Mind the Gap
It is one of the more humorous phrases in the English language. Seems in Great Britain there are all kinds of signs on their subways to “mind the gap”. Of course, they are talking about the space between the sidewalk and the train. However, when I hear that phrase something a lot more sinister comes to mind. In the political science world gaps become a lot more interesting. This is particularly true when evaluating the past. At least then we aren’t in any danger.
I'm sorry, Texas but…
You re-elected Greg Abbott…and you thought somehow things would change?
You RE-ELECTED GREG ABBOTT and thought that mass shootings would magically go away?
You had a chance to do something…
BUT YOU RE-ELECTED GREG ABBOTT.
And it wasn't even close.
— Malcolm P. Johnson (@admiralmpj) May 7, 2023
Of course, the implication here is that Texans are getting what they want. Elections have consequences and we are obviously living through these times. I get the sentiment here and it obviously rings true when we look at the world from 30,000 feet. However, when we start magnifying the situation we see some cracks in that veneer. For one, we know that this is a singular issue and people obviously don’t vote with this issue in mind on election day. For another, we know that the Texas Democratic party is a mess and can’t seem to get out of their own way when it comes to winning statewide office.
As electrifying as Beto O’Rourke was and can still be, he seems to have “foot in mouth” disease when it comes to his position on things. There are a lot of progressives in Texas, but Texas just isn’t a progressive state and you aren’t going to win statewide office spouting views that most Texans find to be extreme. I can decry that and lament that fact, but wringing my hands over this point isn’t going to win any elections.
Politics used to be a lot simpler. People used to acknowledge reality. We got our news from one of the three major networks and from the local newspaper. We often felt differently about particular events and particular issues, but we all acknowledged that they happened and that they existed. We could all agree on a commonly agreed upon set of facts. We interpreted these facts differently and gave them different priorities, but we were a lot closer on these things. If you want to conduct an experiment then spend five or six hours watching MSNBC or CNN and then spend the next day watching Fox News, Newsmax, or OAN. It would be one thing if we heard a different perspective on the important stories of the day. After the experiment you would be convinced that these were either two different countries or two different times.
Far be it from me to identify reality through the noise. Maybe part of the problem is just naturally assuming we know what is right or wrong. That being said, we can see that both of those use fear in a way to reach their audience. One may focus on Hunter Biden and his laptop while another may focus on the former president and his many crimes. Yet, events like we have witnessed the past several weeks only gain significance when they are covered. If all I see is Hunter’s laptop then I am led to believe that Hunter’s laptop is the main thing that matters. It makes perfect sense. After all, why would you talk about it all the time if it didn’t matter? So, the above is not really what people want. It is what people are told they should want. Eventually the gap between objective reality and manufactured reality become untenable. That’s usually when there is some sort of revolution. We can only hope it is the non-violent kind, but I seriously have my doubts.
My state used to be the bluest of blue. The auto industry fled and now the state is gerrymandered ridiculously red. And if you truly aren’t listening you’d think our republican gov is as normal as a republican can be these days. But of course he is a sniveling coward and his fellow republicans have shamed the state. We don’t deserve what this state has turned into. We obviously didn’t mind the gap enough.
We have Jim Jordan and I’m afraid delusion has found another home.
1When I hear some ridiculous remark from Abbott, I think, we could have had Beto. It is galling to pull myself up and vote in every election, while people who seem to agree with my views don’t make even the slightest effort to vote. We do have the government that lazy voters deserve.
2https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/the-right-wing-hate-machine-created?publication_id=1162742&utm_medium=email&action=share&isFreemail=true
3Heads up- E J Carroll lawsuit against trumpf verdict about to be read (3 pm ET). Hang on to your hat.
4Pretty much Steve. Pretty much right on the money. The key points are these. First, we cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by the nonsense over woke. Yes, a lot of the stuff spewed from the right is nonsense and bigotry. Of course it is. However, it is all a parlor trick to distract people from an issue like this that is really a matter of life and death.
Secondly, you have to lean into the majority and what they want. Campaign on waiting periods, background checks, raising the age to 21, and red flag laws. Never allow the concept of gun confiscation to leave your lips. It’s a political loser. Don’t go anywhere near that. Go after the low hanging fruit and leave the rest for another day. I absolutely believe that day needs to happen, but it will never happen while you allow yourself to get beat by knuckle draggers.
5I’ve pretty much given up on gun reform in Texas after seeing that Uvalde voted heavily for Abbott. Obviously if the people here prefer seeing their children gunned down over electing a Democrat as governor, then it’s not a place where I want to live. We have oligations keeping us here for maybe another couple of years, but we fully intend on leaving this hellscape.
