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There’s an idea floating around that I want to share with you.  It may not be an electric light idea, but it’s an idea.  This idea might help the Texas Democratic Party get some folks to the polls and charged up.

Now, this is long and only mildly interesting to Texas Democrats.  But, if you folks from foreign states have anything to add to help us, jump right in.

In the last election, Texas Democrats did badly.  Even for a party that holds no statewide offices, we embarrassed ourselves.   We would not have done worse if our candidates had been caught red handed tweeting pictures of Debbie Riddle’s private parts.

The Texas Democratic Party hasn’t had any new ideas since before Elvis died.  Basically, it’s hold your head down, don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself, and hope voters think you’re a Republican.  All we have stood for is election.  There is no longer a core set of beliefs and a clear consistent message coming from the Texas Democratic Party.

Good Lord, take Bill White for example.  He spent over ten million dollars and ended up flopping around like a catfish on a hot pier.  Honey, for ten million bucks I could get elected Queen of Idaho.  If I lived in Idaho.  And, admittedly, was a nicer person.

The Texas Democratic Party added  an old white guy on payroll to be in charge of messaging.  He’s been a paid political adviser since 1969.  He hasn’t had a winning message in a decade or two, so I seriously doubt that throwing more money at him is gonna help at all.  And if more money does help, I’m hacked-off about the money we paid him to fail pathetically in the past.

So, there is some basic reassurance that no matter what we do, it couldn’t be worse.  There is no down from where we are.  We have to look up to see bottom.  We keep doing the same damn thing over and over and over and we have a heaping pot of diddle squat to show for it.

So, here’s the idea:  put referendums on the Democratic primary ballot.

Not world shaking, huh, but new and revolutionary for Texas Democrats.

Maybe putting referendums on the primary ballot would (1) get people interested in issues to the polls, and (2) help define what Democrats want for Texas.

For example, how about a referendum saying that we strongly reject the Ryan plan for Medicare vouchers?  Or that privatizing social security is dog dump dumb?

How about a referendum to decriminalize marijuana?  And we could throw in medical marijuana because it’s just the humane thing to do.

We have to let Texans know that the Dream Act is a core value of Texas Democrats.  So, let’s let every Democrat who votes – the grassroots –  send a message about it.

It would make me stand tall to vote for turning minimum wage into a living wage.  I would feel like my voice is being heard.

Now some folks in the State Party are already loudly objecting to this.  One old fella who has been around longer than Noah sarcastically tossed the idea aside by saying, “Oh great.  Republicans will vote in our primary to vote on these referendums and then pick the weakest candidates.

Well, in short, no.

They have their own hotly contested primary next year.  They won’t care about ours.  Plus, what weak candidates are you talking about?  Nick Lampson?  Charlie Stenholm?  Martin Frost? Aaron Pena?   Chet Edwards?  If we get weaker candidates than we are already getting, we might as well turn our party over to Ross Perot and Kinky Freidman because as least they’re entertaining.  It seems to me that letting Ben Barnes pick our candidates by whether or not they support his corporate interests isn’t working all that dandy.  Remember:  this is Barnes’ take on an exciting candidate website.

Another old timer said that we don’t want to tie our candidates to radical ideas that come out of these referendums.

That hurts.  No, seriously, that is painful.

Maybe, just maybe, our candidates lose because all they stand for is election.  What’s wrong with standing for a woman’s right to chose?  What’s wrong for standing for the middle class with fair wages for a fair day’s work?  Should Democrats turn their back on a common sense drug policy or the Dream Act?  Cripes, we’re not asking them to grant sainthood to Saul Alinsky.  We’re asking them to be Democrats.

These referendums are designed to get young folks, older folks, labor, women, African Americans, and Hispanics to the polls.  If that happens, we will get the best candidates. You can bet on it.

The people who are objecting are the same folks who said that a contested primary would tear our party apart.  Bullcorn.  Barack Obama would not the president today without the rigors of a contested primary.  Our party’s finest hour in the past decade was the Clinton / Obama debate in Austin.

The Republicans actually spit at each other during their primaries and they win all over Texas in November.

The Democratic big tent is deflated.  This is one, tiny, maybe even insignificant idea to kick start the air pump.

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NOTE: If you think this is a good idea, call or email your State Democratic Executive Committee Member.  The list is here.

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We have an alert customer around here named David.  David caught George Will’s editorial about Rick Perry and focused in on this little item (italics mine) —

Pausing in his enjoyment of a hamburger the size of a hubcap, Perry, the Eagle Scout son of Democratic tenant farmers, says that he entered politics as a Democrat: “I never met a Republican until I was in the Air Force.”

George Will: Not a Fact Checker

Rick Perry’s parents were wealthy ranchers and cotton farmers in West Texas.  His dad was also a county commissioner in Haskell County.  Rick Perry was not born in a log cabin.

So, appropriately enough, when the Dallas Morning News reprinted Will’s column, they left out the tenant farmer thing.  It’s by subscription only so here’s what happened.

