Since Rick Perry seems determined to play the "I'm a Real Texan" card---and a whole lot of the mainstream media is willing to play along---I expect that I'll be spending the next few months, and god forbid year, hopping mad. Not because I think Perry's an "inauthentic" Texan, but because I dislike the concept of "authentic", which, as I note below, is ironically based more in myth-making than in our complex realities. I mean, Perry is playing the not-a-Real-Texan card against George Bush, who I recall I had to defend a few times (much to my dismay) from liberals in the past who wanted to take away your Texan card because you were born somewhere else, even if you were raised Texan, identified as a Texan, ran the state, and retired there. I felt if Bush doesn't get to be a Texan, anyone's card can be yanked on the basis of some arbitrary bullshit. I take this stuff personally, because I've often felt the not-a-Real-Texan play being used against me, because I don't fit the narrow mold of "ignorant, mean-spirited yahoo" that is heralded by wingnuts, exoticized by the Village, and loathed by decent people who know damn well that there's no honor in willfull ignorance and spiteful reactionary politics.
On our Bloggingheads discussion, Josh Treviño suggested that it would be impossible to separate attacks on Rick Perry, a Texan, from attacks on Texas and Texas culture. I strongly disagreed, and feel it's a simple as launching an attack on, say, John McCain without claiming that all Americans are grouchy, pandering assholes. Rick Perry may claim that he's the only kind of Texan that counts, but I humbly disagree.
With that in mind, I put together a far-from-complete list of famous Texans that are nothing like Rick Perry, and can be printed out and mailed to any media organization that suggests that Rick Perry=all Texans, or that Rick Perry is somehow an "authentic" Texan, like the rest of us don't count. To avoid confusing the issue, I left off most overtly commercial country-western musicians, unless they are quite obviously not like Rick Perry, and I left off all Republican political figures. I also left off anyone born in Texas but not raised there, because I wanted this to be a list of people we can be reasonably certain thought of themselves as Texans, especially while they were forming as human beings. The point is to illustrate that there's a lot of ways to be a for-real Texan that don't involve being a conservative yahoo. Feel free to add more in comments.
Janis Joplin, singer
Ornette Coleman, innovative jazz musician
Patrick Swayze, actor
Roky Erickson, musician and founder of the original psychedelic rock band, the 13th Floor Elevators
Beyonce Knowles, R&B singer, current unofficial queen of New York, and her sister Solange Knowles
Molly Ivins, political writer, humorist
Lee Trevino, golfer
Wes Anderson, director
Dewey Redman, jazz musician
Katherine Anne Porter, novelist
Ann Richards, former governor
Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood
Erykah Badu, R&B singer, disrober around JFK assassination site
Bill Hicks, comedian
Van Cliburn, classical pianist
Buddy Holly, lead of The Crickets
William Butler of The Arcade Fire
St. Vincent, indie rock musician
Annise Parker, mayor of Houston, first gay mayor of a major city
Bill Moyers, journalist
Shelley Duvall, actress
Mike Judge, director of "Office Space", creator of "Beavis and Butthead" and "King of the Hill"
Babe Didrickson, golfer and Olympian
Eva Longoria, actress
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, founders and members of The Mars Volta
The Dixie Chicks, of course
Selena, Tejano superstar murdered in her prime
Barbara Jordan, first Southern black woman elected to the House of Representatives
Renee Zellweger, actress
Steve Earle, musician
Lupe Ontiveros, actress
Richard Linklater, director of "Dazed and Confused", "Before Sunrise" and "School of Rock"
Melinda Gates, philanthropist
Gibby Haynes of The Butthole Surfers
Lance Armstrong, bicyclist
T-Bone Burnett, musician and producer
Lyle Lovett, musician
Phylicia Rashād, actress
Robert Rodriguez, director of "El Mariachi", "Spy Kids", and "Sin City"
Britt Daniel, lead singer of Spoon
Jamie Foxx, actor
The members of ZZ Top
Dennis and Randy Quaid, actors
Sarah Weddington, law professor and the lawyer who argued Roe v. Wade
F. Murray Abraham, actor
Isaiah Washington, actor
Alexis Biedel, actress
Vicki Carr, singer
Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys
Gloria Feldt, former head of Planned Parenthood (where would reproductive rights be without Texas women?)