6Ohhh, Trump is not having a good day. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t bother to show up at your own trial.
7AlanInAustin @6, I commented, with data, about exactly the ‘Uvalde paradox’ in the following TWMDBS article [and many others]:
https://juanitajean.com/there-was-no-joy-in-mudville/
It’s really mindboggling how oblivious our Democratic ‘leadership’ is about this situation. Not wanting to be a naysayer, but unless things change very soon in the Democratic Party, the next election may be a Rethug blowout.
Have you seen some of the latest polls?
It seems that Biden is down versus tRump by double fucking digits, along with most other Dems.
In spite of basically fantastic economic and other conditions, better than any President since FDR. And still in the dirt.
Part of this is an extreme media mis and disinformation climate [the MSM, not FuxNooz etc], coupled with the Democrats’ obliviousness and cluelessness to it all.
Moving to another US state isn’t going to get you anything.
I’ve recently concluded that leaving the country is probably the only viable option left [pending the next election], at least it’ll work for a while, until the Rethug crazies torch the whole fucking world..
. Quotes:
“Sandridge says:
November 9, 2022 at 9:14 am
Eloquently put by El Jefe, I’ve been raving about the same stuff for years.
I doubt that any of this will sink into hivemind of the Democratic ‘leadership’, it never has before.
Watching the Democrats let the now dominant demographic bloc, Hispanics, slide over to the dark side for years, and many election cycles, has been like viewing a train wreck in slow motion.
*** Even an extremely Hispanic [75%+] highly stressed Texas county like Uvalde [school massacre, gunz, etc] voted overwhelmingly for Abbott and the Rethugs, by a ~5 to 3 margin.
Abbott didn’t even hardly bother to assist or acknowledge Uvalde until days and weeks after the Robb Elementary shootings. And still they voted overwhelmingly for him and his vile party.
SOB, Uvalde wasn’t even fully desegregated until the 1970s; and there is still a ‘plantation mentality’ amongst the Anglo overclass [as there is in most S TX counties with both Anglo and Hispanic wealthy large landowners].
WTF? The opposition, Democrats, has to be pretty damned bad to lose in that environment.
My own county [twice the pop] went even more Rethug, ~85%, although the Anglo population is double.
None of this should be happening, Hispanics should still be a solid Democratic bloc. But our utterly incompetent Democratic ‘leadership’, from the bottom to, especially, the top of the Texas state and national Party have totally failed at their main purposes.
Look up any Texas office, county, or district election results here [then compare Wiki demos], a slaughterhouse:
https://results.texas-election.com/races
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvalde_County,_Texas
3
…
Sandridge says:
November 9, 2022 at 9:38 am
BTW, my own newly gerrymandered TX-15 District [was in Cuellar’s 28th], a heavily Hispanic district [85%+], was so easily flipped to the Rethuglikans that Greg Abbott made a special and confident effort to hold his victory party in it’s biggest town, McAllen, TX, in the Valley [95%+ Hispanic].
Fortunately, the adjoining and similar ‘fajita’ [almost 300mi long by as narrow as 15mi] 28th and 34th Districts were held by the Democrats, though with smaller margins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_15th_congressional_district
5
Mark in Lufkin says:
November 9, 2022 at 9:53 am
I went to the Texas Democratic convention in Dallas this summer. Total sh**show. The most poorly organized and orchestrated convention of any sort I’ve ever attended (and I’ve been to many). Gilberto Hinojosa couldn’t even manage to get the required business done before the attendees finally left after sitting around doing nothing on the floor for HOURS while he worked his back-room deal to stay in power. He’s less than useless. He’s had ten years already. And we keep losing ground.
I had hoped for change, but sadly we are stuck with the same-old-same-old. I’ve mostly just given up on the Dems here in Texas. I live in Angelina County behind the Pine Curtain in East Texas. Deep red. We don’t even have a functioning County Democratic Party.
Democrats have lost Texas for at least the next two decades. More if we don’t wake up and make some changes and start working at the local level. Houston can’t do it alone.
7
Sandridge says:
November 9, 2022 at 10:01 am
BTBTW, I’ve never had my mailbox flooded with so much fancy campaign litterature as it has been by the Republican winner of TX-15, Monica De La Cruz, et al.
An absolute blizzard of giant shiny postcard-style campaign flyers, etc, at least one a day, sometimes two or three, for months. I can’t see how crap like that works, but it apparently does. The content was usually like the scary TV ads, only worse.
The Rethugs really poured the money and effort into this District 15.
