Texas Red and Texas Blue
Elections do indeed have consequences and some of them are dire. With the changing of the political guard in the mid-terms, those consequences will hit some Texans hard.
Red Texans will not be pleased when the Democrats try to pass gun control laws, or a state income-tax, or the return of diversity, equity and inclusion. Blue Texans will be looking for grocery prices and restaurant meals to go down, and they likely won’t. Both sides may have ballot remorse if the Democrats open up the border.
But these things happen when the entire nation votes in what amounted to a fifty-state temper tantrum. Obviously, some voters wanted to repudiate Trump, and most of them voted for lower costs. We still have Trump for a while, and likely higher costs, and a lot more things that nobody voted for.
State Representative Gina Hinojosa speaking at the AFL-CIO COPE convention. January 28, 2024 (Wikipedia, Creative Commons)
Special interest groups that may have voted for a single issue.
There were a few of these. Most prominent was the mostly-right wing opposition to the construction of data centers. China, of course inserted a certain amount of anti-data centers propaganda, since the Communist Chinese would prefer to control the data centers, and thus the AI race. Democrats saw the “No Data Centers” yard signs and aligned with the movement in order to get votes. That helped the Ds with rural areas that typically vote Republican.
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Another special interest group that was upset is the THC industry and anyone who wants Texas to emulate Colorado and legalize marijuana. There’s money in drugs and drug-related products, and an industry formed in Texas around these products that are often available at gas stations and convenience stores. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick crusaded against these products – the right thing to do in my opinion – but it caused a backlash. If we go full-on Colorado, we have that state to ponder and see where we may be going.
Then, there’s the school voucher program also known as School Choice. This was a pet project of Governor Greg Abbott, and he pissed of the teachers’ unions and rural areas that did not want any money drained from their schools. Republicans probably lost the teacher vote statewide due to this, in spite of the fact that our big, urban schools are failing. Under Democrats they will likely get a reprieve from state takeovers, which is a terrible thing, but, hey, the people have spoken and they are willing to accept crappy schools in big cities so long as their rural schools are free of private school competition.
Of course, abortion is always on the ballot in any election. With some Democrats supporting abortion on demand up to the moment of birth, this issue is literally life-or-death for children in the womb, most of whom are minorities. I’ve been proud of Texas for supporting life, and maybe it still will. But Democrats took all the power in Texas except for the State Senate, so we’ll see. If abortion was about any other issue, it would be labeled as racist, but no one ever accused Democrats of consistency.
It may soon be Red Texans’ turn to be upset about special interests.
We don’t know what the Democrats will do in the next legislative session. But we know what Democrats usually do. They are famous for being the tax-and-spend party, and I can see no reason to believe they will change their spots. Texas works with a property tax system rather than a state income tax, and Democrats may try to switch from one to the other, or have both. But Texas has been showing budget surpluses, and that’s refreshing compared to states like California. Will the Democrats spend us silly?
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Texas has a “Rainy Day Fund” intended for emergencies. It’s really the Texas Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) and currently constitutes an estimated $27.4 billion and has reached its historic statutory cap driven primarily by oil and natural gas severance tax revenues. The new governor, Gina Hinojosa, a former Board President of the Austin Independent School District, may tap it for her party’s spending priorities. She’s already promised checks of $1500 per household, to come out of the fund. The Democrats will likely not be able to see a big pile of money and not spend it.
Many if not most Democrats are in favor of gun control of some sort. Expect a big push for it, regardless if the Texas is the nation’s most gun-friendly state. Our new leaders will definitely want to take away at least some of your Second Amendment rights.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion will be back, with Texas’ left-wing college professors clamoring for more and more of it. DEI is, by definition, racist, but schools and colleges have been infiltrated with it, and any gains made by the conservative legislatures of the past may soon be gone. If so, merit is out, and skin color is in.
With Islam slowly devouring our country, Democrats will likely be far more open to candidates like Michigan’s new senator Abdul El-Sayed. The mid-terms saw many antisemitic candidates win, which could mean a Palestinian Homeland where Israel is now. EPIC City in Plano, an Islamic planned community, was opposed by the former leadership of Texas. We’ll see what the new leadership does.
The southern border will probably see dramatic changes. Hispanics had a temper tantrum over Trump’s deportation policy, but crime and drugs in our big cities are dramatically down with the border secured. That could change. Remember, it’s a fact that unfettered immigration has damaged our schools and our hospitals – neither of which can turn anybody away. That’s why schools are failing and hospitals are charging more and more for healthcare. This is not to disparage Mexican children or people who need emergency care. It’s simply to point out a fact: when we are inundated with people from countries that do not share our language or customs, it’s really rough on our education and healthcare systems. Expect it to be much worse under the Democrats.
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Red Texans are not going to like much of this. Blue Texans may not like it either.
The Democrats may be just what the doctor ordered.
They may take a great state like Texas and make it better. But we’ve seen what they’ve done in New York, Washington, and California. These are states that people, especially job creators, are fleeing. They’re coming to Texas, or at least they were. California didn’t want Elon Musk and all the jobs he brings. Texas did. But do we still want his kind of entrepreneurship when our state is run by a party that prefers equity (that means equal misery for all) to having billionaires that hire thousands of people with high paying jobs?
But the college professors, drug addicts, gambling addicts, abortionists, antisemites, and advocates of a failing school system are happy. Well, they’re happy right now. In two years, we’ll get an idea of how much the people of Texas like being blue.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter. Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us. Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley. Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site.
Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.
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