American politics are dominated by culture war, and one of the most disturbing aspects of the culture war is the quest for authenticity---especially since what is considered most authentic is usually measured in the ugliest possible way. Take, for instance, Paul Waldman's examination of how Rick Perry plays the "authenticity" card. Perry's schtick is that he's more Texan-than-thou, and his Texanness is defined very specifically as a brand of hyper-masculinity: the bigger man/Texan is the meaner, stupider, more violent man/Texan. There's a lot of ironies inside this kind of authenticity-tripping, the biggest being that the measure of what is "authentic" are based in plain old myth-making. Waldman talks a bit about how the myth of the cowboy is beloved in the U.S. because it appeals to this sense of authenticity, but it is pure myth:
Violence and the culture of honor have always been key themes in cowboy mythology, which is less a construction of history than a production of the American entertainment industry. It was essentially invented by Buffalo Bill Cody, whose wild west show toured the country and the world beginning in 1882.
This is absolutely correct. Unlike 95% of Americans, I've actually known cowboys in my time, as in "men (and women) who work huge Western cattle ranches" kind of cowboys. The job always struck me as uniquely boring and people's attachment to it was baffling to me. You spend a lot of time.....watching cows. And if you've never watched a cow before, I can assure you, cows are not here to entertain us. Quite possibly the opposite. Cows, like Rick Perry, are boring and stupid. Perry is actually puffing certain aspects of his persona up in order to be considered more "authentic", a contradiction that should cause the concept of authenticity to fold up on itself and die, but unfortunately, in an America that cannot tell fantasy from reality, exaggerating your life in order to seem more authentic is surprisingly effective.
But outside and within the state of Texas, this idea that Texans are Real Men, and Real Men are stupid, violent assholes has this hold over people, and it pisses me the fuck off. It's bad for the country, bad for men and women, and bad for Texans as a whole, because it erases the truly vibrant culture of the state and replaces it with the image of a whooping redneck with shit for brains. Take, for instance, this bit of shameful business:
You may have heard the story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was convicted and executed for murdering his daughters by setting fire to their house, a crime of which he was almost certainly innocent. As Politico recently reported, when the campaign of Republican senator Kay Baily Hutchinson, who was challenging Perry in a 2010 gubernatorial primary, considered raising the issue, they tested it with focus groups. One voter memorably told them, “It takes balls to execute an innocent man.”
Actually, it does not. It's an act of cowardice, as proved by Hutchinson's eventual fear of bringing it up. That's always the contradiction at the heart of the manly man business---it's about acting all tough, but preening masculinity is fundamentally an act of cowardice. It's rooted in insecurity and fear of how others will see you. When you kill an innocent man because you're too afraid to let him go because you live in fear of people who've decided that masculinity is mutually exclusive from morality, you are a coward. A quivering-in-your-boots, pissing-on-your-jeans coward.
But hey, I'll give you this: you're still a Texan. For some reasons that are obvious and some that are not, I'm not fond of this Real Texan bullshit. Texas, like any place else, should be defined by the people who actually live there. Which isn't to say that the state doesn't have a distinct culture that can be identified, but that can also evolve, as cultures do. As I noted in the most recent Bloggingheads I was on, there's a lot of iconic Texas culture that isn't politically loaded with these sexist, racist, anti-intellectual, pro-violence cultural markers. Living in Austin, for instance, you would suffer occasionally from ignorant rednecks pulling the "Austin isn't real Texas" card, to which I'd say, "Yeah, Stevie Ray Vaugh, Willie Nelson, and some of the best barbeque in the country somehow means we're not real Texas". I'd go further much further even in rejecting the concept of "Real Texas". Texas is country-western, barbeque, and guns, but Texas is also the eccentric Houston hip-hop scene, the imaginative vegetarian cuisine of Austin, and people swimming in some of the coolest naturalspring pools in the country. Texas is Wille Nelson, but Texas is also Spoon. Rick Perry is a Texan, but so is George Bush, and, more importantly, so were Ann Richards and Molly Ivins and Barbara Jordan, and so is Jim Hightower.
I'd genuinely like to see this whole cult of authenticity fall away. The irony is that when it does is when we can finally take a look at ourselves and see ourselves for what we really are, and we're more complex and interesting than any myth-making about authenticity provides.
