t’s happened again. I guarantee that it happens on a nearly annual basis. An enterprising legislator will put forth a bill to separate Texas from the union. This time it’s Bryan Slaton to the rescue.

https://twitter.com/BryanforHD2/status/1632807777759313921

We are at the looking glass and the reflection staring back at us is our own idiocy. The civil war of the 21st century isn’t over slavery, race relations, the haves and have nots, or even any kind of coherent policy. It’s wokeness. This is where GOP frontrunner Ron DeSantis has planted his flag. This is the battle ground of a new generation.

What does wokeness mean? They really can’t tell you. They really don’t want to tell you. It’s better if they just leave it up to your worst imagination. You can see the signs around town, “The Church Awake and not Woke.” Sure. Obviously, a true believer cannot be woke. Except if we apply the meaning of woke we realize how mind numbingly stupid this sounds.

The modern dictionary defines wokeness as “the quality of being alert and concerned about social injustice and discrimination.” Yup. We don’t want to be a part of any country that has anything to do with that. We don’t want Christianity to be mixed up with any of that mumbo jumbo. That’s just crazy talk.

Davy Crockett famously said that everyone else could go to hell and he would go to Texas. Who knew that they might end up being one in the same. Who knew that those of us that might even casually worry about the welfare of their fellow people would be held hostage by a mob of idiots. After all, it’s a lot easier to say you are anti-woke then to say you are against equality and human decency.

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.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Four Star General Mark Milley set right-wingers  in the House straight yesterday when he lashed out at Matt Gaetz and other Republicans who have made Critical Race Theory, a longstanding academic perspective for understanding institutional racism, their flavor of the month to whip up the base.  National Embarrassment of Texas, Dan Crenshaw, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas have used the lie that the military is getting “woke” and soft and set up a “whistleblower” website for active duty military to report “wokeness” in their ranks.  The whole thing is idiotic, and only the uninformed are wound up about it.   Near the end of an Armed Services Committee hearing where Matt Gaetz and others pushed the Woke Lie, General Milley was given an opportunity to respond to their nonsensical assertions, his response was epic and a MUST WATCH.  As of this morning, it’s been watched over 6 million times, just another example of Republicans being their own worst enemies.