Our Own Worst Enemy
A friend asked me who I thought would win the governor’s race in Texas. We know who is going to win the governor’s race in Texas. We knew before Beto even entered the race. We knew it was Greg Abbott no matter what was said in any debate, any ad, or anything that might happen between then and election day.
Abbott has been governor for eight years. Ignore the thousands of deaths during COVID. Ignore the dozens of deaths during the great freeze. Ignore the numerous children killed in school shootings. Think back to any of the Abbott ads on the radio or television. Have any of them touted anything he has actually done as governor? How sad is it for a guy to basically run on the platform of “my opponent is too extreme” when he’s been governor for eight years?
One particular ad had a woman who lost her son to murder. The murderer had been let out on bail by the judge. The Abbott campaign is using this as a reason not to vote for Beto. Huh? The governor doesn’t set bail and Beto hasn’t held elective office since running for Senate in 2018. By any reasonable measure, Abbott has been a horrible governor and he is going to win re-election. Many around the state have given him the nickname Governor Death and he is going to win re-election. Dan Patrick has been a horrible lieutenant governor and he is going to win.
If you want any further proof then consider the case of Hershel Walker in Georgia. He is within the margin of error and he can’t find a coherent thought with a flashlight and road map. He actually flashed a toy badge on stage during the debate and said he was a cop. He paid off a girlfriend to get an abortion and tried to do it a second time and somehow claims to be pro-life. Yet, he could still win the Senate seat there.
It’s easy to blame gerrymandering and restrictive voter laws in these situations and that’s true to a certain extent. I’m sure that peels off five to ten percentage points and that can be enough in a number of races. However, we have to ask ourselves why that is enough when considering candidates like this. We have to ask why an attorney general that has been under indictment for his entire term will get another one.
Somewhere along the line we have to look inside and ask ourselves why a party that continually puts up smarter candidates with smarter policy ideas seem to lose to these dullards. These are policy ideas that a majority of the population support. There must be something else. I personally think it is a combination of things. I think it’s a combination of really bad branding like “defund the police” and other catch phrases that just backfire. It’s also the relative ease of taking things like “wokeness” and weaponizing it against the left. Most people don’t honestly care about gay marriage, transsexuals, or other issues one way or another. They are just tired of being told they aren’t sensitive enough.
Cohesive communication isn’t easy, but the Republicans have managed to do it for decades. Break it all down and it’s incredibly simple but it is darn effective. You find something that resonates and you keep repeating it. That’s what we don’t do. We are everywhere. We talk about climate change, the wealth gap, equality issues, saving democracy, and helping out kids with college, health care, and gun control. I know I’m leaving stuff out. It’s time to find a cohesive message that works and stick to it.
“You find something that resonates then keep repeating it”.
Indeed.
But if you are repeatedly saying insane, horrid things like the GOP does; it resonates even more because people stop to look at crazy more than they do sane repetition on the sidewalk.
1Also what I’ve noticed around the country is that the GOP is trying to find a look-alike to run against an incumbent Democrat. Lina Hidalgo is being challenged by a Hispanic woman, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan has an almost body double running against her and of course Georgia found the only Black man they could to run against Rev. Warnock. Is his my imagination or a real thing?
2Recently, I attended a local school board forum where the candidates were able to express their views prior to the coming election. My friend and I, both retired from this school district, were chatting when an elderly (I can call her that since I assume we were about the same age) lady turned and asked us about one of the candidates – a longtime friend whom we both heartily support. We told her that we believed she had served the district with integrity and class (our friend is the incumbent). The lady shook her and said she very concerned about CRT being taught in the district. Nothing we said could alter her opinion since her granddaughter had recently been a classroom discussing the idea of reparations. Her mind was locked shut. These are the Abbott/Patrick/Paxton supporters. Facts simply do not matter!
3@Grandma Ada
It is not your imagination as the whole thing comes from the mind of an orange tv game show host who is as deep as a puddle in the Arizona desert and only sees visual “types”.
Tfg is quite mad and wholly idiotic but it works for his fans.
4Grandma Ada – around here, the GOP ran a candidate simply because he had the same first name as the much-liked Democrat in office. So now we have a representative that is essentially a piece of furniture who will do whatever his party leadership tells him to do rather than the effective, deeply caring guy we had for 2 years.
You cannot fix stupid.
5It’s not Fair & Balanced.
6It’s Fear & Outrage.
Fox News has something to scare their viewers every day, and they willing turn on their TV sets each morning to see what it is.
Gets them watching, and running to the polls.
Rick, I was sent a piece about Fox News the other day but could not post it here, so I’ll just quote what it said.
7Picture this- there was a photo of two pugs, one sniffing the others ass. Below was this:
“Scientific fact:
A dog gets more factual information from sniffing another dog’s ass than a human does does from watching Fox News.”
A question for you Texacanians from a naif from the NW: As I understand it, the Guv has a policy to give $500 for informing on a prospective abortion. He also said he would have a crack down on rape, since there would be no exception for it. The question is, has he put a $500 bounty on rapists, too?
Could have a dampening affect on bar room conversation.
8When I am questioned about politics I always ask…Name one rePUKEian who has put in any proposals that have helped ORDINARY people???…i.e. NOTHING! Now list the work done to help filthy rich psychopaths … i.e. tax cuts.
9Old but Slow @8, the abortion bounty is in fact $10,000. Rapists, on the other hand, have no bounty….
10Anyone remember what Will Rogers said about belonging to a political party? True then, true now. Thanks N. Carraway.
11Nick, acting like Eeyore isn’t helping. The surest way to get stuck with 4 more years of Abbott is to despair in advance.
12Texans and other Americans need to take the advice of the Blessed Molly Ivins; understand that the fight lasts forever, take some joy in it and keep going.