For those of us stuck in Texas, we feel abandoned and forgotten. It's like the rest of the country has said "Well, you live in Texas. You deserve what you get." What we get are lower wages than the rest of the country, harsher working conditions, and no help for the poor and disabled. We have this terrible heat, drought, and the kicker - we may not have enough water to run the power plants.
So what about Texas? What about this 50-state strategy that I've heard so much about? Texas is one of the biggest states in the Union, and we rank last in so many things. Our education has been raped by the Texas state legislature, and our school budgets cut to the point where districts have to choose between cancelling the school bus program or firing more teachers. Class sizes are huge, and the teachers are struggling to keep their students under control. Then there's the woefully underfunded welfare programs. Texas ranks the worst in the nation for health care coverage. If you don't have a full time job in Texas with benefits, then you're out of luck.
Now our state is being run by the gas and oil well drilling companies. Chesapeake can basically do whatever they want - all they have to do is ask the city, and the city gives them what they want. They're drilling within 600 feet of the Trinity River. They're pumping water from the Trinity to frack, when we're talking about rolling blackouts because of water shortages. That's not even covering the minor earthquakes we're having in the area, which are most likely caused by injection of water into the ground. Or the fact that you can light the water on fire in certain areas with well water, because the gas drilling is too close to an aquifer.
It's not enough for us Texans to fight the system. We've tried, and failed. We either get outvoted by the redneck 'libertarian' folks, or the tea party folks, or the state of Texas puts its foot down.
We need a new message for the voters of Texas. One that helps people understand how Republican policies have hurt our state. We need to take back the Texas Board of Education. We need to take back the Texas Legislature. We need to take back the VOTERS.
The only bright spot is the fight to make sure the redistricting process isn't unfair. I'm not sure how this is going to play out, but there isn't much hope around here. I'll take what I can get.
Schools
Health Care
Redistricting, seen from Austin
Redistricting from Fort Worth
Sorry this isn't one of my well-thought out overwritten posts. Just a quickie, jotting down my thoughts.