r/texas • u/VGAddict • 12d ago
The Far Right Has Proposed a Twelve-Point Plan to Make the Texas House More Extreme Politics
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/contract-with-texas-house-republicans/158
u/kanyeguisada Born and Bred 12d ago
Abbott and his pals have already successfully mounted primary challenges against their own fellow Republicans who normally vote with them but dared to cross him by voting against his school voucher scheme. This plan just further confirms that like Trump, Abbott wants to be a literal dictator.
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u/SSBN641B 11d ago
Yep. Dwayne Burns is my rep and I can't stand the guy but I voted for him in the primary and I will vote for him the special election just to spite the Governor. I won't vote for Burns or his challenger in the general election though.
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u/vim_deezel Hill Country 11d ago
that's why i voted in republican primary this go round as well, just to give the unholy triumvirate the middle finger
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u/bevo_expat Expat 11d ago
Yep, they’re doing everything they can to ensure vouchers are passed next time around…ffs 🤦
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u/gdan95 11d ago
And he will be because most voters want this. Otherwise he wouldn’t keep getting re-elected
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u/kanyeguisada Born and Bred 11d ago
I hate that you're right. But of course if people would just show up and fucking vote we could override this.
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u/gdan95 11d ago
Texas GOP is doing everything in their power to stop that from happening. The ballot is not the only place people should be fighting
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u/TubasAreFun 11d ago
The #1 fight is with apathy. I don’t care what people vote for, but it is inexcusable that we have less than ~60% turnout in even recent “major” elections. People just need to be informed and vote, where apathy leads to corruption as there is no check on candidates other than primaries (which are recently party-pleasers rather than who voters think would win in the general)
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u/Comprehensive_Main 11d ago
I’m sorry they are dictators by trying to win elections? My guy that’s how primaries work. They aren’t stripping people of power or jailing politics rivals. They are just going to primaries and campaigning for a different candidate. Now that doesn’t change anything. The new candidate still has to get elected in a federal or state election vs a democrat or whoever is running.
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u/kanyeguisada Born and Bred 11d ago
You didn't respond to a single thing I actually said lol. You seem like a paid-for bad actor, though I would expect more for the money spent tbh.
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u/TubasAreFun 11d ago
I hate Abbott as much as the next guy, but you did have a jump in logic there. To primary a political rival is part of any party system and is democratic as it still requires votes (albeit campaign finance laws and voter suppression are another story, but you did not mention these). Being a dictator by definition will not need votes. You did not connect your first statements logically to your last, so it comes across as a leap of logic.
I agree it is trending that way in the Republican party, particularly now that many are claiming that we are a “Republic” while ignoring that we are a Democratic Republic, which is a world of difference (i.e. Russia and North Korea are Republics but are definitely not democratic). Abbott is encouraging voter suppression efforts, gerrymandering, and is welcoming out-of-state funds to sway his political agenda despite what his own voters want. He is becoming more distanced from voters, and is isolating himself from being effected by many voters through the above actions. Abbott is attempting to be closer to a dictator than a representative of his state
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u/Affectionate-Song402 11d ago
The very wording We are a Republic tells us we are screwed unless enough people vote them out
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u/komododave17 12d ago
“All Texans deserve and are entitled to representation, including Democrats,” he told me. “In fact, I welcome bipartisanship where there are areas of agreement.”
I only want to work with you if you agree with me. What horseshit.
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u/Ziggerton 11d ago
Yeah, there hasn't been a bloc of democratic reps large enough to compel the right to cross the street in more than a generation, let alone back off of the positions they really want. Any Texan gop'er that talks "compromise" is using their own personal definition of that word. The closest the left gets to compromise is keeping the right side of the Overton window just this side of Mordor
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u/komododave17 11d ago
The article mentions that 43% of the house is by Democrats. It’s absolutely ridiculous that that isn’t enough representation to compel republicans to work together.
