the national party.
- Texans can be really obnoxious about their state, insisting that it is heaven on Earth, ignoring pollution (Houston), summers in Hell, venomous vermin (the non-Republican kind like spiders, snakes, and killer bees.), real estate developers, and energy company executives.
- It's a big state. Lots of bad things happen there just from the numbers, and we can pull out each one and go Willie Horton on their asses. (In addition to murder suicides, pedophilia, child abuse, etc. You have things like the fact that they had to suspend their charter school program because over three quarters of the charter schools had financial irregularities.
- We can hold it up as an example of bad gun users, and hold up other places, like Pennsylvania as having good gun users. (Texans tend to view guns as toys/elements of machismo, and Pennsylvanians see them as tools for hunting and self protection, and so are more responsible).
- In Texas, your property is not safe from commercial developers. It leads the nation in eminent domain to support private interests, demolishing homes to build a Wal-Mart. (Bush made his money that way, with the Texas Rangers stadium)
- Texas is corrupt. It probably gives Louisiana a run for its money (Google "trinity river project" for one small example.)
- The Republican politicians there have no adults running the show.
- We could probably get the greatest living Texan, Molly Ivins, to help us do this.
- Texas really doesn't work. The schools are falling apart, the highways are clogged, etc.
And the most important reason that we should choose Texas as our target?
THEY AREN'T VOTING FOR US ANYWAY!