The Texas Republican Party, reality show.
It is far crazier than anything on TV.
Happy Friday to all,
Well TAT readers, this has been a crazy week, in both the news and with my perpetually overbooked schedule. Still, the weekend awaits and… we all somehow survived. This is of course not true if you are fighting Putin in Ukraine. The Republican controlled House of Representatives continues to murder our allies in Ukraine, by denying them funding for everything they need, especially ammunition. Their orange dear leader demanded that they obstruct funding, and the only possible benefactor is Putin.
They hemmed and hawed for months, claiming it was about the Southern border in negotiations, but after getting what they wanted, Trump demanded that they do nothing, in order to make the current administration look bad. The sheep followed and now, our allies and fellow democracy Ukraine and her citizens are being murdered by Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and a subservient GOP Congress, who have turned their backs on our allies and their lives. My TX 23 congressman, Tony Gonzalez is one of them. Call me crazy but I believe that murdering your allies in order to give a traitor another shot at the White House, is the exact opposite of patriotism.
I have invested plenty of ink on that topic lately so today, I’ll ease off of that long enough to tell you the story of the reality show, called the Republican Party of Texas.
Here we go…
Most folks know that politics in Texas, is a contact sport. Politics here were MAGA-like, even decades before the insanity of the modern, MAGA movement, masquerading as conservatives entered the national stage. When we come to election season, the insanity goes to another whole level of crazy. Now that we are in primary season, the infighting between Republicans looks more like a clown version, of an MMA tournament. Let’s look at some of the highlights.
To begin with, the campaign ads play incessantly on all media. In classic Texas GOP style, the colors are dark and foreboding with scary music and then, to top off the attempts at influence, the ad creators employ an ominous voice to narrate some preposterous claim about who is not “conservative” enough. Of course, no elected GOP official these days, is conservative. So long as the far-right, White Christian Nationalists and supporters of Oligarchy are in charge, the party remains extremist, not conservative. The ads this year mostly revolve around the border, school vouchers and all of the culture war BS that is all that they really care about and legislate for. The more extreme, the better.
A viewer from another country would howl with laughter at some of the ludicrous claims made and the graphics displayed. Buzzwords, trigger words and phrases abound, rarely with even a hint of truth to them. The “open borders” BS is so deep, you’d need a submarine to go low enough to get to the other side. This is especially true of my Congressman, Tony Gonzalez. Tony has backed 95% of the MAGA agenda, since first bursting on the scene, nearly eight years ago and yet, “hot wheels,” the pejorative most Texans, right or left, call Gov. Greg Abbott, attacks him relentlessly for not being “conservative” enough. Like a black hole swallowing stars, the soul of the GOP, especially in Texas, has vanquished any vestige of morality remaining in the party.
In the Trump era nationally, this is where the term RINO comes from. It simply means that, if you are not a WCN/ White Christian Nationalist, spewing unconstitutional and un-American talking points, you are a RINO. Tony’s mostly MAGA votes in congress, have not even elevated him to RINO status. He has simply fallen afoul of hot wheels and his henchmen. Here in Texas, the GOP has run everything for three decades but still blame everyone but themselves for our statewide failures. The short list of the most prominent and ongoing failures in civil rights, healthcare, rape, gun violence and includes also the unconstitutional agenda about sovereign rights, WCN in school, vouchers, women’s rights and far more.
Back to the disgraceful show of our campaign, primary season. The soup de jour this year is built on the background of hot wheel’s obsession with the unconstitutional pursuit of school vouchers. Ironically, rural Republicans despise the idea as much as those outside the TX GOP. This hasn’t stopped Abbott from trying though and now attempting to “primary” all Texas House and Senate reps who refused last years, in 4 straight Special Sessions to pass the vouchers legislation. Abbott made the mortal error of messing around with school funding that would hamper high school football teams. No one in their right mind messes with “Friday Night Lights.”
Yesterday, both President Biden and that old orange traitor both visited the border here in Texas. Yes, one is doing all possible with EOs / Executive Orders and the support of a hard-working DHS team, led by Secretary Mayorkas. The MAGA GOP has voted to impeach both, despite the fact that we are in our fourth or fifth straight month of noticeable improvement at our Southern border. The other, Trump ordered Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson to stop all support for the border bill that he led the negotiations on. By the admission of both, this was to hurt POTUS Biden’s chances at reelection. Tony Gonzalez violated his oath of office once again, and voted for both impeachments, despite a lack of any evidence, self-admitted by the GOP.
