Runoff election day here in TX... or, reality TV, Part II
Runoff election day here in TX... or, reality TV, Part II
Welcome back TAT readers,
Most of us enjoyed a long weekend with family, friends or both. As I wrote about last Friday, I hope that enjoying life came with reflection over the meaning of the holiday. Enjoying the weekend is a pleasure, denied to those we honored.
Now, to begin this week, I was going to write on a different topic but watching the morning news derailed my plans. Here’s the reason why. I wrote Part I of this piece back in March, before our state primaries. It’s worth scanning Part I for a better understanding of today’s Part II.
The Texas Republican Party, reality show, Part I. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Today is election day for runoffs and a few local issues in TX. The campaign commercials on TV here in the San Antonio market, online, the newspapers, etc. make reality TV, look like serious documentaries. The sad truth is that what serves as politics in TX, like all MAGA states, is an alternative reality, wholly unrelated to truth, integrity or relevant to the political needs of our once, proud state.
That Texans put up with this and just call it “conservative politics”, is insulting to all thinking Texans, regardless of their political preferences. There is nothing conservative about the TX GOP. It’s pure, far-right extremism, in service to oil oligarchy and an ideology, best defined by White Christian Nationalism.
Bellowing the word “conservative” in TX politics, is much like having that pass at Disneyland, that allows you to always go to the head of the line. Now here in my congressional runoff election, it’s the incumbent, Tony Gonzalez vs. a vulgar gun nut, Brandon Herrera, from Fayetteville, NC.
To set the stage for this runoff, it has come down to this, Tony vs. Brandon is a fight over who is most “conservative.” In the TX GOP, like all of MAGA, it’s about who is more extremist, than the other. Back in our TX spring primaries, Chief of the Texas Taliban, Governor Gregg Abbott, “primaried” all elected state representatives who did not support his unconstitutional school voucher obsession. My congressman here in TX 23, Tony G, embarrassed the TX GOP because under enormous pressure from the families of those slain in the Uvalde, school massacre, he finally reversed himself and voted to pass a little common-sense gun control legislation in Congress. He had formerly staunchly opposed the legislation.
Tony as they say, likes to play the nice guy on TV. He’s baby-faced, and when lying about the border, his favorite pastime, his high-pitched squeaky voice turns shriller, the deeper the lie. His continuing appearances on Face-the-Nation, are humiliatingly dishonest to thinking constituents regardless of party. Like all of his colleagues in the House of Representatives on the right side of the aisle, he voted to impeach both the president and DHS Secretary, Mayorkas, with zero evidence, in another political stunt by MAGA. He has voted with the MAGA hordes, with only rare exceptions, since first coming to Congress, in 2016. His handful of votes bucking MAGA, have come under intense scrutiny in a reliably rigid, ideological TX GOP. This is what put him at odds with “Hot Wheels” a popular and often pejorative nickname for Gov. Abbott.
Brandon Herrera, a YouTube gun obsessed influencer on the other hand, is off the charts disturbing, for a long list of reasons. Still, here in Texas, he is considered a respectable “conservative” because his self-declared, sole interest is guns, guns and more guns. He’s often rude, vulgar and beyond dishonest. His jokes about Veteran suicide rile a great many people here in San Antonio, long called “military city.” Still, the bizarre and immoral landscape of the TX GOP, means that he’s just one of the guys.
"Herrera’s flippant style has generated plenty of controversy. He joked about veteran suicide, saying: “I often think about putting a gun in my mouth, so I’m basically an honorary veteran.” That set off a firestorm of criticism, including from Texas’ Border Czar Mike Banks who called the comment “sickening” on social media." - Gun rights YouTuber Brandon Herrera gains momentum in race against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales - Texas Tribune - Matthew Choi and Renzo Downey - March 25th, 2024
So, this is what TX 23 is left with for congressional representatives, a Nazi glorifying, self-promoting, rude and vulgar N. Carolinian and a baby-faced, habitual liar, masquerading as a moderate conservative on TV. It’s not just TX # 23 these days either. It’s what the TX GOP has become; humiliatingly dishonest, unpatriotic, unconstitutional and vile by any standard of decency. Even their preferred Christianity is really Christian Nationalism. Like any other citizen, Texans deserve truth, and moral leadership. At one time, say under the tutelage of President Eisenhower, there was such a thing as a principled conservative. This no longer exists, and especially not in Texas.
Ever since the very beginning of TAT, I have often written on the difference between the fake conservatism of the Republican Party under MAGA control. I have especially used the TX GOP as an example, due to Texas being the cutting edge of MAGA’s far-right, fake patriotism, oligarchy and Christian Nationalism. I’ve compared the TX GOP and President Eisenhower’s 1956 platforms, verbatim from original source documents, in order to show how that they are diametrically opposed in thinking. The national GOP hasn’t written a new platform since they anointed Trump king, in 2016. I have highlighted a variety of national GOP travesty’s by shining the spotlight on what Texas does. Much of my overt, detailed and well-sourced essays criticizing the TX Taliban can be found below at the links provided.
Altogether, the scale of unconstitutionality, oligarchy and dishonesty is staggering. Any serious analyst distilling what is contained in the links below, could easily make a case that the MAGA GOP is focused precisely on eliminating any semblance of our constitutional democracy. It’s just that Texas, is leading the charge and I refuse to standdown in the face of the threat. After all, veterans, are duly sworn, to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
For several of my former posts about the unpatriotic, oligarchical and Christian Nationalist extremist movement, called the TX GOP, please see the following:
Texas has Seceded from the Union... again. (truthaboutthreats.com)
The truth about the Southern border the GOP won't tell you, and that the left is incapable of effectively narrating. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Separating the Wheat from the Chaff about our Southern Border. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Please, let's solve immigration and put an end to the bizarre, false narratives and cruelty of Governors, Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis and the MAGA hordes. (truthaboutthreats.com)
The GOP’s, White Christian Nationalist assault on Public Education, is not only murdering our founding values, but our future. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Texas government is the antithesis of patriotic. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Texas Travesty - by Paul Cobaugh - Truth About Threats
Fake American values are the current GOP's ideology, not real American values. Texas, is the cutting-edge of American, right-wing-extremism. (truthaboutthreats.com)
TX politics are a national security threat. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Like the nation, moral courage is, what's on the ballot in Texas. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Suicidal veterans are mocked by Brandon Herrera and Tony Gonzalez, a veteran refuses to honor his oath. That’s it, that the only choice for TX 23 unless a miracle Democrat arises between now and November. In Texas, there’s little to no chance of being represented by a real conservative, or a Democrat. Our whole state identity now rests squarely on the shoulders of fake patriots, fake conservatives and fake Texas exceptionalism. Hard to be a proud Texan these days, and there is little to no optimism on the horizon. There is absolutely no hope in TX 23.
Best for everyone’s week,
Paul