Might have got a couple mailings from the Democrat, Michelle Vallejo, and only saw a few TV ads. More Democratic ‘leadership’ incompetence.
[sounds like a real beeotch…]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_De_La_Cruz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Texas#District_15
8
Sandridge says:
November 9, 2022 at 10:13 am
Mark in Lufkin @7, rAmen bro..
I don’t know much about the ‘innards’ of the Democratic Party, but it just ain’t working.
I haven’t looked at Harris/Houston results, but Bexar/San Antonio did vote 58%+ Democratic, maybe the other major cities were similar. But obviously that doesn’t get it done.
And you can count on Abbott punishing the places that didn’t go his way.
“Democrats have lost Texas for at least the next two decades. More if we don’t wake up and make some changes and start working at the local level. Houston can’t do it alone.”
9
Mark says:
November 9, 2022 at 10:26 am
The Democrats have a messaging problem, but maybe the message is that their neoliberal agenda has failed the majority of Americans. The national party is as much captured by corporate money as their counterparts. When this happens we get policies like endless war and proxy wars, tax cuts for the rich, privatization of social services like education and health care, and trade deals that send manufacturing abroad. Democrats should be running against these ideas, not promulgating them. When is the last time Democrats have sought to cut back on defense spending which accounts for half of all discretionary spending?
Let’s not forget that the standard bearer for the party has a pretty checkered past. As chair of the Senate judiciary committee he did not allow two witnesses to collaborate
Anita Hill’s testimony and allowed the denigration of her character during the hearings, thereby gifting us Clarence
Thomas for life. He was an enthusiastic adherent to Clinton’s “ending welfare as we know it”. He aggressively backed the 1994 crime bill which exploded the prison… ” population, expanding private prisons. He has been an enthusiastic supporter of any military action, including Iraq in 2002. He has been a shill for the banking and credit industry which brought on the 2008 financial crisis. The industry got bailed out by the government while the working stiff was bludgeoned in the aftermath of that crisis.
Yes, people can change and there have been some good policies enacted since he attained office. Did the Democrats campaign on these accomplishments? From what I see, they felt that they could ride reproductive rights as a sole issue in the wake of the SC ruling. Although important, they needed to tackle issues like crime and inflation. Point out that crime rates are highest in states where access to guns is most lax. Crime rates in rural areas are often higher than in cites, but all of the attention is focused on urban crime. Try to explain that the President and Congress cannot reduce inflation. We need more people like Katie Porter explaining this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZXERVafynY
There are some good people in the party, but their voices are muted by the leadership. I don’t know if the party can ever reform and become the party of the people that it purports to be.
10
Nick Carraway says:
November 9, 2022 at 11:04 am
Mark,
I think what is most maddening is how the GOP has campaigned and tied all of these Democratic candidates (including Collier) to how “liberal” Joe Biden is when he is not really liberal at all. If you spend your time trying to appear moderate and be reasonable only to be painted extremist then why be moderate in the first place?
11
Sandridge says:
November 9, 2022 at 11:25 am
The two Marks, and about the ‘Democratic Problem’, particularly MESSAGING:
The following is from an article at Daily Kos, and there were a few others like it, this example is just one of many where the Democrats just exhibited their complete messaging incompetence.
Given a similar opportunity, the Republicans would have trumpeted about a topic like this incessantly, until it sank into the public consciousness as a given truth; and yielded yet more victories for them.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2022/11/1/2132723/-1-fact-every-voter-should-know-about-inflation-but-doesn-t
”
8Sandridge, that’s a lot! And in other news, George Santos is being charged in New York related to his campaign finances and web of lies. Exact charges have not been specified yet. Another R martyr, like trumpf.
9Steve from Beaverton @9, Heheh, and just a fraction of that link and others that I found on the TWMDBS on that topic and related ones.
Rep. Santos is still in his Congressional seat, the Rethugs aren’t going to remove him until the bitter end. With tables turned, Dems would have politely jettisoned a similar member even if it brought disaster on the Party [think they did before]. Long past time to fight fire with fire.
Remember that the Rethuglikans took over the House with just Santos and 3-4 other seats snatched away from the jaws of Dem ‘victory’ [and WTF was the WH?].
The useless Democratic ‘leadership’ could have easily avoided ALL of this current bullshit, with the House Rethugs in the catbird seat, by just being a little smarter and more aggressive! Just a few stinking House seats.
And it all has a serious effect on the current ‘low opinions of’ the Dems have in public regard.
10And is reflected in the current political polls showing the Rethugs, the most corrupt, incompetent, and criminal US politicians ever [especially Komrade Donnei], beating the livin’ shit outta the Democrats next elections. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the Sunday political shows about polls, and other stuff since. Can the ‘Murikan voting public be that stupid? [no need to answer…]
Hopefully the polls are wrong, but can we gamble all the marbles on it?
