Okay, so here’s the deal.  At every swearing-in ceremony for new citizens, the League of Women Voters – a long standing non partisan group of do-gooders across the country volunteer their time to register voters and educate people on the voting process.  Voting is the first right of citizenship.

I am blessed to have a good friend who volunteers with The League.  For 20 years, they register voters all across the greater Houston area.  They go to high schools, civic events, and just about any place they are needed.

Once a month, they report to the swearing-in location at 5:00 am to set up for a ceremony that does not start until 9:00.  Usually about 2,000 people are sworn in.  They register 88 to 90% of attendees.

They make the wheels of democracy work.

Until now.

Not only have they being kept from registering voters, they are even banned from attending.

Judge Doofus says he didn’t know this 20 year old tradition was a 20 year old tradition. However, he says he was only appointed in 2019 so how can we expect him to know everything?  Seriously, Judge Goofy?

We know exactly what he was doing.  He was saying that people who play by the rules, study hard, pass all necessary exams and paperwork, and harbor a deep dream of living in a democracy don’t need to carry that to extremes, like you know, voting.

The League has reacted graciously and say they are disappointed but they know they are guests at these events and will accept that.  But deep inside in a tiny whisper they are saying, “What the hell, you ungracious jerk. You had to go out of your way to do this.”

Best I know, we have not deserted you.

I think maybe everybody is kinda stunned over the Red Wave that turned out being Little Princess Barbie pink.  It was kinda like when you wash your Klan robe with you MAGA hat.

Texas: We are the most backwards state in the country.

Florida: Hold my possum jerky and watch this…

And after getting beat so badly that alligators wouldn’t even eat him, Trump announced that he’s running for president of the Semi-United States of America. He challenged democracy and turned up face down.

I have been distracted by the Republicans in my county who howled that the county stayed as blue as we flipped it four years ago, plus we added two new Democratic wins – one county commissioner (we now control commissioners court 4 to 1), and one new state representative.  Republicans were convinced that we cheated at the ballot box of damn course.

They showed up loudly! and in force on the day the vote was canvassed, provisional ballots were rejected or certified, and several races were recounted. They came with lawyers, bean counters, loudmouths, people who were just mad and didn’t exactly know why, and a couple of guys who were born before chocolate chip cookies were invented.  We countered with sending one lawyer – never send two lawyers because they’ll spend all day arguing with each other -, three retired grade school teachers, and some righteous precinct chairs who had read the Texas Election Code.  They were headed by a tiny gray headed African American woman who was one of the first people to integrate the University of Texas and then worked her way to be an executive with AT&T. God made her short so she could chew butt and then spit it out over a bonfire she had simultaneously started by stomping her foot to keep the devil from coming up and making a ruckus.

Twelve hours later, Democrats emerged with the vote total rising in every single damn race.  We didn’t just beat them, Honey. We beat them good.

They went home with their tail between their legs.

It was so much fun.

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In England there are signs everywhere to “mind the gap.” If we translate that into English we would discover they are talking about the gap between the platform and the train. Since public transportation really isn’t a thing here in Texas, we can certainly borrow that term and apply it to our politics.

We see two gaps that threaten long-term stability in our country. The first gap is the gap between how many people consider themselves to be moderate, liberal, progressive, or leftist and how many of those politicians actually end up representing us in Congress. Yet, the percentage of total voters registering as Democrats is growing. So, there is a gap between the number of representatives that are Democrats and the number that should be Democrats.

That’s a problem that’s not easily fixed. As we have seen in Texas, the GOP has a stranglehold on the state. Very few particularly like any of the Republicans that occupy state offices and yet they continue to vote for them. This has been a two decade tradition. They have rigged the game to make it easier for them to win. It will take a doubling of efforts to get that turned around and we see the same thing nationwide.

The second gap is one Democrats can address and address immediately. This is the gap between what gets done in Washington, Austin, and any other government center and what people actually think on the issues. Take any issue and you can see clear fault lines of where the public actually is on the issue. You could talk abortion, gun control, health care, public safety, education, or any other issue.

What Americans think on these issues is pretty clear. Overwhelming majorities agree on numerous planks on all of those issues. Yet, we are told America is a center-right country with center-right values. The problem is that this statement has no basis in fact when you actually look at public opinion polling on each of those issues individually. The GOP is on the wrong side of each issue and it isn’t even particularly close.

Democrats collectively make the mistake of getting off message. Either they overshoot these widespread popular opinions by suggesting things beyond what the general public want or they bungle up the messaging with slogans that don’t reflect the will of the people. These things are simple. Let’s keep them simple.

For instance, Americans want background checks on gun sales, don’t want guns in the hands of dangerous criminals, and generally don’t want automatic weapons in anyone’s hands. These are easy things to keep hitting over and over again. Yet, Beto O’Rourke introduced the idea of gun confiscation. That pushed the envelope too far and made him seem extreme. So, stick to background checks, keeping guns away from criminals, and an assault weapons ban. That’s easy messaging that will resonate with the majority.

It’s about simple messaging. When people understand what you are for and they are for the same things they vote for you. When they think you are an extremist or if they don’t understand what you are for they don’t vote for you. It’s really as simple as that. You find out what they like and then keep repeating that you are for that and the other side is against that. You keep repeating that until they understand. You keep repeating it. That is how you close the gap.

As we wail and moan over election results in the Lower 48, I want to direct your attention to Alaska’s single congressional race.

Mary Peltola, the at-large congressman from Alaska has been re-elected to a full 2-year term despite the fact that her two Republican opponents together got more votes than her mere (+ or -) 47% of the popular vote.

