Competence in Government
As a mere special education teacher, I am not in a position to advise candidates. I’ve thought about running locally before, but definitely don’t have the money to do it. If I were to advise Democrats (since I’m definitely not a Republican) is that they should run on a platform of “competence in government.” The planks are fairly simple and have been on full display here in Texas the last two plus decades.
I vividly remember Bill White (then mayor of Houston) and Rick Perry standing on stage following Hurricane Ike. Perry was fumbling about and was told live on camera that it was his job to take federal funds and distribute them to localities that needed them. You could see the urge to kill on White’s face as he realized the governor was sitting on cash and didn’t know what to do. Both men walked off stage. Only White returned.
We’ve seen the electrical grid crumble before our very eyes. We’ve seen senators flee the state during the ice storm. We’ve seen a governor do nothing and be out of all ideas. At the national level we have seen a pandemic completely mismanaged. We’ve seen the economy bungled time and again. Each time Democrats have to be elected to fix these things.
This is not to say that every Republican is an idiot. Ed Emmet did a good job as county commissioner when he held the post and worked well with other county and city officials. Lina Hidalgo might be doing an even better job. In general, Democrats just do the job better. We aren’t talking policy here. We can have policy debates and certainly we always do. This is simple barebones work that government must do on a day to day basis.
A hurricane has hit the gulf south. Over a million people are without power as I write this. Governor Abbott doesn’t seem interested in getting the work done. How do I know this? He’s not even in the country right now. He left on July 5th when everyone knew the storm would land somewhere in Texas. We didn’t know who would be effected, but we knew it would be Texans. Thanks Governor.
So, when will the rest of the folks get power? Would they get power faster if state officials actually gave a shit about doing their job? We will likely never know. What we do know is that Republicans are more interested in getting the job, keeping the job, and enriching themselves off of the job than they are actually doing the job. This is practically a universal truth.
In Washington, representatives and senators certainly write bills, attach pork for local projects, and grandstand with great regularity, but there are hundreds of things they do for constituents that no one ever hears about. That is unless they are too busy grandstanding and ass kissing to do that job. Beyond the policy debates and ideological nonsense is the simple day to day responsibilities of being in state and national government. This stuff matters and it matters now for people in the gulf south. It sure would be nice if people in Austin cared about doing it.
You stated that not all repugnanticans are idiots but it isn’t hard to pick them out when they open their mouths when they support the likes worthless politicians like Abbot, Cruz and a list so long I don’t have time to list them. I’ll add trumpf just for good measure.
1My bumper sticker expresses my opinion: Voting is like driving, R to go backwards, D to go forward.
2Nick, I don’t want to sabotage your writing. I’m just getting very nervous about another very pertinent topic for Democrats and hope to get some thoughts from the salon patrons. How are you all feeling about whether Joe Biden is going to survive the onslaught from the media and even his own party about remaining the nominee. I read today that George Stephanopoulos came out to say Biden wouldn’t “survive” a second term after his interview. I’m really getting sick of the media piling on with their opinions. Anyone else have thoughts?
3I’ll address this tomorrow Steve.
4Steve@3 – yes I do have thoughts. I’m not sure how popular they are here in The Salon, but: you know whom Biden reminds me of when he says that it would take a personal message from God Almighty to remove him from the office? That he is the best and most qualified candidate to beat Trump? He reminds me of Trump.
In 2020, he offered himself to voters a “transition candidate”, but now he insists on remaining in power. Again, he reminds me of Trump.
That said, I know that what I said hurts some of my fellow Salon clients’ feelings. But you asked – and those are my thoughts.
Opinion I can really relate with: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/powerful-democrats-call-on-the-powerless-to-save-democracy_n_6685a84ae4b0971108c1efcd
5Abbott & Patrick can’t be bothered with taking the President’s phone call in a timely manner? A phone call offering assistance? The President should call FEMA to reach them? They don’t have secretaries who will answer the phone and relay a message FROM THE PRESIDENT to them?
When the fires raged in Lahaina Maui the Emergency Management director couldn’t be reached on the phone. He’s gone.
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