New Bloggingheads! This time it's me and Joshua Treviño, patriarchy-lover extraordinaire and former Bush speechwriter, discussing the Perry campaign's chances and the role Texas plays in national politics. You may be surprised to find that I'm largely unwilling to get into the weeds with him about the reality of the "Texas miracle". It's not that I'm unaware that the "Texas miracle" is a myth. I point out in the video that Texas's unemployment rate is still at a record high and is only one point below the national average, and here I'd like to add that Texas has higher unemployment than Massachusetts or New York. Plus, dwelling on unemployment numbers is a way to distract from the fact that decades of neglect and Republican rule have created a culture of poverty in Texas that is stunning to even see, which Treviño no doubt has, since he travels a lot. It's got the 6th highest poverty rate in the nation. And pretty much everything that's shielded Texas from plunging even further into the abyss has nothing to do with Rick Perry's leadership: as someone who lived there 32 years, I can state with assurance that the mass migration of people to Texas owes more to the weather than any other factor. Unlike someplace like New York that has hot summers and freezing winters, most of Texas doesn't have a winter to speak of, and a culture of air conditioning prevents the summers from being that bad. New York is actually harder to take than Austin in the summer because it's so humid and there's so little intense air conditioning---some days you're just going to be sticky no matter what you do. Not so in Austin. When people ask Marc and myself what we miss most about Texas, we tend to say "the weather". The Tex-Mex, our friends, the Alamo Drafthouse---all fine things, but 70 degree days in January is hard to beat. Central Texas is the new Southern California, a place where you go when you could go anywhere, because it's got nice weather, and unlike Southern California, it's still not as crowded, though that's changing.
Anyway, getting off-topic. Here's why I'm wary of arguing about the non-existent "Texas miracle": the old maxim that if you're explaining, you're losing. This is the same trap liberals always fall into. Conservatives trot out some quick, farcical, but evocative phrase like "Texas miracle", toss that out there, and enjoy watching liberals start arguing it, complete with heavy details and nuance that cause everyone who isn't already a detail-oriented liberal to tune out. They try to drag you down the rabbit hole, too---if you successfully argue something simple as a rebuttal, they have a bunch of other lies to throw out to get you back to the bad habit of 'splaining shit. Treviño tried to bait me repeatedly like this, trying to toss out half-truths and falsehoods in order to get me to argue them down. Anyone undecided watching this finds themselves emotionally attracted to the easy lies and not to the complex truths. As long as we're fighting on their turf, we're losing.
Treviño asked me a hard question about this, and I struggled with an answer. Clearly, the answer for an Obama win in 2012 is for them to start getting those jobs created and fast. Steve Benen was closing in on the answer with this piece where he told the administration to start approving Republican requests for projects in their districts that would create jobs. He's right that they need to get that approving pen out and start fast-tracking some jobs. But he's wrong that they should do it in places like Bachmann's district. There's no return on that investment for them. Even if Obama turns the economy around in some shitty little Whitopia Republican hellhole, they are still not going to vote for him. The hardcore Republican districts vote their religion and skin color, full stop. Giving them money in some political kabuki isn't what's going to get the job done.
No, the answer is to target spending in swing districts. Ohio, Florida, places like that? They're not going to be entranced by bullshit memes about the "Texas miracle" when they're experiencing an actual Ohio miracle or Florida miracle. Show them that Obama has the will to use his power to get them working again, and they'll respond positively. Most people trust Democrats more on these issues than Republicans, and only vote for Republicans out of a desperate sense that since the Democrat isn't working, then they'll take their chances with the new guy, even if they're less trusting of the new guy's message.
Of course, that's the sort of bold, ass-saving move we're not used to getting from Obama, so I'm not going to bet the house on that one. But I do think it's important to remember that if you're explaining, you're losing. If someone starts to go off on the "Texas miracle", I recommend joking it off instead of explaining it off---it is a miracle, because after all, Rick Perry had shit all to do with it, so you might as well thank your supernatural deity. All your efforts would be better spent focusing on what Obama has accomplished, and suggesting that a solid Democratic win in 2012 could help him accomplish more.
Republican congressional candidate Stephen Broden stunned his party Thursday, saying he would not rule out violent overthrow of the government if elections did not produce a change in leadership.
In a rambling exchange during a TV interview, Broden, a South Dallas pastor, said a violent uprising “is not the first option,” but it is “on the table.” That drew a quick denunciation from the head of the Dallas County GOP, who called the remarks “inappropriate.”
