You Know It’s Bad When…
Every year, Texas Monthly publishes their Bum Steer Awards, naming the worst of the worst statewide. It’s not a list anyone wants to make, much be Bum Steer of the Year. Past winners include an ugly cast of characters like Dick Cheney, Rick Perry, Jerry Jones, and none other than 3 time winner Tom DeLay. Ugh.
The 2021 Bum Steer Awards came out last night and the Bum Steer of the Year? None other than our own Texas Democratic Party; management of the Salon agrees. Worse, they beat out COVID-19 and Ken Paxton for Worst Honors. In granting the award, Texas Monthly had some choice words like these:
“Since 1992, their fortunes have been in decline, and since 2002 they’ve been kept at arm’s length from control of both the Texas House and the Texas Senate, as well as from the Governor’s Mansion and any other statewide office. The party has a long history of launching failed comeback attempts, but all of them have either failed disastrously or come up short in a way that seems designed to demolish morale and crush hopes.”
The TDP is a textbook example of insanity – for 30 years, they’ve done the same thing over and over, with the same consultants, same party officials, and same pecking order. The results in each cycle have been predictably disastrous. There was a bright spot in 2018 when Beto came close to taking out Cruz, and it was so close it felt like a win to Texas Dems. It was still a loss, though, but the TDP didn’t take it to that way. Magical thinking once again set in, and here we went for 2020. Beto even got WAY out in front of himself, thinking that an also ran for Senate qualified him to run for President. THAT was stupid.
Democratic politics in Texas is a lot like golf…you hack your way from water to rough to bunker, but then on the 16th hole, you hit that beautiful lofted draw that lands the ball softly right in the center of the green. Then you 4 putt the hole for a double bogey. On 17, you hit it in the water again, and on 18 you lose your ball out of bounds. BUT, that beautiful shot on 16 keeps you coming back time after time.
In 2020, the TDP kept going for that great shot, but because of the euphoria over Trump’s waning influence in Texas, they got over confident, believed the polls, and then couldn’t get the ball off the tee. Dems have believed for decades that turnout is everything, fantasizing that new voters will automatically vote for them; but that certainly didn’t work this year. The Biden campaign didn’t spend as much time or money here that they should have, and the state party didn’t stick to fundamentals, especially in South Texas. South Texas is one of those areas where politics are extremely local and it requires a lot of contact and money to get the turnout and then to get those turning out to vote for Dems. With the elimination of straight ticket voting it requires even more contact not less.
Dems here assumed that Trump was such an idiot that people would do the right thing and automatically vote against him and other Republicans. But it didn’t happen that way. Sure, way more people turned out, and many voted for Biden, but down ticket they stuck to the familiar. On top of the bumbling and overconfidence, the TDP swatted away all opinions that disagreed with the statewide lack of focus and scattergun approach.
The result was predictable to anyone who was objective. The TDP lost 8 out of 9 targeted state house races that were winnable, lost the Senate race, lost a House seat, and got pummeled in the Railroad Commission race despite $2.6 million cash injection from Bloomberg. They gained one seat in the state Senate but none in the state House. What this means is that, once again, the GOP will control redistricting AGAIN, and will continue their radical gerrymandering started by DeLay in 2002.
Once again, the TDP did what the TDP always does – pour money into the pockets of the same losing consultants, with the same losing strategies, lost focus, and shot way too high without playing the ground game that the GOP has down so well. And they got rewarded for all that bungling by getting slaughtered at the ballot box and now slaughtered by Texas Monthly.
It was well deserved.
“On top of the bumbling and overconfidence, the TDP swatted away all opinions that disagreed with . . . .”
You know you’re in trouble when you’re emulating Donald Trump.
Or – – maybe not?
Hope Texas Monthly gave them a wake-up call.
Meanwhile, can we get a Florida Monthly going over here to make some — um, suggestions — to our Democrats?
1Sounds like an ad for Republicans. Ds don’t “play the ground game” and Rs do. Ds just bungle. Rs are smart.
You’re pretty much trashed every non-leadership D in the process of trashing leader-Ds. Why the hell should we even try to be Ds when you’re so sure we’re too incompetent and stupid to win anything? You trashed Clinton as a “bad candidate” last time and this time you’re criticizing Biden for not having spent more time and money in Texas while at the same time saying Texas was a hopeless case because of the D leadership. Should Biden’s campaign *really* have spent more time and money in Texas if they agreed with you? Would it have gotten them anywhere with all the stupid incompetent Ds you say ruined it on the ground?