Sandridge, there was a time not that long ago when the things scumbags like trumpf and Santos have done would be the end of their political careers (and there are more R’s in office now I could add). Today, they get away with it and our party can’t seem to take advantage, Biden’s victory notwithstanding.
11Abbott and his slimy ilk are in office. this can be blamed on the dimwits that don’t get off their butts and vote against them. The NRA bribes are not the problem as the NRA has NEVER paid me to vote rePUKEian. I don’t need the Dems spending lots of money to get my vote, all you need is to see what rePUKEians do vs DEMs and it is an easy choice.
12If you haven’t read “Dirt Road Revival” then do so immediately. It is a condemnation of the organized part of the Democratic Party and a work sheet on how to win elections in spite of them. I bought two copies to loan to my local peeps. It’s not perfect but it is a great start.
13In the meantime, I know the missus is going on a business trip to Calgary. I’ve asked her to scout it out to see if it could be a good landing spot. Ireland could also work given that we are Catholic and there are no snakes.
This is ultimately about two things: good candidates and consistent messaging. The GOP have managed to get one of those right for the past 40 years or so. If you say something often enough then it becomes true.
The two examples I’d give involve the woke nonsense. I’ve taught at my current campus for nine years now. We’ve probably had 5000-6000 kids pass through at the minimum. I can count on one hand the number of kids that have been openly trans. That’s 0.1 percent by my count. Even if we multiplied that to include kids that weren’t necessarily out then we still get less than one percent.
My daughter played volleyball on clubs from the age of 10 to 15. We played in countless tournaments and against many teams. I saw one boy who played when she was ten. They just let him play with girls. No one said anything. Even if that were the worst thing in western civilization it was one kid out of nearly a thousand or more. Yet, through consistent messaging this has become a huge deal somehow.
We are scattershot. We have a lot of things we care about and we shouldn’t be penalized for caring about a lot of things, but we need consistent messaging. If you can say the same thing over and over again it not only becomes true but it gains a ton of significance. If we hit on the assault weapons problem at every turn then we can make a dent. Do a daily counter. How many people has Greg Abbott allowed to be gunned down today? That should be a daily thing until the problem is either addressed or he is put out to pasture.
14rAmen to y’all, lots of good serious stuff. And my TX-15 District flipping Rethug still rankles, never happened before since its’ establishment in the ’30s [John Nance Garner…]; and it became one of just a couple that put the Rethuglikans in the ‘clawing everything in sight’ catbird seat [and if the situation were reversed, the Dems would be toothless pussycats].
Nick, Calgary is ccccold, Windsor, ON and Vancouver, BC are much better choices; as Ireland would also be. [Snakes? You wouldn’t last long here in SoTX, my NextDoor forum is just eat up with snake stories and pictures of them around everybody’s homes, big ones little ones, many venomous. I’ve seen many kinds all over my place, even inside, rattlers, copperheads and others.]
However, there’s a huge fly in the ointment of emigrating out of the US [besides subtle financial ones].
All of the desirable destination countries have imposed –extremely– restrictive immigration policies, it will be veery difficult to gain admission to any of them for more than a tourist visit.
Unlike our own typical ‘Democrat librul’ [not mine] attitudes towards the political topic of immigration, where the Rethugs have painted Dems into a corner, as appearing to advocate ‘open borders’.
15Those countries, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, have made rational and very restrictive barriers to permanent admission to their nations; —to protect themselves from such an onslaught as we face here—.
I live not far from the Mexican border, and used to live right on it, I’ve seen/see it firsthand.
The common Democratic outlooks on this topic are –wrong–, and the Rethugs are slaughtering us at the polls with this, among other things.
Expect significant grifting by trumpf- for legal fees, to pay his judgment (which will take years), and just general lifestyle expenses. The CNN sham event will be a shit show which I won’t watch. If any of you patrons of the WMDBS do, look forward to your reporting.
16And Santos- in custody with charges of fraud, fraud and more fraud. Let’s see what the chicken shit Kevin has to say. Oh, certainly something like he’s innocent till proven guilty. He’ll probably pay his bail so he can vote for his whatever.
And in gun nut news, boobert and Santos are sponsoring a bill to make the AR 15 America’s “national gun” while abbutt is promising to pardon the just convicted army guy that shot a BLM protester. Nothing surprising there.
17About Texas gun violence and deaths from a Texas paper:
18https://apple.news/AfUjtiGU_RTOAmWA6jz1DlA