Broden, a first-time candidate, is challenging veteran incumbent Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in Dallas’ heavily Democratic 30th Congressional District. Johnson’s campaign declined to comment on Broden.
In the interview, Brad Watson, political reporter for WFAA-TV (Channel 8), asked Broden about a tea party event last year in Fort Worth in which he described the nation’s government as tyrannical.
“We have a constitutional remedy,” Broden said then. “And the Framers say if that don’t work, revolution.”
I love the soft sell response by the county chair—“inappropriate” LOLOLOL. WTF!? Bring on the crazeee…
Also in June 2009, Broden compared those governing the United States to Nazi Germany.
“Let me tell you that is something that happened in Germany when the Jews were walking into the furnaces and they didn’t even try to stop or fight their way. They walked in because they did not believe that this was happening. They didn’t believe that humanity could be so evil. I am submitting to you tonight that is where America is right now. They are our enemies and we must resist them.”
News 8 wanted to know if Broden was trying to say that Barack Obama is like Adolph Hitler. “No I am not,” he said Thursday.
The super hard core right wing takeover of the Texas State School Board has been completed. Under the guise of eradicating liberal bias, the school board created a set of standards that require schools to teach factually incorrect right wing propaganda in lieu of history. And it’s bad:
Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the “significant contributions” of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war.
The new curriculum asserts that “the right to keep and bear arms” is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
There is also a suggestion that the anti-communist witch-hunt by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s may have been justified.
Some of that is to be expected—-their anti-modernist, pro-paranoid worldview isn’t a surprise anymore. But even I was surprised to see that someone appears to have a vendetta against the theory of gravity, and that the school board has decided to indulge it. Pro-science liberals are often joking that the attacks on the theory of evolution are the equivalent of attacking the theory of gravity, but that’s because we foolishly thought they’d never go that far. But I guess we’re wrong—-if it’s going to piss a liberal off, I suppose at least some wingnuts are going to deny the theory of gravity. Perhaps believing in gravity is the top of a slippery slope towards believing in evolution? Or maybe they just want to discourage kids from believing that science itself exists outside of the realm of weapons development? Who fucking knows?
But it gets worse! They’ve set new records in denialism of American slavery.
The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous “Atlantic triangular trade”, and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism.
I will say that this gets to the heart of the mode of thought that’s best described as “slavery denialism”—-anything from denying that the Civil War was fought because of slavery to minimizing the horror of slavery. I think the initial assumption about slavery denialists is that they’re in denial because they don’t want to admit that America has such an ugly history, and so they minimize it. But what I’ve learned about denialists is that it’s usually something a bit different—-they want to sow confusion about an issue mostly because they either aren’t down on horrible thing X or they actually kind of dig the idea of of horrible thing X or they share attitudes with the perpetrators of horrible thing X. Minimizing is part of this, because it’s about implying that people with attitudes like theirs aren’t so bad, but part of it is always perpetrating the attitudes that caused horrible thing X.
You definitely see that going on with this euphemism for the slave trade. “Atlantic triangular trade” reduces the human beings that were forced into slavery to commodities like tobacco or sugar. To use this euphemism is to implicitly agree with slave owners that enslaved people don’t count as human beings. What seems on the surface to be minimizing is, if you look a little deeper, actually agreeing with the ideology underpinning slavery and making excuses for it.
Even nutbag Glenn Beck was having difficulty getting a sane answer out of Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, whose candidacy is catching on with the know-nothing on the far-right. The blowhard radio host received a lot of emails asking for Medina to be a guest, and so on she came, ready to take on the big issues of the day.
Let’s just say if she’s an example of where the GOP is heading, we need a new definition of the word “mainstream.” Beck asked her if she believes in one of the conspiracy theories about 9/11—that the U.S. government was involved on the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. And she said:
“I don’t have all of the evidence there Glenn so I’m not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that,” Medina said. “I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard, there are some very good arguments and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that.”
When Beck asked whether any of her advisers believed the government was involved, Medina said none of them did to her knowledge. He then asked whether she would disavow any advisers who did.
“That’s a federal issue,” Medina said. [
WTF?
