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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"As Texas Goes" by Gail COLLINS: definitive answer to the TX & TeaBaggers problem
She is worthy to be along side of Molly IVINS, punctures the phony big talkers. Should be required reading, along with CARO's biography of LBJ, for all Democratic candidates *nation wide* - the perspective of the next generation of running against wingnuts.
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[font size=5]As Texas Goes...:
How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda[/font]
Gail Collins
p. 5 Texas runs everything. Why, then, is it so cranky?
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theres been a Texan president or vice president for twenty of the last thirty-two years, so the lack of White House access hardly seems like an appropriate subject for sulking.
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its a fast-growing, increasingly urban place whose citizens have nevertheless managed to maintain the conviction that theyre living in the wide open spaces.
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You need that sense of victimhood because it creates energy and unity. You cant build a Tea Party on good news.
p. 26
division between the people who live in crowded places and the people who live in empty places.
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if your home turf is crowded, you will need rules to protect you from all sorts of intrusive behavior noisy neighbors
Basically, you want a buffer between your family and the rest of the world. That buffer would be government. Go regulation! But if you live in an empty place, it could take hours for law enforcement to arrive; carrying a gun is more practical. Government cant help you and it has no business telling you what you can do with your property. Who could you hurt? Theres nobody else in sight. Youre on your own and you like it that way. There are a few problems with the empty-world vision.
p. 32
the state would probably still be a mainly poor, rural economy if it werent for massive federal aid.
p. 165 Lets go back to the Texas recipe for national prosperity: Spurred on by the wholesome national competition to steal each others employers, every state in the union should repeal all income taxes, make it extremely difficult for people to sue the company that sold them the canned hash flavored with ground glass, relocate to somewhere in the Sunbelt, preferably with a border on Mexico, and sneak into the left lane until they get as close to the orange barrel as possible.
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justabob
(3,069 posts)In New York Times columnist Gail Collins new book, As Texas Goes
: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda,
Collins trains her trademark wit and New York perspective on showing the rest of America the many ways Texas controls the policies and mind-set of the rest of the country, from textbooks to banking as well as how completely bonkers Texas can be. And Texans just really, really love it when New Yorkers point out their perceived shortcomings. Almost as much as they love rattlesnakes, hailstones and the federal government.
In an interview with Salon, she talked about Rick Perrys abstinence, poked fun at the Alamo and assessed the Mitt Romney campaign.
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/09/gail_collins_texas_runs_america/
UTUSN
(70,810 posts)*************QUOTE*************
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/09/gail_collins_texas_runs_america/
[font size=5]Gail Collins: Texas runs America[/font]
In a Salon interview, the New York Times writer who made Mitt's dog famous takes dead aim at the Lone Star State
By Kyrie O'Connor
.... ...it struck me reading your book that a lot of things such as Anglo politicians are part of a Texas that is going to disappear.
The question is how fast it disappears. One of the things thats been so interesting lately in Texas is you find poor Democrats in Texas all saying were going to be great because the Hispanic population is growing, were already a majority minority state, and all of those folks are our people, and our time is coming again. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]But Texas voting in general is pathetically low And (in) the population of minority voters, Hispanic voters, their turnout is even worse[/FONT]. The new voting laws that keep being passed down are making it even worse yet. I was just reading, as you called, a story from the Houston Chronicle about the number of people whove been removed from the Texas rolls between 2008 and 2010. More than [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]300,000 valid[/FONT] voters were notified they could be [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]removed[/FONT] because they were mistaken for somebody else or failed to respond to a generic form letter or in some other way irritated the officials who are in charge of voting in Texas. Texas is not a place that seems to go out of its way to encourage folks to get out and vote.
(Its) a state thats going to be majority Hispanic, and what you would want to see is a state thats preparing for this by doing a stupendous job of educating its minority kids and thats making a real effort to integrate Mexican-American Texans into the voting population, into the political activities of the state and into the business activities of the state. And Im not seeing the love there.
Theres no Texas sacred cow that you left untipped, I think. You make fun of the Alamo.
Well, the Alamo was so important to Texas. Almost every kid in Texas goes on a pilgrimage to the Alamo. Nobody could go and hear that story and not think, Oh my god, these poor people, oh my god what a tragedy, oh my god how brave they were but I must admit when I heard the story, I thought, Oh my god, what a waste. Why the hell didnt they leave and go help Sam Houston fight the war of independence? They couldve done that if you hadnt had this guy Travis, obsessed with victory or death, running the show. And I think that that is perhaps a crucial difference, the idea that [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]the standing-up part is the most important part as opposed to the actually winning the argument[/FONT] part. So certainly you would not want to ever make fun of the bravery of the people at the Alamo. But the idea that this was a good plan is one that I just cant get my head around. ... ....