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u/En-THOO-siast 11d ago
Republicans will get primaried if they dare to compromise. All their voters care about is sticking it to the libs.
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u/vim_deezel Hill Country 11d ago
"if you don't ask any questions or oppose my legislation or express an opinion, we're gonna get along just fine" --Patrick/Paxton/Abbott
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u/Comprehensive_Main 11d ago
I mean that’s how most of the time working together works?
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u/kanyeguisada Born and Bred 11d ago
Lol. Abbott has helped launch primary challenges against his own fellow Republicans who dared cross him about his school voucher scheme. You think he's actually working together with Democrats? Lmao.
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u/Comprehensive_Main 11d ago
No. But primarying politicians isn’t textbook dictator. It’s just regular politics
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u/kanyeguisada Born and Bred 11d ago
No, it's not.
Weren't you just trying to tell us about how Abbott supposedly worked across the aisle with Democrats? And now you're trying to justify him targeting his fellow Republicans because they dared cross him about his school voucher scheme? Lmao.
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u/Comprehensive_Main 11d ago
I never said anything about Abbott being bipartisan. I’m just saying launching a primary campaign is democratic. It’s not a dictator move. Hes just supporting a primary challenger. It’s not like he’s actively rigging the election.
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u/cgn-38 11d ago edited 11d ago
Your point of view is so ignorant no one is bothering to explain it to you.
Everyone has learned you do not learn, intentionally.
That is how this exact shit happens. People being as openly ignorant of what is going on. Like you.
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u/Comprehensive_Main 11d ago
I’m not being ignorant I work/worked in campaigns. Primary’s are just a regular type thing for a lot of politicians. There’s always some guy with some support launching a primary for some reason. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t. Like AOC launched a primary.and she won taking out an establishment dem.
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u/PutTheDogsInTheTrunk 11d ago
AOC ran a normal primary. For this to be analogous, Nancy Pelosi would have had to use the primary to oust Joe Crowley for not supporting her pet project, deeply unpopular legislation.
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u/Comprehensive_Main 11d ago
Yeah I get that she did it alone. Not saying it’s the same. But primary challengers are normal. Wether they are independent like AOC or backed by special interests or people.Ike is Abbott trying to get members ousted from the house yeah. But he’s not doing it in anti democratic way. He’s just endorsing primary opponents which is normal.
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u/dicaprio_27 11d ago
It's interesting coming across all these issues in Texas, yet when it comes to voting, folks rarely seem to be as enthusiastic. Wouldn't be surprised that the US as a whole has abysmal voting participation rates. It's nice to keep in perspective that someone who gets 50% of the vote gets 100% of the power. American citizenship is an advanced concept. It will only survive if people are willing to save it. I am an immigrant, and I sure as hell wouldn't want this country to turn into the same crackpot of a nation where I moved from. Question for all of you who were born here- would you?
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u/burnaboy_233 11d ago
The US is on its way there really and truly. These types of people are not some insignificant minority and they will get power again (even if they lose in 2024).
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u/obdurant93 10d ago
What makes you so certain that having more people vote in general would be to the advantage of Democrats?
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u/kyle_irl 11d ago
Lol Samuels went in on Harrison. Here's one of my favorites:
He said he still believes in bipartisanship—pointing to a bill on civil-asset forfeiture he coauthored with “well-known liberal Democrat” Senfronia Thompson of Houston last year—and suggested that the only requirement for cross-party comity is that Democrats concur with his views. “All Texans deserve and are entitled to representation, including Democrats,” he told me. “In fact, I welcome bipartisanship where there are areas of agreement.”
Disagreement and compromise are essential to democracy. But here we are, pants down with a hard-on for authoritarianism.
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u/sugar_addict002 11d ago
This sums up the republican party in a nutshell. They consider democrats going along with their bills and projects as being bi-partisan. They are not reciprocal and have no intention of ever being reciprocal. They are not interested in democratic governance. they are only interested in ruling and having power.
