Texas is a prime example of this practice. A business journalist in Houston busted the TX. Lt. Governor for pandering to bigotry as means by which to cover up his fiscal and ethical incompetence. Democrats in states with Republican Governors, especially those in the South, should take notice.
The Texas Legislature will meet in January and so the usual suspects and clowns are spouting off about everything except for what is truly important and critical.
The latest is the Governor’s pamphlet rule, informing women that no one can make them have an abortion. Not their parents, nor the father of the woman’s child. Women in these situations should call 911, according to the Governor. Needless to say police and sheriff’s departments across the state, already thinly stretched, are not very pleased.
The good news is Hillary Clinton swept Houston/Harris Co. by emeffing 12 points. Democrats won every county wide office in the Houston area. Hillary ran the tea party out on a rail. Thanks to Hillary, Houston/Harris Co. elected a Democratic District Attorney, a Tax Assessor and Sheriff. As well as a big bunch of district judges.
Justice. Finally.
But there is never any rest for the weary democrats in right wing Republican states. For the bigots on the far right never stop, thanks to the big bucks that fund hatred and divisiveness for political gain.
The state’s Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick, also known as the far right’s braying buffoon (though I’ve been taken to task on Facebook for being too kind. According to my friends I should include the evil, insufferable braying buffoon) has been on a fear mongering rampage about public restrooms.
Of course Dan Patrick’s faux angst targets transgender people, specifically biological men who have chosen to dress and live as women. The evil, insufferable braying buffoon believes the sole intention of these Texans and Americans is to lurk in public restrooms exclusively in order to rape women and little girls.
Houstonians have already heard this melodramatic wailing before when Houston’s City Council passed the anti-discrimination, Equal Rights Ordinance.
With the help of far right groups the Governor and Lt. Governor perverted anti-discrimination into bathroom deviance.
Of course the state has serious financial challenges given the oil and gas industry’s bust and boom cycles. The boom is over. Revenues are down. This is life in a small government, tax loathing, low services boom and bust economy.
So why are the Governor and Lt. Governor distracting us with faux outrage about public restrooms and forced abortions when a budget crisis looms?
A business reporter for the Houston Chronicle ripped the mask off of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s rationale for his bathroom obsession. Bravo to the reporter for calling it as it is.
Business leaders to battle bigotry.
Bottom line: bigotry is bad for business in Texas. But the issue is far more complex.
The author shows compassion to describe transgender people and the difficult challenges they face.
I use the word bigot because it best describes people who hold blindly and intolerantly to particular opinions, who are narrow-minded and prejudiced against those they don't understand.
Supporters of these bills across the country won't accept that transgender people have always been 1 percent of humanity. Or that many cultures, and major corporations, accept and respect them. Today, transgender people are fighting hard for their liberty, which is why bigots are proposing unnecessary laws to deny them the ability to live as they wish.
Offended readers responded the day after the article appeared. Most are put off by the writer’s having included the term bigotry in his headline.
Really?
If anyone in this city/county thinks we are bigotry free please do accompany me to the Harris County Democratic Party Headquarters. One can assist me with answering the phones during Presidential elections that include an African American and a woman candidate. Extra help is especially needed with fielding racists and homophobic attacks when ordinances such as the anti-discriminatory Houston Equal Rights is under discussion and passage. My ears are still burning from the hate talk during these times. I could pore a gallon of Clorox into both ears but the hate I had heard will never be white washed.
For some, the business reporter’s exposure of bigotry in Texas politics is more vexing than the Lt. Governor’s fiscal and ethical incompetence.
Sometimes the truth just burns. Let’s get down to the facts.
“So why is this bill so important to Patrick?”
Because lawmakers will need to cut up to $10 billion from the state budget because Patrick gave away too much in property tax cuts.
Because cutting those billions will leave cities and counties with hundreds of millions in new, unfunded mandates.
Because while Patrick was the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, the state denied special education to hundreds of thousands of kids who needed it and must now start paying for it.
Because the state doesn't have enough money to pay for Medicaid, the health program for the disabled and for the women, children and elderly who live in poverty.
Because in 2015, the state cut funding for physical therapy for special needs children.
Because Child Protective Services has failed to monitor hundreds of children living in abusive households, and some were murdered.
