I don’t really keep up with the machinations of the Texas Republican Party so I don’t know much of the backstory on this, but it’s notable that the party’s state Chairman, Tom Mechler, announced his resignation on Saturday and that he took the opportunity to make some comments that indicate some internal squabbles are causing problems. Among other things, Mr. Mechler noted that the GOP “needs to work harder than ever to come together” and that “a party that is fractured by anger and backbiting is a party that will not succeed.” He appears to be supporting Rick Figueroa as his replacement, and he wrote that “If we do not engage in the diverse communities across Texas, we will lose the state, then the nation, and there may be no coming back.”
I don’t know if it’s really appreciated that the presidential election in Texas was closer than it was in Iowa. Of course, President Obama carried Iowa twice but never really came close to making Texas competitive. While it’s true that something horrible obviously has happened to the Democrats in the Hawkeye State, it would be a much bigger deal for our national politics if Texas were to turn blue.
There were polls early on in the presidential contest that predicted that Clinton might be able to put Texas in play. More recent polls have indicated that Senator Ted Cruz might be genuinely vulnerable when he seeks reelection next year. More than that, when the DCCC put together a list of House seats that might be competitive, a surprising number of them were in Texas. In fact, they’re quite serious about contending for at least three supposedly safe districts in the Lone Star State.
That the GOP chairman quit and gave out a warning that a failure to engage with the diverse communities in Texas might doom the party nationally indicates to me that the threat is real, that it is appreciated, and that the state’s Republicans aren’t currently on the same page on what to do about it.
Houston is now the most racially large diverse city in the nation. Other cities follow closely.Somebody’s gotta pick up on it!!!
AG
Houston is a very hi-tech city, lots of engineering contractors, lots of high tech small manufacturers – these industries employ a lot of Asian immigrants – Iranian, Indian, Taiwanese etc. lots of others.
Plus the energy industry and the Texas Medical Center have meant that people from the Houston area go all over the world, and come here from all over the world.
I understand the dems won big last time in Houston. It was a long time coming.
This is why I’m long-term bullish on progressive politics. Of course this only holds true if the troglodytes don’t discover a way to appeal to racism and divisiveness among minority groups without alienating old white people.
Did not prop 187 destroy the GOP in California? The current TX anti sanctuary city law is just another anti immigrant law.
>>Did not prop 187 destroy the GOP in California?
certainly not the only reason but 187 was hugely unpopular and may have been the beginning of their steep decline.
the other key weapon was a new redistricting law that took effect after the 2010 census.
Republicans were getting beaten pretty consistently starting in 1998. After that the only statewide elections they won were the Governator’s and one or two minor offices in the 2000’s. The 2010 redistricting just put the nail in the coffin. Prop 187 wasn’t the whole thing, but it was a big part of it. It wasn’t so much the proposition per se but the campaign, which was nasty and racist. It was an abrupt turn because just a few years before they’d actually won the state Assembly and then suddenly they started losing it 50-30.
This guy obviously lost the internal “squabble”. It doesn’t matter what he says on the way out the door. Here is the action that matters.
This is part of the running battle between the business Republicans (e.g., House Speaker Joe Straus)and the psycho Republicans (e.g., Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick). Mechler’s part of the business side; he sees the handwriting on the wall with the “bathroom bill” craziness.
This is part of the running battle between the business Republicans (e.g., House Speaker Joe Straus)and the psycho Republicans (e.g., Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick).
Patrick and Abbott(the Governor) are on the same page. The state GOP chairman obviously is being ignored if both the Governor and Lt. Governor are as ass backwards as they are, and proud of it.
OT Trumps proposed budget takes a meat cleaver to the social safety net including Medicaid. And there is talk the next thing will be social security and Medicare. Going to be a great four years. We need to win next year but that may be too little too late.
Can you imagine what President Pence’s budget would look like? Be careful what you wish for, indeed.
While i do agree that Pence’s damage on the policy front is likely to be greater than that of Trump, the latter still needs to be gone, sooner rather than later. We have to fight with the tools at our disposal…loud, forceful, and persistent resistance and take back the House in 2018. Those are realistic and obtainable goals. We knew on November 9 what we were going to be facing for 4 years. I don’t think it will be 8, given the same conditions as now, especially if we can thwart voter suppression efforts.
If the GOP guts Medicaid and the social safety net they not only harm the vulnerable and powerless, they will begin to turn a significant portion of their voters away, once they realize there is no Medicaid to pay for nursing home care. This will also turn the nursing home industry against them. I can personally vouch what a life saver Medicaid is in providing long term care for the aged. Thanks to Medicaid my Mom spent 5 1/2 years in a nursing home with a long and slowly progressing dementia. She worked in a textile factory for 30 years and retired with no benefits, other than Social Security. We could never have afforded that care without bankrupting our own savings for our own retirements.
Yes, agreed. That comment was for those concern trolls musing about how much worse Pence would be as President. They don’t seem to understand how bad things are right now.
So you are eager to jump from the frying pan into the fire?
Presidents can be neutralized without removal. Trying to remove a President non-electorally is undemocratic. You show your utter contempt for the democratic process. You sound exactly like the (R)’s who wanted to remove Obama. For them it was the birth certificate. For you the Russia hacking BS.
You’re full of shit. What does the electoral college have to do with democracy? Who won the popular vote?
There’s legal methods in place to allow for a President to be remove non-electorally. True or false?
We’re pretty far beyond the hacking story. I’m not sure why you bother with the denials at this point. Is it really hard to believe they did whatever they could to help get their pal in office?
In any case, you’re conveniently dodging my point that it’s silly concern-trolling to pretend Pence is worse than Trump. Trump’s agenda is not the bullshit platform he ran on that rubes like you fell for. He was going to protect Medicare, SS, and Medicaid for the olds, right? Good luck with that.
He was going to leave Roe v Wade alone, right? Oh, wait he nominated Gorsuch.
You don’t have anything to say about this because you know it’s true.
Pence is going to save Roe? You know nothing.
In 2015 Texas estimated a voting age population of:
White: 46.7%, African American 11.5%, Hispanic 35.93%, and an Asian population of 5.86%. The rest are termed other.
BUT, the exit poll found an electorate of 57% white, 11% African American, 24% Hispanic. Clearly voter registration and turnout are critical.
Below is the estimated Democratic % based on share of voting eligible population
43.40 2015 Actual
47.93 2015 Potential Electorate
48.99 2020 Potential Electorate
50.02 2025 Potential Electorate
50.94 2030 Potential Electorate
If you project 2025 with the current turnout by race (White turnout is about 20% higher than Hispanic turnout) the Democrats wind up with 46.2% of the vote.
What this makes clear is the extent to which voter suppression and voter turnout are absolutely critical.
In truth, if the Democrats are able to remove the restrictions on felon voting in Florida and get Hispanic turnout to match white turnout in Texas, the election of 2024 will look very different from the election of 2016.
Those are two very big ifs, though.
It’s just one reason why it was stupid for David Brock to pay millions for online trolls, which I said at the time. That money is better spent registering voters and getting them ID’s in states like Texas that require them.
I saw things at DKOS that were clearly opposition research against Sanders. One of the most obvious was this bizarre socialist workers magazine article about how bernie had betrayed the revolution. The article wasn’t online.
Farther back we KNOW that Larry Johnson, a front page poster here, was getting stuff from David Brock in 2008.
So campaigns feeding trolls has been around for a while. It is not something that is going to go away.
So why is this ‘trouble’? Sounds like excellent news to me.
anyone know if there’s any chance of Will _Hurd defecting to the USA [dem] party?