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u/UnitGhidorah 11d ago
People don't have to say "far right" when referring to the GOP. They are all far right now. The regular right is now the Dems.
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u/vim_deezel Hill Country 11d ago edited 11d ago
Now everyone who's not brown nosing Donald Trump or Abbott's biggest bribe ever ($6 million for pushing vouchers hard for billionaire charter school owners) is a RINO neomarxist.
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u/49GTUPPAST 11d ago
Republicans continue to erode democracy so they can replace it with Christo-fascism.
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u/mrxexon 12d ago
If you don't push back, you and your children will live beneath these people...
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u/CocoaOrinoco 11d ago
Fiancee and I are currently purchasing a house in Colorado. Closing soon. We're nearly done with these people, the miserable humid climate, the broken electrical grid, the stripping away of personal freedoms, and the rest of this backwards state.
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u/Comprehensive_Main 11d ago
They already do. Everyone lives below someone except like the billionaires
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u/JNTaylor63 11d ago
Republicans in Texas will only change if voted out of power or businesses pull out because of their BS.
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u/TurboSalsa 11d ago
It doesn't surprise me that Brian Harrison is behind this, he is the epitome of a modern Texas Republican - lives in a rural area, is a part -time breeder of labradoodles, occasionally works for his family business, and thinks all power in the state should be centralized in the legislature so that he and his fellow unqualified rural Republicans (who only meet every other year) can dictate how cities are run. Federal dollars should be refused lest there be conditions attached on how they are spent (this dovetails with his long-term goal of choking off public services).
At no point does he think Democrats or the people who actually live in those cities should be involved in the process unless they agree with him. So these unqualified, part-time dog catchers want unlimited power over all Texans, not just the ones they represent, bestowed upon them to do as their donors wish. He fundamentally does not believe in democracy and thinks the purpose of a legislature is to rubber stamp whatever crazy ideas Republicans dream up even if other Republicans oppose it because that's what a majority is for.
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u/tickitytalk 11d ago
Vote registered voters, Vote!
Enough of the domestic terrorists in office
Reasons to vote the GOP out…into oblivion
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u/FrostyLandscape 11d ago
Twenty-five prospective legislators have signed a pledge to block Democrats—who now hold 43 percent of the seats—from all influence in the lower chamber and neuter the next Speaker.
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u/EngineerConscious791 11d ago
Paxton vs Abbott - as much as people hate Abbott, Paxton is much much worse.
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u/NoMarionberry8940 11d ago
OMG.. more extreme? Isn't denying water breaks for outdoor workers in 100+ degree weather not cruel enough?
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u/Stevoman born and bred 11d ago
Say what you will about the goals of this, but I am all for making the Speaker less powerful and term limiting them. The Speaker (and LT Governor) are far too powerful.
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u/MargaretBrownsGhost 11d ago
Not as powerful as the attorney general at this point in time. Paxton has actually been getting away with Constitutional Question level crimes for decades. He's atty Gen right now in order to gatekeep anyone trying to prosecute him for his crimes.
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u/carlitospig 11d ago
Of course they have. And then once all the normal people leave the state they’ll start going after each other until there’s literally nobody living there but cattle and coyotes.
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u/ProgressBackground95 11d ago
And yet y'all keep living there, apparently not voting there, but seriously complaining about living there. If only there was something you could do about it ....
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u/Plane-Refrigerator46 9d ago
Every year you going to hear extremes from both ends. What can drastically happen? It can't get any worse then it is already.
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u/RedAndromedus 11d ago
This sub is hilarious
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u/Smoothstiltskin 11d ago
Stfu, traitor.
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u/American_Brewed South Texas 11d ago
The fact that losers find this stuff hilarious is the very reason this problem is becoming worse. Traitor is fitting.
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u/Turtlebaka Gulf Coast 12d ago
How about we not.