Patrick doesn't want you to think about those issues. Instead, he wants you to worry about whether transgender women, who spend their lives mocked and humiliated, can use a public restroom.
So much for the so-called Texas Miracle.
And this is why those of us who see straight through Dan Patrick think of him as an evil, insufferable braying buffoon. But what is truly sad is the Lt. Governor’s ability to fool his base, specifically social conservatives and evangelical Christians.
I had hoped with the election of the biggest con artist of the 21st century that Trump would tap other successful scam artists like himself. At least we’d get Patrick out of Texas. Trump could create another communications post. How about a director of faux morality and extreme right propaganda? Such is straight down Trump’s far right alley. Trump’s white supremacist advisor, Steve Bannon, would approve, no doubt. Though Bannon may take issue with Patrick’s closeted white supremacy. Bannon is far more open and honest about his bigotry.
But then do we really want to inflict yet one more lying charlatan into national politics?
Nope. We have our hands more than full for the next four years.
Please get active.
Volunteer at your county’s democratic party, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center or at one of the non-profit environmental organizations.
For these organizations are the ones that can put the legal brakes on the lunacy ahead.
If you have no time please send whatever financial contributions you can make. No amount is too small. Remember the $3.00 and $5.00 donations to Barack Obama back in 2007 and 2011? Remember where these teeny contributions took our President. Twice.
What else can we do? Please heed this Yale University professor's advice for defending democracy in the years ahead.
Power on your microscopes, flashlights, and open all curtains to let in the sunlight. Hone your listening skills. Pay attention to code words. For example, the right wing meaning of “freedom and liberty” spells the opposite in practice. The so-called U.S. House “Freedom Caucus” is more of an authoritarian leaning body.
Government is not the problem. The self-serving crooks and opportunists running it are.
Try to find a way to speak to your family, friends and neighbors who may have voted for Trump. (I am working on this myself). We must try not to gloat when voters learn Trump will stiff them like he has to just about everything and everyone in his business orbits.
Compassion and understanding are far better routes. Some voted for Trump because they have been left behind in an ever changing, more technological economy. I grew up in the Midwest. I attended school and college with friends and neighbors whose fathers held blue collar jobs. Back in the US manufacturing days, unionized blue collar workers enjoyed the same standard of living as so-called white collars (professional office job holders). I lived in neighborhoods comprised of both. Both blue and white collars lived in similar houses, drove the same cars and all of the kids went to the same schools. Too many have been left behind in today’s economy. Unfortunately so-called Reagan Democrats threw themselves under the Republican bus. But then again, perhaps the Democrats did not do enough to protect unions during the Republican assaults.
Be on guard for fake garbage “news.” Expose it when you find it. Become a citizen blogger. Write letters to your newspapers’ editors. Phone your elected officials when the lunacy kicks in. Make them wish you were never born.
Tweet them on a daily basis. @JohnCornyn @realTedCruz_TX. Are you really going to rob 20+ million Americans of affordable healthcare? What is it like to support a bigoted, misogynist, xenophobic fascist as POTUS?
Every time Trump says something outrageous, and he will, ask your Republican lawmakers how they can support such vile, unpredictable behavior.
Call or tweet the regular and cable news channels when broadcast journalists fail to challenge lies and half-truths. Scream foul when you hear propaganda. For we cannot allow the news industry to normalize a fascist white supremacist and his treacherous cabinet.
Never lose sight of the fact that the majority of us rejected Trump.
@HardballChris y r u cooing w/and lobbing softball ques 2 Kellyanne Conway? She ran a campaign of white supremacy and bigotry.
Stay relentless and unforgiving.
It is the news industry that built up Trump while it tore down Hillary Clinton.
This is another area in which we can be ruthlessly unforgiving.
The staying power that will drive us is the knowledge that Hillary Clinton beat Trump by almost 3 million popular votes.
Twice in sixteen years the majority of American voices have been robbed by an outdated, Byzantine Electoral College.
W. in 2000 and now Trump in 2016.
Three million votes is not chump change. We have a right to be heard.
Let’s get to work.
Oh. And the narcissistic demagogue called our POTUS is apparently rattled that 3 mil of us did not vote for him.
Have at it. Let it rip.
