Texas House Democrats are still in D.C., and the whole thing feels like a pretty good microcosm of so much of what’s wrong with the current American political world.
On the one side, back in Texas, you have the Texas House Republicans, working to pass legislation requested by Governor Abbott that will play well with the culture-war-aggrieved segments of his Republican primary electorate: making it harder to vote, disallowing transgender children from playing sports, limiting discussion of racial issues in classrooms, more aggressively funding law enforcement near the border, making it harder for poor people to get out of jail on bail. These aren’t, on the aggregate, issues that are popular with his overall electorate, but they’re popular with more than half his primary electorate, and he needs to win his primary if he’s going to make the most money possible, which he can do by continuing to rise in political office. It’s government by cable news, government by internet fanaticism, government by the sound rather than government by the people.
On the other side, up in D.C., you have the Texas House Democrats, or most of them, trying to go viral. They’re filming selfie videos. They’re tweeting. They’re making a big deal about how the fact they brought a box of Miller Lites on a plane is, to hear them tell it, the most charming thing this side of the Hundred Acre Wood. They need to go viral, because they need to attract money from politically interested people of means, the money necessary so that they can 1) stay in D.C. and 2) run successful reelection campaigns of their own. It’s government by soundbite, government by self-aggrandizement, government by the money rather than government by the people.
What should be happening, of course, is that Texas House Republicans (and other Texas Republicans) should not be casting minorities, racial and otherwise, as scapegoats and legislating against straw men; while Texas House Democrats should be making efforts towards earnest negotiation rather than just trying to build a big enough war chest to flee the state for special session after special session until the midterm elections hit or someone blinks. Efforts should be being made to legislate, and in a reasonable manner on reasonable topics. Of course elections should be secure—but they should be accessible too, and free from intimidation, and they’re pretty darn secure already and there are middle grounds to be found. Of course safety is important, near the border and everywhere, but there are gaps between what’s required for safety and what’s rhetorically advantageous when courting those inclined to fear. Of course children shouldn’t be taught that they’re inherently racist because they’re white, but the legacy of racism in Texas (and elsewhere) is real and consequential and impactful today, and education should teach that in age-appropriate, locally effective manners. There should be good faith. There is no good faith. There is only politics.
The market gets what it wants. We let these forces—the fearmongerers on the right, the high-and-mighties on the left—dominate our politics, and the cycles continue, and what gets done is more and more divided and therefore extreme, crafted by a majority not of the electorate but of the primary electorate, which leaves us with a fanatical, small number dictating the rules by which much of our lives are played. And it stinks, because on the one hand, politics are a mess and aren’t responsible for as much in the real world as some say so we should care about them less, but on the other, important stuff happens in the statehouse, and in the Capitol, and in the governor’s mansion and in the White House, and by not caring we just cede more power to the loud and the condescending.
So, care more, I guess, but not because it’s as important as the fanatics would have you think. Care more so you can stop them from ruling so fanatically over this segment of our lives.
Agreed.