I think this is a possible glimpse at our future. Let me explain.

Alaska has adopted a ranked-choice primary system that makes California’s “jungle primary” look like a stroll through the zoo.

In Alaska, candidates are ranked as to preference, and receive votes not only by a earning a voter’s first choice, but also by their 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th choices.

They say that this is experimental, and is a way to negate a tendency toward extremes in typical primary voter choices. The narrative goes that typical primary voters are from the extremes of each party, so successful candidates tend to be from the extremes of the Left and Right. Moderates are often trapped behind the door among the also-rans.

It is this system that gave Alaskans the choice between two Republicans and one Democrat, splitting the Republican vote between TFG-endorsed Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, a candidate whose family legacies include a former congressman, a state Senator and a US Senator.

In short, Alaskans were offered a choice between a Democrat, A MAGA Republican and an establishment Republican.

In the other 49 states, only one of the Republicans on a primary ballot go on to compete in the General.

If it is true that America has evolved from a two-party state to a three-party one, Alaska has given us a view of a possible future where elections show the true cross-section of American politics through “Plurality Rule”.

Either that (and remember, this is Half Empty writing here), or the ranked-choice system will be rapidly dismantled by a still-shocked Alaskan electorate by a 50.9% majority vote.

Last night in Texas was disappointing, but not surprising.  All statewide races were lost by Dems.  100%.  And the spreads were predictable, all double digit losses but for the race for Ag Commissioner.  Susan Hays lost to the worst Ag Commissioner in Texas history by a mere 7 points.

Who to blame?  Leaving out for now the radical gerrymandering in state and US districts, the statewide blame for this kind of loss lay with the Texas Democratic Party and the candidates it produced, period.  Sure, Republican voter suppression, intimidation, and misinformation shaved 2 or 3 points from turnout, but it didn’t shave over 10.  The TDP did in 2022 what the TDP always does, just expected a different result.  In the governor’s race, the polls here were pretty clear and surprisingly close to actual results.  Real Clear Politics averaged Abbott + 10.4, and he won by 11.  A lot of the blame, too, needs to be laid at Beto’s feet.  He had a promising future when he came within 2 points of Cruz for Senate in 2018, but starting to believe his own bullshit, throwing it all away with his disastrous run for president in 2020.  That was stupid.

The lessons here are clear and need to be learned.  First, the TDP needs a serious housecleaning and fumigation.  Old assumptions need to be thrown out the window, especially the longstanding myth that Texas is getting more blue just because demographics are changing.  GOP messaging and ideology plays well with some groups like the Latino community, especially since the Dems have taken them, and African Americans, for granted for decades.  The party always plays to these demographic groups in voting years and then underserves them until the next election.  That’s got to stop.

I know this is hard to hear, but the GOP in Texas has outplayed, outworked, and out strategized Dems for years, and the asymmetric performance at the polls is the result.  Starting in the 1960s, Repubs went after school boards, precincts, city councils, and county offices.  Over this time they’ve built a huge base with a bench a mile deep.  The Dems have done the opposite; the Dems are every person for themselves until election season, and then try to build a strategy around a standard bearer who elbows their way in, be that for president or governor. (See Barack Obama, 2004 to 2008.)  They then vehemently resist change, leaving petrified party leadership in place for decades, stiff arming all new comers and those with opposing opinions.  Doing this discourages younger leaders because there’s no opportunity for leadership roles and stultifies policy.  What you get then are losers like Beto and Mike Collier.  In Beto’s case, you can’t build a statewide strategy on a standard bearer who acts like a teenager and says stupid shit in public.  Lastly, and this is not just a Texas problem, is that the Democratic party needs to stop counting noses.  I’ve been to meetings where the majority of the time is spent doing math to make sure every possible demographic is in the room before the meeting can start.  I’m not saying the party needs to be less inclusive; I’m saying the time for inclusivity is at the beginning, not at the end. There needs to be an obsessive focus on inclusion of demographic groups at the micro local level, not only at state conventions and statewide campaigns.  Being inclusive at the start would negate the necessity of nose counting at the end.

The textbook example of party failure in 2022 is not Beto, it’s Rochelle Garza.  Dems overwhelmingly chose Garza and rejected a very experienced and well known attorney, Joe Jaworski.  Let’s be frank – Ken Paxton is a deeply flawed, dishonest, embarrassing, and weak AG.  He was ripe to be picked off.  The Dems snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by overwhelmingly nominating a less experienced, less well known candidate who didn’t have a prayer of beating Paxton; her nomination was a vote for diversity, not for a win.  Another example was Lupe Valdez in 2018.  Dems overwhelmingly chose her as the standard bearer over Andrew White, son of former governor Mark White.  Valdez ran a terrible campaign, had low name recognition, and then lost to Abbott by over 13 points.

Before you say it, I am actually all about diversity and inclusion.  But diversity and inclusion doesn’t get you a goddam thing unless you WIN.  Not winning has a lot worse negative consequences than winning every time.  The TDP (and all Dems) can actually do more than one thing at a time.  They need to be strategic, not just inclusive, because what the Dems are doing, and have been doing for decades, is a loser.  I know this opinion, just like the one I hold about Hillary, will piss a lot of you off, and I accept that.  But until the Texas Democratic Party and Dems in general start operating strategically they’ll keep doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result.  And we all know what that’s called.  Until they start working strategically, there will be no joy in Mudville.

Oh, and Beto?  I love ‘ya, bro, but please go back to El Paso. Run for mayor or even the House again. Do some maturing.  You’ll have another chance at some point, but you need some years of growing up.