] “We’re very focused on issues in Texas on Texas state government. I’m certainly not into mind control or thought-policing people. We’ve got a very diverse team in this state and it’s because Texans are standing shoulder to shoulder to support and defend the Constitution. I frankly don’t have time to go through and do psychological testing on people and know every thought or detail that they have. I don’t see us having a team of radical individuals if you will.”
After the interview, Beck, who holds sway with many Republican primary voters, said, “I think I can write her off the list.”
Annise Parker won the Houston mayoral run-off yesterday, which means that Houston is now the biggest city in U.S. history to have an openly gay mayor. This will almost certainly cause a lot of people to say, “Holy fuck no way, is this the same Texas that we hear so much about, the Bible-thumping, gun-shooting hellhole?” And the answer is yes, that’s the very same Texas.
Here’s the dirty little secret about Texas: It’s more liberal than you think. Or, to put it another way, Texas (like most of the country) is divided in the same way that the nation is, down population density lines more than by “red” versus “blue” states. It’s not just Austin that trends blue. All the major cities went for Obama in the last election, at least within the city (suburban counties trended red). I got this map off the NY Times election coverage.
This should be a reminder of the limits of the “red state/blue state” narrative. Not that this is a novel observation or anything, but it’s more a matter of urban vs. not-urban. I’m not going to call the suburbs “rural”, because they are anything but, since many American suburbs have many of the urban amenities that the white flighters can’t live without, plus more parking. Texas is often treated like the shining example of all that’s wrong in the U.S., but really, its politics tailor to the national trend very closely, which is that it has a liberal population that is outvoted by its rural areas, but that this may not be true forever. What’s interesting to me is that the AP article I linked goes out of its way to downplay the significance of this election, pointing out that there was low voter turnout (shocking in a run-off election in December! shocking like the fact that it gets cold in the winter!), as if higher turnout would have certainly changed things. I’m not so sure. But it does go to show how dearly the mainstream media clings to stereotypes about Texas, and how they will fight tooth and nail to shove obvious evidence against their prejudices into the box. But they can’t conceal that both candidates are Democrats.
Of course, Parker won only after an election that got really ugly, as you can imagine. Even though her opponent Gene Locke officially distanced himself from attacks on Parker’s sexuality, it was apparently a big issue. And that means that you get comical shit like this quote:
Several voters expressed anxiety with Parker’s sexuality and said they were swayed by mail pieces or e-mails they received raising the issue.
“I don’t believe in homosexuality,” said Lavern Tisby, a Third Ward resident. “I think that’s a sin.”
Well, I don’t believe in your toenails, and yet you still have to clip them. Seriously, what’s it going to take to get people to stop misusing the word “believe”? If you think homosexuality is a sin, then you think that it exists, and therefore your absolutely believe in it. I’m usually sanguine on the way that words shift meanings, but in this case, I have to protest. People are using the word “believe” instead of the more accurate words “approve” or even “accept”, because they want cover for their bigotry. They hope the word “believe” puts their bigotry into the Religion Zone, therefore above criticism. Well, I say fuck that. If you’re going to be a bigot, fucking own it.
Anyway, congrats to Annise Parker and congrats to Houston for making people’s heads spin.
When people stoop to low-blow ignorant propaganda tactics like this, it means their candidate of choice has nothing better to offer. Houston Comptroller Annise Parker did well on election night in the mayors race, earning her a seat in a run off against Gene Locke (polls now have her leading 47-34).
So with a lead like that, the gloves come off, and boy did they. Local wingnut Dave Wilson sent out a postcard to 35,000 people featuring a photo of Parker and her partner, declaring, “Is this the image Houston wants to portray?” and takes the “oh, so sorry you are a homosexual and need to be free from it” tack:
“I have nothing but compassion, respect and sensitivity towards those trapped in homosexual behavior. I have family members and friends who have been ensnared in this behavior, and I know something of the incredible pain and sorrow it has brought to them and their families. With God’s grace, I carefully balance this love and respect for these individuals with warnings about the promotion and demand for legal and political approval for homosexual behavior that will stifle religious freedom and trap millions of more people in its deadly grip. Therefore, I would ask you to vote against Annise Parker for Mayor.”
But the lunacy doesn’t stop there. The other reason that Dave Wilson needed to send a reminder about Parker’s lesbianism is that, apparently, if you’re gay and elected to office, you will help in the extinction of the human race., ah, that old saw again.