...Mitt Romney is in Texas right now on a fundraising toot. Hes going to come out of it with $15 million.
I feel a certain sympathy with Texas on this. Its like New York, in that the candidates come here just to get money. Nobody goes to Texas for the votes, just to Hooverize the money. Not to talk to the voters.
I dont get a sense of how Romney will play in Texas.
You know about my theory of empty places vs. crowded places. Romney is really a crowded-places kind of guy. Hes a hard sell in empty-places Texas. But hes the GOP nominee, and its a very red state, so theyll learn to live with it.
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I read the interview a few days ago and it was interesting. She covers a lot of ground. I am not sure I agree Romney is going to do well here, even in the crowded places. In Dallas I have seen very very few bumper stickers for Romney, and I live on the edge of one of the most conservative/wealthy bastions in the city. There just isn't any love for him. Ron Paul still has the most visible supporters.... yard signs, car magnets (large ones), bumper stickers etc. I am sure out in the suburbs there is more visible Romney gear, but I don't see it in the city.
KatyMan
(4,223 posts)we also live on the edge of a very wealthy and conservative suburb, but I'm not noticing any signs, stickers, etc.
justabob
(3,069 posts)given all the gerrymandering, and deck stacking that has been going on here for years. I do think that a lot of Texans are going to sit it out rather than pull the lever for Romney. It will come down to whether or not the republican brand trumps the mormon one in the eyes of the fundies and rural folks imo.
KatyMan
(4,223 posts)seem very dismayed lately, so I'm hoping that's a good sign.
Two guys at the office who are Beck listeners where actually stunned at the voter purge in FLA, and one of them said "Well, I guess they are trying to get as many votes as they can, they're gonna need them". I take that as a good sign.
edit: typing too fast!
Octafish
(55,745 posts)A nice resource that includes them plus other Texans of note:
http://www.famoustexans.com/index.html
Thank you for the heads up on Gail Collin's book, UTUSN! As in much of the USA, here in metro Detroit, the school books have been getting more and more vacuous. Thank goodness for DU.
UTUSN
(70,810 posts)There's video inside this link of the mayor of San Antonio, Julian CASTRO (he has a twin Joaquin with also bright political prospects), who she says might be the first Hispanic governor. He presents himself very engagingly here. She tells how Ann RICHARDS told Henry CISNEROS she wouldn't run if he wanted to do it, but he declined saying he had personal issues to work on, so his moment passed.
I suppose the CASTRO brothers, if they go bigger, have worked out how they will fend off Anglo Texans' certain outrage over their activist mother's statements about the Alamo, that its fable was brainwashed into all Texas kids in schools, how its message to Mexican-American children was that "we were losers," that she hates the Alamo and everything it stands for.
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http://www.nesn.com/2012/05/san-antonio-mayor-julian-castro-takes-jabs-at-charles-barkley.html
[font size=5]San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro Takes Jabs at Charles Barkley While Defending City (Video)[/font]
Charles Barkley may get away with saying a good amount of controversial statements, but his most recent one was too "turrible" for San Antonio's mayor to take lying down.
After the latest in a string of disparaging comments the NBA analyst has made about San Antonio -- this time regarding the city's river, which Sir Charles referred to as a "dirty little creek" -- Mayor Julian Castro took it upon himself to defend his city.
Castro released a YouTube video on Friday that primarily served to parry Barkley's slams on the city, but he also took every opportunity available to take some jabs at the former NBA All-Star. Along with mocking Barkley's famously awful golf swing, Castro was not shy about displaying the Spurs' four championship rings he was wearing.
Barkley, of course, is notorious for having won zero championships during his 16-year Hall of Fame career.
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hifiguy
(33,688 posts)a lot more entertaining.
UTUSN
(70,810 posts)pretty entertaining alright!1
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)I mean, the guy is maybe 6'4" and husky, but he could out-rebound players who were six inches taller and had more hops. But a golf club in his hand and he looks like a man falling out of a tree.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)It was hilarious! Castro is an up-and-comer who's got it all -- from brains to looks. He's one Texas politico I'd vote for president -- and I felt the same about Ann Richards because she had the cojones to tell the world that Poppy Bush was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)her longtime friend Molly Ivins came up with the "silver foot" line. That sounds SO Molly.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)She's very smart and very funny and a great observer of craziness. Yeah, she is like Molly!