Governorship

Texas Tea Party And Conservative Republican Dominance Today, But Long Range, Democrats Have Advantage

Ronald Leave a comment

Texas has become a solid Tea Party-Conservative Republican state, arguably the most right wing state, although with strong competition from Florida, South Carolina, Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Arizona and Kansas.

It has the longest serving Governor in the nation, Rick Perry, who has endorsed the idea of state secession, even though that was supposedly resolved 150 years ago!

It is the home of Senator John Cornyn, and Congressmen Louie Gohmert, Joe Barton,  Randy Neugebauer, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Olson, Ted Poe, Pete Sessions,  Lamar Smith, and of course, the best known of all, libertarian Ron Paul!

It is also a state in which two Democrats just switched parties and gave the GOP a two thirds plus one margin in the State House, making it a veto proof legislative body.

This is a state which has promoted secession and states rights; propagandized in the History curriculum so as to distort and omit large portions of history and de-emphasize historical personalities and events; worked to undermine the study of evolution in favor of Christianity on the state level; became the leader of anti abortion and anti gay rights crusades; and has an oligarchy of powerful financial interests who aim to keep Hispanic, Latino and African American populations in a dependent state and deny them bilingual education, equal job opportunity, and even the ability to study their own heritage, as it may lead to immigration raids to arrest illegal immigrants.

It is hard to believe that Texas was the state that gave us Sam Houston,Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, and many others who made the state renowned!

The problem for the GOP is that while now they have a tremendous edge, there could be a complete collapse of the Republican dominance within a generation in the state.

This is due to the fact that there are so many Hispanics in Texas, along with African Americans, that as time goes by and as the modern Republican Party manages to turn off most minority people, the likelihood of Democrats regaining majority status in the House of Representatives and in state government grows greater, particularly due to the present economic downtown, in which there are inadequate efforts to provide jobs and educational opportunities as government cuts back social services.  So although the GOP is more dominant than ever, Texas is going into turmoil which bodes for a change of the leadership statewide as Hispanic and Latino population become citizens and go in droves to the Democratic Party!  So Texas is likely to go “blue” in the near future, meaning by 2025-2030!

Lincoln Chafee’s Courage: Speak Reality To Rhode Island Voters In Difficult Times!

Ronald 1 Comment

Former Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who served in the Senate for seven years as an independent minded Republican, and then became an Independent after losing his Senate seat, is presently running for Governor, and offering voters reality and truth, and leaving it to the voters to decide!

Chafee, always very principled, and often unwilling to back the Republican view on many issues, remains popular in his home state, despite his loss in 2006, and is now telling voters that they will need to pay more taxes in order not to have budget cuts which would be damaging and unacceptable!

He has told the public in his campaign appearances that more taxation is essential, unless they are willing to let murderers out of prison early; expel old parents from nursing homes; or close state parks!

In other words, there are real world consequences if people are not willing to pay somewhat more taxes in the form of sales taxes! There is no free ride, and public services will suffer if the tax base is not supplemented by moderate tax increases!

That sounds like a suicidal mission, to suggest that people come to grips with reality! It will be interesting to see if Chafee can convince voters of the absolute need to raise taxes in a recession year!

The one factor in his favor is that he is running in a three way race, where he does not need a majority, but instead a plurality, to win the Governorship!

But, of course, then the question is whether the legislature would follow his lead and adopt the Governor’s program, as he would not be allied with either party! So this is a story worth following, both for the race itself, and but also for the aftermath if Chafee wins!