Dave Wilson, an electrician who has spent years pestering incumbent politicians of both parties, has turned his sights on Houston Controller Annise Parker. He says that Parker should not be mayor because ‘homosexual behavior leads to extinction.’ Wilson says he is mailing the fliers to 35,000 Houston voters who cast ballots both in the November mayoral election and in the 2008 Republican presidential primary. ‘I’d like to energize the conservative Christian base in Houston, and get them to vote,’ he said…‘I don’t see a good family, a Christian family, one man, one woman,’ Wilson said. ‘It’s a picture of her and her mate being sworn in in public and that’s the image I have a problem with.’ 11 News asked Wilson what he believes is wrong with the city having an openly gay mayor. ‘The openly gay lifestyle leads to extinction,’ he said. ‘You can’t reproduce.’”
I’m sorry, but is Wilson saying that hopefully-soon-to-be-mayor Annise Parker is going to outlaw sexual intercourse and artificial insemination? How exactly is her election going to stop reproduction?
I’m so tired f reality-challenged excuses “gays-cause the-end-of-the-world” horsesh*t like this. What’s sad is the number of sheeple who believe people like Wilson. The critical thinking skills of too many American voters are nonexistent, and even worse, celebrated by the religious extremists, teabaggers, who court the know-nothing vote. It’s sad.
Houston, show us that you’re a reality-based city in the Lone Star State looking toward the future and selecting your mayor on their qualifications to do the job. Toss that postcard into the recycling bin.
Thanks to reader abo gato for alerting me to this Express-News story that forced me to hurt myself rolling my eyes. It’s a story about how Rick Perry is considering appointing a fundamentalist wingnut to head the State School Board, so soon after the forces of good ousted State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy because he disagreed with the existence of evolutionary biology, though I’m not sure if he was pro- or anti-the theory of gravity or the round earth theory. McLeroy and now the new candidate Cynthia Dunbar are objectionable because they reject the idea of basic education, not that you’d know that from the first third of the article.
Critics who engineered the recent ouster of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, in part because of his strong religious beliefs, could end up with someone even more outspoken in her faith.
Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richardson, who advocated more Christianity in the public square last year with the publication of her book, “One Nation Under God,” is among those that Gov. Rick Perry is considering to lead the State Board of Education, some of her colleagues say.
Speculation that Dunbar, a lawyer, could win a promotion to the leadership spot has triggered gasps from her critics but support from allies.
“It would certainly cause angst among the same members of the pagan left that rejected Don McLeroy because he was a man of faith,” said David Bradley, R-Beaumont, one of the seven socially conservative members on the 15-person board.
Yes, we have someone being quoted uncritically as saying that McLeroy was ousted by a bunch of pagans who saw him as religious competition, not that their “pagan” religion means that they’re “people of faith”, which is obviously a euphemism for “Christian”, and “Christian” in this context means specifically someone who believes that Abraham rode a dinosaur on his way to sacrifice Isaac. I swear to god, to read some of these articles, you need translation software. McLeroy was objectionable because he wanted to put a very specific religious dogma into the science classroom. His personal faith was irrelevant to the debate. He could worship a box of Kellogs for all that most critics could care, but if he wanted to use the science classroom to prove that life emerged when god poured milk into corn flakes, we’d have a problem. The author of this kind of glances against the reality of the situation towards the end of the article, but it’s mostly conveyed through self-serving fundie euphemisms.
At least the objections to Cynthia Dunbar are clearly stated in the 9th paragraph of this article—-it’s not that she’s a “person of faith”, it’s that she’s a super wingnut who objects to the very existence of the institution that Perry wants her to head up.
People in the Lone Star State are tired of the bible beating flat-earth set trying to slip “intelligent design” into the public schools. One big proponent of this kind of misinformation, Republican Don McLeroy, saw his nomination by Rick Perry to head up the Texas State Board of Ed drop-kicked by the state Senate. (Dallas Morning News):
The Senate rejected Republican Don McLeroy’s nomination as chairman of the State Board of Education on Thursday after Democrats decried his lack of leadership and “endless culture wars” over evolution and other volatile topics.
...Several Democrats cited the recurring divisiveness on the board with McLeroy at the helm, along with his resistance to the views of educators and education experts on curriculum and other matters.
Gov. Rick Perry, who nominated McLeroy, will now have to select another member of the board to serve as chairman.
