SALON: Lone Star Loonies

[Trajan]

Lone Star Loonies

Texas Republicans endorse God, squabble, call for dismantling the federal government, await indictments and pray for Bush.

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By Jake Bernstein and Dave Mann


June 11, 2004 | On the first night of the Texas Republican state convention last week, there were plenty of receptions to attend. Instead, almost 200 delegates and visitors chose to file patiently into a room in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio for the meeting of the Permanent Platform Committee. The next two and half hours would be one of their few opportunities to influence the party's ideology.

Earlier that day, the chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas, Tina Benkiser, had proclaimed to the 11,000 or so delegates assembled for the June 3-5 convention, "This is the true grass-roots center of America." This state party, in fact, is the crucible in which Karl Rove helped craft the presidency of George W. Bush. It is the home of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. The party has seized control of every statewide office in Texas, won majorities in both chambers in the Statehouse for the first time in more than a century, and along with ideological soul mates, captured the U.S. Congress. The grass-roots movement that provided the energy and manpower for the GOP's rise in Texas traces its origin to Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1980 and then Pat Robertson's run for the presidential nomination in 1988. The televangelist's campaign birthed an overtly evangelical cadre of revolutionaries with a radical plan for a return to 19th century government, at least as they understand it.

The values and world vision of the movement today can be found enshrined in the 24-page party platform. It's a fearful, twilight looking-glass world, beset by enemies, where the purity of the culture, under constant siege, must be protected from threats both internal and external. The platform makes short work of the federal government, calling for the abolition of everything from the U.S. Department of Education to the Internal Revenue Service, along with most taxes. Aliens without proper identification are to be summarily deported. Illegal immigrants should not be granted drivers' licenses. Voter registration is to be made more difficult. "American English" is the official language of the state, and "the Party supports the termination of bilingual education programs in Texas." A plank titled "equality for all citizens" urges the repeal of hate crimes legislation. Another one states: "We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values." Since the Bible is the literal truth, teachers should have the right to instruct their public school students in "creation science." The Ten Commandments are the foundation of the legal system. And lest anyone forget, "America is a Christian nation."

When asked by reporters for comment, Texas Democratic Party chairman Charles Soechting called the state GOP's platform "the longest political suicide note in modern Texas history." While Soechting flagged the Republicans' extremism, the internal fight in San Antonio over the platform's planks revealed a party still struggling to make the transition from insurgency to leadership. A lack of statewide races on the ballot this year combined with overwhelming support for President Bush, who will certainly carry the Lone Star State, has deprived the party faithful of a unifying electoral challenge. In its absence, divisions and political ambition are moving front and center.

-snip-

More at (watch ad for daily pass) :
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/06/11/texas_republicans/index.html

[lovedems]

1. I read this article earlier this morning and kept shaking my head in

disbelief.

Reading this after watching NOW with Bill Moyers last night and his expose on DeLay, I am scared for the state of Texas. The voters of that state better wise up fast and change the course of the republican party or their state will be messed up beyond repair (if it isn't already).

The best thing that can happen for Texas is a DeLay indictment. I will certainly be sending good wishes to the prosecuters in that case.

[Trajan]

7. What is EXTREMELY unfortunate ...

Is that 'mainstream' americans KEEP VOTING THESE IDIOTS into national office ...

WTF is wrong with america ? ...

WHY TF would they vote for a Bush knowing full well he is of this same backward mindset ? ..

[lovedems]

9. I was discussing that notion with my family last weekend.

We were talking about the D-Day celebrations and how France and the US appeared to be trying to put the past behind them and regain a solid friendship. While we all agreed that was important, we also knew the reality of the situation. You would have the dumbshits Hannity, O'Reilly (and his assinine boycott on France and trying to start one with Canada) and Fatboy continuing to "dis" the French and affect public opinion. We should be doing the right thing and making every effort to mend the fences and once again have the respect of our allies, yet these dipshits undermine what is right.

We came to the conclusion that conservative talk radio does more harm to this country as an entity then anything else. They have force fed their viewers the notion that "isolationism" is terrible when it comes to the global economy yet courageous when it comes to foreign policy. They have dumbed down their viewers to the point that the actions of this corrupt administration are considered acceptable and many cases, respected. It is sad.

