Let me offer you a warning. The way things are going right about now, Texas could be the future of America.
There are a series of unfortunate events that could actually solidify the Texas model and they are:
- Greg Abbott and the rest of the terrible trilogy, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton each win reelection
- The democrats lose the house, the senate or both in Washington DC
- Gavin Newsome loses in the California recall election
If all three happen then Texas will become the future of America! State after state will attempt to copy two of the most draconian laws ever enacted, the Texas voter suppression law and the abortion ban. The other day Alyssa Milano, who is not just an actress but a political voice in her own right, called the Texas republican leadership the “Texas Taliban,” after conservatives passed a bill criminalizing women for exercising their rights, and deputizing anyone to not just punish them, but even anyone who “intends to aid and abet” them.
Before anyone gets upset with my observation let’s examine the similarities. Conservatives in Texas put in place a bill which is now infamous all over the world making it legal for anyone to attack and intimidate and harass anyone who “intends to aid and abet” …women. “Bounty hunters” meaning neckbeards who hate women are already organizing, harassing, and threatening women. Before, they had no power. Now, they have a massive, massive amount of power, and they’re already beginning to use it. If that doesn’t sound reminiscent of the Taliban to you, then you’re not paying attention. One entire point of the Taliban is to create a hyper-patriarchal society. A society where any man has power over every woman. No, women can’t be stoned in Texas for adultery, sure, they can still play sports for now, but the principle has been established. It is now written into law. Any man in Texas has power over every woman. This is an absolutely real fascist-theocratic institution being born in Texas — the institution of a Morality Police, being quite literally instituted before your eyes. When institutions like this are born, societies are going down the dark road of theocracy and fascism, because such institutions are what make a society fascist and theocratic.
Texas didn’t pass this bill for the sake of, say, reason, science, human rights, or logic. The very people who ardently back this bill do not actually care about human life — they’re the ones opposed to getting vaccines, could care less about our crumbling power infrastructure or the number of COVID cases. If they really cared about human life every Texan would have health insurance.
Then there is the right to free and fair elections. The Taliban took over as soon as the United States ended its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan. They have installed an all-Taliban government, many of whom are on our terrorist list. There are no women. Texas has been Republican run ever since George Bush beat Ann Richards who was trying for her second term in 1995. Since then, Texas Republicans have worked hard to shrink the voting electorate. When the latest round of voter suppression laws was signed into law, there were only white people surrounding Governor Abbott.
The bill reinstates voting requirements relaxed throughout the coronavirus pandemic, while tacking on additional hurdles for voting, such as prohibiting election officials from sending voters unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots, while giving poll watchers greater access to the voting process. Opponents have said the legislation will make it harder for young people, people of color and people with disabilities to vote, while advocates characterize the measure as an “election integrity” bill that will ensure fairness in the voting process.
“The Texas law, it does make it easier than ever before for anybody to go cast a ballot,” Abbott said during a bill signing event on Tuesday in Tyler, Texas. “It does also, however, make sure that it is harder for people to cheat at the ballot box in Texas.” Texas Democrats took their opposition to new levels this summer, fleeing the statehouse in route to Washington in July to deny the Texas legislature a quorum needed to vote on the bill, while also demanding action from President Joe Biden.
Biden warned of an “assault on free and fair elections” during an impassioned speech on voting rights in July, facing pressure from Texas Democrats and voting rights advocates to address the issue at the national level. The president slammed proponents of the various restrictive voting laws enacted throughout the country, calling the fight against recent restrictive voting laws the “most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.” There is an unfolding assault taking place in America today – an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections, an assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, an assault on who we are – who we are as Americans,” Biden said. “For, make no mistake, bullies and merchants of fear and peddlers of lies are threatening the very foundation of our country.” Referring to Texas’ Republican-led state legislature in particular, Biden stressed that “they want to make it so hard and inconvenient that they hope people don’t vote at all. That’s what this is about.” Sound like the Taliban? If Abbott has his way, poll watchers will be armed with sticks…. beating away people as they attempt to enter the polling locations.
Like the Taliban whose beliefs are based on their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, which has resulted in the brutal treatment of many Afghans, Texas republican beliefs are based on their interpretation of Jim Crowism. History tells us that Slaves were not freed in Texas until l865 nearly two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. George W. Bush, Rick Perry and Greg Abbott have done everything in their collective power to maintain an underclass in Texas. No vaccines, no masks but women have been given a no abortion mandate.
A recent poll revealed that 65% of Texans think the state is going in the wrong direction. The ongoing issue, however, is whether Texans will be presented with a viable contender to unseat Abbott next year? Abbott’s third special legislative session will begin on September 20 and tackle redistricting, restrictions on transgender student athletes, and the Covid-19 pandemic. In sum, he’s likely to continue to cheat for Republicans while punishing trans kids and making it easier for Texans to die in a plague.
Yet no one will commit to running against a tyrant willing to gamble with people’s lives for a presidential bid. For much of my life, I’ve heard people talk about the apathy in Texas and across the South. But look at what people are being offered: nothing.
How does Abbott not already have a challenger?
Sounds like the Taliban to me!