Now, hot wheels is attacking Tony, because he voted under pressure, for the reasonable gun reform, passed after the people of Uvalde shamed him into doing so. Like those who refuse to support school vouchers, they are being lined up to be publicly executed by primary votes. People my age may be very familiar with the quote from a WW II German Paster named Martin Niemöller, which can be seen below. Tony and the rest on Abbott’s “hit list” fit the described situation from Martin Niemöller’s quote.
The campaigns pitting MAGA politician against MAGA politicians have become great sport. Professionally speaking and in regard to counterterrorism, it is not uncommon in the life cycles of extremist and violent extremist movements to slip into this type of intra movement warfare. The evidence is elsewhere too. Early MAGA types and those before them, has been cowed into submission with the term RINO, which includes nationally, the same type of “primarying.” Also, threats of violence against non-MAGA republicans or RINOS are not uncommon. One can only hope that like extremist life cycles, the current intra-party warfare signals that MAGA is on its way out too. I’m not so certain yet though.
Everywhere you go here in San Antonio, you see the evidence of this warfare in the form of those little obnoxious campaign signs, spewing extremism and calling it conservatism. There must be a shortage of dictionaries here in Texas since no seems to know the difference. A few months ago, I compared Eisenhower’s 1956 platform against the Texas GOP 2022 Midterm platform. Let’s just say that the Texas version, which includes several unconstitutional agenda items, is at a minimum, the proverbial red-haired, bastard stepchild of Eisenhower’s, if that. Also, and what is likely a shock to Texans and Republicans in general, POTUS Eisenhower saw things pretty much the same as the agenda of the current Biden Administration.
Here is the previous TAT article: Being a Republican today, doesn’t make you a Conservative (truthaboutthreats.com)
Another character that hot wheels is targeting as not far enough to the right, is a guy named Bierdeman who Texans know, as the guy officially behind Texas’ secession from the union, even while part of the legislature. He hobnobs with all manner of far right deplorables like Nazis, White Supremacists etc. and attended January 6th in support of overthrowing the election. He was not alone. I am scratching my head trying to figure out how it is possible to get further to the right, unless your name is Hitler, Putin, Trump and their ilk.
Most campaign ads against Abbott’s target list, are now labeled as “liberals” although they are all, just as MAGA as hot wheels, our indicted felon AG, Ken Paxton and that lower than a snake’s belly, Lt. Dan, or Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Y’all, Texas is a reality show that is also a national security threat to the union, literally and figuratively. It is only a one-party threat though. No one other than a Republican has been elected to statewide office, in thirty years. Still, Texas Republicans still insist on voting Republican. I just cannot fathom how so many well educated and experienced grown-up Texans, still trot off the political cliff of right-wing extremism, like those proverbial lemmings.
Professionally speaking, I do thoroughly understand how it is done because it is my profession to know. It is professionally assessed as a person or organization’s NI/ Narrative Identity being converted to an identity that can be what our former Soviet adversaries and now Russian influence operators call, Reflexive Control. A simpler understanding is roughly the equivalent of Pavlov’s dog. In other words, they have been “conditioned” to behave a certain way when presented with specific stimuli. For general audiences, I typically just explain using the term, brainwashing. Below is an entire article, complete with sources from TAT on this subject.
Okay, okay, as I hear dinner being assembled in the kitchen and being Friday, it’s time to wrap up this little expose’ of the depths to which the TX GOP has sunk.
The bottom line here is that Hot Wheels, my congressman, my Senators Cruz and Cornyn and the entire Texas Republican party are spineless subservients to far-right extremist that threatens Texas and National security. Abbott’s taxpayer funded Operation Loonstar at the border, is a political stunt that I and my fellow Texans pay for. The lies about it invades our home every day and all day. The clownlike accusations that only fools could believe are just further humiliation heaped onto the overtaxed backs of Texans.
The disgrace, post-Civil War, is being revisited on Texans but now worse. The whole world daily, sees the insanity, the corruption, third-world political maneuverings and verifiable Confederacy 2.0 government of Texas. I now believe that the fake patriotism of the National and TX GOP will not wash off in my lifetime. My retirement to what was once a proud state, now is hard to balance with the stark immorality that defines our state’s political landscape.
The only good news here is that there are more honorable Texans than the Putin/ Trump sycophants now dominating our capital in Austin. One day, even the drastic gerrymandering by a corrupt TX GOP, rubber-stamped by the least ethical state supreme court, will not be able to hold back the real pride of Texas, resistance in the name of freedom. It’s appropriate that I live not too far from the Alamo. They didn’t give up on Texas either. In the end, Abbott and his Confederates, will be seen as modern-day Santa Anas. We’ll park hot wheels under a tree where he can negotiate the terms of surrender to those fighting for liberty from oppression.
Have a great weekend y’all,
Paul