...In an hourlong debate on the nomination, Senate Democratic leader Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio said that under McLeroy’s leadership, the State Board of Education has become a “laughingstock of the nation” with its battles over evolution, sex education and other issues.
“His actions and leadership have caused the board to be extremely dysfunctional, and that has harmed the 4.7 million schoolchildren of Texas,” she said. Van de Putte added that McLeroy has “recklessly disregarded the advice” of education experts.
The Republicans countered with reasoning that only affirms why someone like McLeroy has no business in the field of public education. One defender, Sen. Steve Ogden said this:
“If we vote against Dr. McLeroy, the perception among many Texans will be that if you are a conservative and believe in the infallibility and literacy of the Bible, there is no need to apply to be on the State Board of Education.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. Is this a serious statement? No one cares what McLeroy’s personal beliefs are; he just cannot impose his religious view of the world upon the young people going through the Texas school system. One can only conclude that Sen. Ogden believes he also was elected to vote based his the infallibility of the Bible. The Texas GOP is obviously infested with a severe case of wingnuttery that needs to be healed.
Okay, so 18% of our citizens are stupid enough to want to secede from the rest of the U.S. This isn’t necessarily surprising—-we’ve often joked at this blog about the “25%-ers”, the steady quarter of the population of Americans that would love it if we moved to a fascist government. The Birchers. The black helicopter crowd. That it’s under 25% in Texas is a pretty good sign that perhaps the country on the whole is moving in the right direction.
It didn’t bother me so much when a bunch of commenters here were like, “Texas can fuck off and die.” I figured people were just expressing some deserved frustration with our state, which is sadly controlled by wingnuts, though if everyone here had full suffrage and used it, I doubt that would happen. But then I saw bloggers who presumably put some thought into this sign on, and my heart sank. Matt’s post struck me in particular.
I’ve got more thoughts on this, but this part bothered me especially:
Obviously, one advantage of large-scale secession of the most conservative states is that it would be a lot easier to pass progressive legislation. An aspect of Civil War history that people don’t tend to appreciate is that the temporary departure of the Dixie bloc of Senators allowed a huge flowering of legislative activity that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible. In addition to prosecuting the war, the Lincoln-era GOP took sweeping action on industrial policy, infrastructure, land reform, etc. much of which would have been extraordinarily difficult to accomplish had the southerners just stayed in their seats and used the considerable levers of obstruction that are available to legislative minorities.
It’s frustrating when you get the sense that outsiders think Texans have nothing of value to contribute, as Texans, to the liberal cause. People condescendingly note that we had Molly Ivins and Ann Richards, but what they don’t seem to quite get is that these folks come from a very specific Texas background, and they play the game as Texans, and if they didn’t have that cultural background, they wouldn’t be who they were. And it isn’t just Ann Richards or Molly Ivins—-it’s Cecile Richards (Ann’s daughter), voice of the progressive populist movement Jim Hightower, Barbara Jordan, Sam Rayburn, and LBJ. Hell, it’s blogosphere heroes the Dixie Chicks, who were being a lot more Texas that the Shrub will ever be when they denounced him. These people aren’t just famous liberals with a lot of moxie that happen to be from Texas—-they have a lot of moxie in no small part because they come from Texas. Ballsy is considered part of our state character, and people pride themselves on it.* Of course, this doesn’t mean that non-Texans aren’t capable of being ballsy. But for Texans, especially liberal Texans, there’s a lot of pride in pointing to our progressive history and the ass-kicking philosophy of politics that goes with it.
The case of LBJ is instructive. His hang-ups and stubbornness failed this country pretty spectacularly when it came to the Vietnam War, of course. But it’s not out of line to point out that his impolite, Texas-bred, ass-kicking approach to politics also got the Civil Rights Act passed. Johnson chauvinists from Texas firmly believe that Kennedy had more of an appeasement strategy when it came to passing legislation to support the civil rights movement, which I suppose is debatable. What isn’t debatable is that Johnson knew what passing the Civil Rights Act would mean for the Democratic Party going forward—-that they’d lose the South—-and he did it anyway. Johnson didn’t just happen to be from Texas, and neither are the rest of us who are being treated as if our political leanings mean we don’t quite belong and would jump at the opportunity to move to another state. It may not seem like it when Rick Perry is spouting his mouth off, but we liberals contribute to the good of the country as Texans, and it would be nice if people remembered that.