[bookman]

2. Kerry in Texas

He may not win the state, but the margin of victory will not be anywhere near what it was in 2000.

[StClone]

3. **sigh**

Pity the enlightened Texans that suffer under the misguided, God-nutty, puritanical, misdirections of the money stuffed, over-indulged and power mad steers that are now plaguing the Loony Star State: I salute your fortitude.

How do you stay sane and rooted in that place?

[bookman]

4. How do you stay sane and rooted in that place?

Kerry meetups. Reading Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower.

:)

[Fenris]

6. It's fucking tough.

The town I grew up in was 95% "God and Mammon" Republican - the majority was extremely wealthy and extremely fundamentalist (does anyone read the New Testament anymore?). I was one of the few liberals at my high school - the others were mostly either extremely smart or extremely punk. The town is fucking filled with churches - mainstream and "pop" churches, the nondenominational churches that play on TV on Sunday mornings. The women are all zombies - big-haired PTA mothers who do everything because their husbands do. The local Christian right group, the Republican Leadership Council, tried to make the library remove books they found offensive and nearly won - not to mention the fact that they forced a local Oshman's to put a fig leaf over a replica of Michaelangelo's David. (The whole shopping center is made to look Venetian - I don't know why. These people could never appreciate it). The local paper is filled with right-wing screeds from the towns residents - I once wrote a letter to the editor and after it was printed I thought some people were going to hunt me down.

I live outside of Austin now. It's better here. But not by a wide margin.

[indigobusiness]

8. You took the words

right out of my mouth...to a letter.


(Northern Mexico still cracks me up...I'm using that.)

[Fenris]

11. Please do! Spread the word!

[indigobusiness]

12. It's so true...

I feel like a squatter.

[texastoast]

14. We just love mixing it up

The fight is here. It's easy to be a Democrat in San Francisco.

Things are looking up. I saw three Kerry bumperstickers in Houston this week in a highly conservative neighborhood. Maybe the Dems won't be so arrogant this time and stay home from the polls. That's how shrubito was elected gov. Overconfidence. We can't let that happen again.

And though our nickname is the Lone Star State, our motto is friendship. Don't make it hard by name-calling us Loony.

[wellstone_democrat]

5. And spent a zillion to give us a three-day-weekend

lest they be accussed of not revering Reagan enough!
Yep, we are broke from the Bush* years give-aways and now the party of the legis majority and the governor waste time with this loony bullshit and give all state employees a lovely extra three-day-weekend.

Wheeeeee!

BTW, just for a laugh: virtually all of my colleagues were "devastated" by the death of a man (Reagan) they all claimed to love. Excess TV coverage? No, no, no! Just what is due the man!
Did they want Friday off to "reflect and mourn with the nation" as one said? Sure did. So....on Thursday afternoon I chatted most up to see what the weekend would hold for them----you got it---only one heading for a service on Friday. The rest (6) all getting "out of town early for the weekend!" Guess they were going to mourn over some brewskis on a boat....

[Veggie Meathead]

10. I believe the driving force for the rabid invocation of

religious beliefs is rooted in the feeling that ever since the Voting Rights Act gave black people equality in the polling booth, the nation has gone downhill.With white males no longer in total control of the political agenda of the nation, resentment of the uppity niggers has been building up for quite sometime.That resentment has also been fed by the immigration of nonwhite Hispanics and Asians and others who are challenging the notions of white supremacy as never before.In the past it was a given of white domination that white men possessed superior intelligence compared to the darker skinned blacks.The emergence of talented entrepreneurs, especially in Silicon Valley,of Asian origin, has put these racists in a bind.These Asians are non white and nonchristian to boot.

How does a racist reconcile himself to these contradictions? He seeks to revert to seizing total power through all means available;even here he has only a limited time at his disposal because the Hispanic and Asian people are fast becoming a demographically dominant group.
So, I would think the measures taken at the Texas legislature are desperate last gasps of a dying era.Our hopes for sanity and democracy lie with our newest immigrants as in our past.They are the ones who believe in America's promise and they are the ones who are likely to carry the torch of our Constitution.Not the racists of the Texas legislature.

[SilasSoule]

13. I'm surprised that they didn't pass a resolution to

temporarily change the name of the building they were convened at.

It is a disgrace to Henry B. Gonzales's memory to have these fundie fascists holding their convention in a bulding named afer him.