Pausing in his enjoyment of a hamburger the size of a hubcap, Perry says he entered politics as a Democrat: “I never met a Republican until I was in the Air Force.”

So, if you start reading that Rick was born in a manger in a tenant log cabin and read his homework by the light of the fireplace as they burned their meager furniture to stay warm, please remind people that he’s living in a $10,000 a month rented mansion because that’s the lifestyle he was born into.

Thanks to David for the heads up.

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Juanita made a trip to Salado, Texas, last weekend for a meeting with the Texas Democratic Wimmen.  It was more than a 100 women of all ages and kinds in one room to learn, to teach, and to raise a little heck.

For Juanita, the trip included a stop at the Lyndon B Johnson Library on the campus of The University of Texas to see a new exhibit on the 1960’s.  It’s worth the trip.  Plus, Lyndon’s Liberry is so magnificent that you should put a visit on your bucket list.

A few things stood out.  Here’s a quote from Robert Welch, the Founder of the John Birch Society.

Sounds just like the Tea Party, doesn’t it?

And then there was this from Spiro T Agnew:

Close your eyes and that could be Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin, couldn’t it?

I’m making me a sign to carry to my next rallhy that says, “I cannot sinkin’ believe that I’m still protesting this crap.”

The bad guys always get theirs in the history books, so keep the faith!

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Democrats oppose having the police ask every brown person in Texas to produce proof of citizenship.  We oppose it  on humanitarian and constitutional grounds.

Come to find out, Republicans oppose it, too.  They, however, oppose it on economic grounds.

While Republicans love to use the term “illegal immigrant” to blame all of society’s woes, when push comes to shove, as it is currently doing in the Texas Lege, the big Republican boys go all, “whoa, whoa, now, let’s pull in on them reins just a minute here.”

While their big long explanation letter includes constitutional and political reasons to oppose the Produce Your Papers bill, the real reason they oppose it that that Bob Perry could not have gotten rich except on the backs of low paid undocumented workers.  Who’s going to work 7 days a week in unsafe conditions with no benefits to build our houses?  Who’s going to mow our yards, clean our pools, or mop our floors?

So now the Texas Republican Party is in the unrare situation of having to complain bitterly about something they have no intention of fixing.  That’s always fun.

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I’m sure you’ve all noticed that we have a visitor here at the beauty shop who calls himself Butch.  He always disagrees with us and has recently taken to POSTING COMMENTS IN ALL CAPS, you know, like a police report or, in the alternative, a crazy person.

I have a message for Butch:

Yo Sport,

I know you disagree with us and spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to be clever.  You’re not clever.  At all.

We got some rules around here. I do not mind that you disagree with me.  That’s okay.  What I mind is that you’re logging on and commenting from a Fort Bend County ip address.  That means you’re reading my blog when you should be working for me.  I also tracked down where you post from on the weekends and it’s very obvious that you are not a taxpayer in Fort Bend so wasting taxpayer money is not a concern of yours.  At all.

There’s only one other person who has come on my website like you to defend Craig Brady and the sheriff’s office.  She turned out to be a cousin of Brady’s wife logging on from a TARP bank while at work.  She lied about even knowing Brady until I nailed her, and then she confessed in an email.

This afternoon, I tried to email you about something you wanted me to post that I did not understand.  Palm trees?  Sand boxes?  What the tarnation was that about?  But, I couldn’t email you because you gave a fake email address.   I cannot contact you.  At all.

It would be very easy to track down who you are by the name of the little town where you log in on the weekends.  I am not going to do that right now.  I am, however, blocking your posts from ever reaching me.  But, fair warning:  if you whine about me not letting you post, I will track you down and make you cry.  A lot.

Love and Ain’t that just typical of Republicans.

Juanita

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Ever wonder why Texas never has a vacuum in the Crazy Politician category?

Maybe it’s this.

A conference on evil and the unknown compelled hundreds to gather at a weekday presentation offered by the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo.

About 700 individuals from all over West Texas traveled to San Angelo Monday for a seminar on exorcism and diabolical influence.

But, hell, it don’t stop there.

Pfeifer said he believes there is demonic influence in West Texas manifested through cults and Satan worship, but more so through secular things in the world that can be used for good, such as the Internet. He listed voodoo as a type of possible cult, but said it wasn’t very prevalent in West Texas.

Well, that would certainly explain the Bush family and Randy Nuegebaur.  Maybe we could check Leo Berman and Debbie Riddle’s passports to see if they’ve been to Lubbock lately and caught something.

Louie Gohmert is whatever it is that’s worse than being possessed.  There has got to be something worse because he’s got it.  I mean, he flew past head spinning and projectile upchucking about six months ago and is into stealing hearts and melting brains.

It’s hard to tell what is gonna come next on Louie’s decent into oddball.  Bless his heart, when he dies, we’ll have to file an environmental impact study just to bury him.

Thanks to Diane for the heads up.