Politics in Texas can be a real challenge for grassroots activists like me. There are so many contradictions, mind boggling ironies, silver forked tongue charlatans and snake oil chicanery to cut through before one can latch onto a message that motivates people to vote. This week has been especially challenging on the progressive grassroots political front. This is due to the sorry fact that seventeen Texas Democrats have decided to stand on the side of the Fracking industry over the needs, health and financial well-being of their constituencies.
What are you thinking Texas Democrats? Our Party may be a sorry minority but it doesn't mean we have to roll over and die without a fight.
Wimps never win.
For crying out loud. How many times do we have to tell Democrats that when Democrats turn tail and run as Republican Lites Democratic candidates turn off our Democratic base? Stop listening to your handlers and crony donors and publicly stand for what you know is right. Voters will respect and vote for you. IF Democrats stand by our core values and principles. To do otherwise disappoints and discourages us.
I mean, why bother to vote when there is little difference between the two parties? What is a grassroots activist like me to say to a non-voter. Vote for my Party because............................??????????????? The expected response in cases like this? Both sides suck.
Grow some if you want to excite us, Democrats. Take a paddle and blister the forces that are making life miserable for your constituents. Shining a laser focused microscope on the Fracking industry and pay day loan sharks may be good places to start.
Sigh.
Yes. It has been a confusing and disappointing week in Texas politics for progressive Democrats. But this week has not been one without a little dark humor.
It seems that a new movement has emerged here. A normally business friendly state that will impose ALEC sponsored legislation at the supersonic speed of Mach 5 has encountered a bit of a system failure.
One has to wonder what happened to change the state's usually over-the-top business friendly ethos. For a state that likes to brag about personal freedom, individual rights and liberty seems to have fallen prey to a force that works against these very firmly held beliefs.
A new anti-business Party has emerged, not because of worries about personal freedom or individual rights or that ALEC has been running rough shod over the rights of Texas consumers and workers for decades. No, this Party has emerged because a group of right wing tea party extremists want to punish those who do not share their ideological and religious beliefs. Blinded by ideology these hard right tea partiers have chosen to ignore Republican core principles that are grounded in the notion that what is good for business is good for Texas. (Not true but the GOP has been singing the pro-business hymns for decades.)
The Anti-Business Party of Texas is Born.
Welcome to Texas, Toyota, and all the accountants, lawyers, contractors and other companies — big and small — that are making the long trek to relocate here.
You will find Texas to be immensely friendly. We’re especially friendly to business, which is why you’re coming, of course. Hence, the outlook for Texas is bullish: It’s on track to supplant Germany as the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2050. Texas is so friendly to business that even Democrats stress the word pro-business before mumbling the word Democrat.
But there’s something the eager chambers of commerce and glad-handing mayors probably didn’t tell you before you made up your mind to come to Texas. There’s a political party emerging in Austin the likes of which we’ve never seen.
True. Texas has never seen anything like this before.
Remember the uproar in Indiana when Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Act into law? Get ready for the same, Texas.
But there’s something the eager chambers of commerce and glad-handing mayors probably didn’t tell you before you made up your mind to come to Texas. There’s a political party emerging in Austin the likes of which we’ve never seen.
Until recently known as the tea party, it’s the Anti-Business Party of Texas, and it’s about to open the door to a future of uncertainty that will affect your workers, worry your shareholders and befuddle your customers.
If you saw the uproar from businesses — from Apple to American Airlines — in Indiana over a so-called religious freedom act, then brace yourself, because Texas could be next.
.
It gets worse. Brace yourselves, Toyota, et al.
Two measures in the Legislature would unravel a law that seems to have worked well since 1999. State Sen. Donna Campbell and Rep. Matt Krause, both of the Anti-Business Party, propose to bar state or local governments from enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the event of a religious claim. They even want to enshrine the ban in the Texas Constitution. This would effectively gut anti-discrimination protections, particularly for gay people, in most cities.
Campbell also is effectively trying to deny an affordable college education to the children of unauthorized immigrants.
Since 2001, those who meet the same residency requirements as anyone else have paid in-state tuition at Texas universities. Now, Campbell would double the cost of a state university education from about $10,000 to $20,000 per year. Right now, that would be out of reach for most of the 20,000 students affected — as it would be for almost anyone. Her rationale? Cheaper tuition causes undocumented immigration. Her proof? None.
Meanwhile, the deep pocketed Koch boy faction of the GOP tries to
woo Latino voters while Texas Republicans like Campbell want to punish immigrants.
Understandably the big business lobbies in Texas are a tad upset.
Significantly, the biggest business lobby in Texas, the Texas Association of Business, opposes both initiatives. That’s tantamount to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tangling with the tea party in Congress. It’s easy to see why. Imagine telling your gay employees to expect legally sanctioned discrimination. Imagine telling shareholders that the pool of college graduates where you just moved dropped by tens of thousands. Think of the lurking liability problems and costs. Now imagine the impacts in a globally competitive environment.
Oh wait. We're not done. The dick-less wonders called the gun obsessed and the gun lobby weigh in, too.
But we’re not done. You’ll need to prepare for guns on college campuses, and you’ll need a sign that meets new state requirements to keep guns out of your business, too. Get ready to explain to your Muslim and Jewish employees that they can’t rely upon their religious traditions to settle nonjudicial disputes — something the secular among us call binding arbitration.
It seems that Hispanic shareholders should have been warned in advance of a move to Texas. Earth to company executives who moved their businesses to Texas. Rick Perry should have never been trusted in the first place. What were you thinking?
Best to warn your Hispanic shareholders that when they come in for the annual meeting, they might be asked by the cops to prove their citizenship. Also make a note to call the mayor and the city council. They probably promised you all kinds of things, but what they didn’t know is that the Anti-Business Party would soon expand the power of the state to overrule cities on all manner of critical issues related to quality of life. You might not be able to count on that local law or long-promised incentive.
I disagree with the author on this point.
Better than anyone, conservatives should know that government does not create economic activity but rather the conditions of confidence, or uncertainty, in which business invests. It’s called risk. Your risk just went up because the Anti-Business Party is in charge. Predictability? Well, that’s just not their thing.
It's like this. Government is in fact a
driver of economic growth and activity, at least on a federal level.
Below is one example.
The Startup America initiative will facilitate entrepreneurship across the country, increasing the success of high-growth startups that create broad economic growth and quality jobs. The Administration launched the Startup America initiative with new agency efforts that accelerate the transfer of research breakthroughs from university labs; create two $1 billion initiatives for impact investing and early-stage seed financing, among other incentives to invest in high-growth startups; improve the regulatory environment for starting and growing new businesses; and increase connections between entrepreneurs and high-quality business mentors. Responding to the President’s call to action around the national importance of entrepreneurship, private-sector leaders are independently committing significant new resources to catalyze and develop entrepreneurial ecosystems across the country.
On the other hand, Texas has a
corruption problem. This is what happens when elected officials view government agencies as if they serve as mere cash cows whose sole purpose is to enrich the political heads of these agencies and the donors that contribute to their political campaigns.
Steal from the government and then scream about how corrupted it is.
Political donors who buy blinded dogs that can't hunt might want to take a hard look into the mirror. Democratic voters might want to pick up their phones and give the seventeen traitors a well-deserved tongue lashing.