And I shouldn’t have to say this, but the “they could just leave” approach doesn’t do very much for the substantial number of non-wingnut Texans that live in poverty or may have immigrated here illegally that can’t just up and move. Leaving them to the whims of a government that isn’t constrained by Texas Democrats or the federal government from acting on its most reactionary and racist impulses is immoral. So, yes, this is actually a lot like the Civil War, where there is a moral anti-racist component to the equation.
*Strangely, this doesn’t come into conflict with the laid-backness we also consider part of our state character. Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em. A proper Texan says something ballsy to you while kicking back and speaking at a non-hurried pace.
Thanks to reader Mark for sending me this picture from the Houston Chronicle detailing one of the many pro-secessionists who’ve sprung up in Texas (well, become more outspoken) in the months since the election. The woman’s sign is a threat, a reference to Thomas Jefferson’s quote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.” Manure is about right when it comes to the people who are not-subtly using this occasion—-which is pretty much a reunion opportunity for the morons that started to make McCain campaign rallies so scary—-as a way to question the legitimacy of Obama, with the hopes that someone else will kickstart this revolution. Timothy McVeigh, who also looked up to John Wilkes Booth, wore a T-shirt with this slogan.
“There’s a lot of different scenarios,” Perry said. “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”
He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out. However, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.
My fellow Texans with less than ideal understanding of law and history, I’ve created a primer for you on the subject of Texas secession.
I’m loving this batsh*t insanity way too much. So Governor Goodhair and Chuck Norris are ready to take their balls home to make a go of it as the great nation of Texas. Rick Perry joined the club as he spoke to reporters after the local teabagging affair in Austin. (Houston Chronicle):
“Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” Perry said. “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”
Good god, this is embarrassing. Did you know that Perry used to be a Democrat who supported Al Gore’s presidential bid in 1988? That’s the sort of interesting factoid that tells you so much about him.
It’s true that wingnuttery still dominates Texas. But there are signs of hope that the governor is steadfastly ignoring. My hometown is in a desolate county called Brewster that has the population density of the worst parts of Alaska, but despite this had more churches than we could count growing up. They voted for Obama in 2008. Kerry only got 45% of their vote in 2004. Just as an example of what direction the wind is blowing. The state is becoming less white, more urban, and I suppose more polarized. I wouldn’t bet as much as Perry would that Texas is and always will be a safe haven for hate-filled wingnuttery.
“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese - I understand it’s a rather difficult language - do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.
Brown later told [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey] Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”
Wow. And then Brown became indignant when asked to apologized saying that people are just trying to make this all about race. No, just plain garden-variety stupidity—has Chuck Norris set his secession plans into motion yet?
Since Rick Perry seems determined to play the "I'm a Real Texan" card---and a whole lot of the mainstream media is willing to play along---I expect that I'll be spending the next few months, and god forbid year, hopping mad. Not because I think Perry's an "inauthentic" Texan, but because I dislike the concept of "authentic", which, as I note below, is ironically based more in myth-making than in our complex realities. I mean, Perry is playing the not-a-Real-Texan card against George Bush, who I recall I had to defend a few times (much to my dismay) from liberals in the past who wanted to take away your Texan card because you were born somewhere else, even if you were raised Texan, identified as a Texan, ran the state, and retired there. I felt if Bush doesn't get to be a Texan, anyone's card can be yanked on the basis of some arbitrary bullshit. I take this stuff personally, because I've often felt the not-a-Real-Texan play being used against me, because I don't fit the narrow mold of "ignorant, mean-spirited yahoo" that is heralded by wingnuts, exoticized by the Village, and loathed by decent people who know damn well that there's no honor in willfull ignorance and spiteful reactionary politics. 
American politics are dominated by culture war, and one of the most disturbing aspects of the culture war is the quest for authenticity---especially since what is considered most authentic is usually measured in the ugliest possible way. Take, for instance, 
The super hard core right wing takeover of the Texas State School Board has been completed. Under the guise of eradicating liberal bias, 
“I don’t have all of the evidence there Glenn so I’m not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that,” Medina said. “I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard, there are some very good arguments and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that.”
When people stoop to low-blow ignorant propaganda tactics like this, it means their candidate of choice has nothing better to offer. Houston Comptroller 
Thanks to reader abo gato for alerting me to 
My Texan friends…can you all