As one of the lowly stupid, bad, incompetent Ds who clearly deserve all this flak, do you have any *positive” steps we mere peasants should take next time? Actual concrete, clearly described, actions individuals not in a leadership role could do that have demonstrably made a difference? Keep it simple; you’ve made it clear you don’t think we’re smart enough to catch on to hints. (If you tell me I have to wear a nice dress and heels, dye my hair blonde and have it styled like Republican women, and gaze admiringly at any man in the room, though, fergeddaboutit. I’m old, wrinkled, and warty like a half-dead hackberry in a fencerow.
We’re not the only state in which great effort led to minimal effect, you know (surely you know)–do you think all the state Dem leaderships are idiots, or just ours?
2@Elizabeth – The Texas Democratic Party WON the Bum Steer of the Year Award. That should tell you something and we’re agreeing with their assessment. The Dems (especially in Texas) are always going for the big win. The Repubs took a completely different approach…they infiltrated local school boards, precincts, city hall, county boards, sheriff’s departments, everything. They’ve been doing it for over 40 years while Dems just sat there and let it happen, tsk-tsking at every takeover, but not doing anything about it. The same leadership has been doing the same thing for decades, hoping that Texas organically turns blue just through demographics. My suggestion is to stop counting noses and infighting, and develop a strong base of young local leaders to start winning and governing at the local level. That’s how you build a coalition that begins to dominate. I’m not holding my breath, though.
3I’m certainly no expert, but when sports teams want to turn around their fortunes they often look at teams within and outside their sport that have been successful. The Texans supposedly have hired the CEO of the Spurs, Jimmie Johnson, and Tony Dungy to help them find a coach and GM. In the case of Texas, let’s look at people that have been successful and see if we can replicate what they have done. Stacie Abrams did a great job in Georgia and Beto did a good job of energizing voters in 2018. I think he might have come a few points closer to beating Cornyn that whoever ran against him (the fact that I can’t remember is a key problem).
I think you have to give people someone and something to vote for instead of simply pointing out how bad the right is. Yes, Abbot is bad. Yes, Paxton is horrific. Yes, Patrick is a jackass. That’s not enough. For those that aren’t lifelong Democrats, they need a reason to support you. Simply saying you are not a Republican is not good enough.
4Sounds familiar. The Iowa Democratic party is touting Greenfield’s loss to Ernst as a moral victory. Rita Hart losing the closest housedistrict election in history ( by 6 votes out of 396,022 cast) is being treated like a major win .
5El Jefe, the TDC is a mystery to me. The DNC has done nothing but diss Texas, yet the TDC certainly seems to follow the missteps of the DNC most of the time.
Rule #1, “soft” messaging doesn’t cut it with any “age” group. Will leave it to the gray panthers to explain to those over 50 why Republicons suck and that voting for them is against their own interests. Our age ‘group’ the 30 or so somethings has been goat molested twice by conservative “policy.” We entered our adult years on the precipice of the Dubya/Cheney failures. Obama nearly had us on our feet despite Moscow Mitch, when along came the fu king moron to send us back to the starting square – deep into our own end zone.
While it might be nice to dream that this all ends with the ouster of the fu king moron, it doesn’t. Whether minority or majority ‘leader,’ Moscow Mitch is not stopping nor will the other Senate and House conservatives.
As for future elections, we can talk ground game and social media strategies, and improve. But we offer to you the Nevada House seat (NV-02) example where Patricia Ackerman (D)lost to schlub Mark Amodei (R). She ran the best ground game since Obama sent the youth out in 2008 to get out the vote. We saw the most people in our out of the way slice of rural Americana since ’08. The e-mails sang, the phones rang. But she lost. Democrats will continue to lose under even the best of circumstances, until the ratfucking of elections by Republicons can be reversed.
The impeached loser was right. Dead people did vote in NV, especially in the ghost towns. But Donnie failed to mention they were Republicon voters. Amodei received more dead voters than registered voters in this district, as did Donnie. Fortunately Clark (Las Vegas) and Washoe (Reno) Counties with their millions of voters saved the state for Biden/Harris.
El Jefe you are correct about Democrats running better elections, of course. But without election reforms, the path forward is all uphill.
6My complaint now is the same as when Obama & Biden ran the country pre Trump. Don’t over promise. There is nothing wrong with the fact that Democrats don’t march in lock step. BUT its a shame we cant find some nice solid talking points & keep repeating them endlessly like Repubs do, till they become reality.
7Up here in very north central/east small town/rural Texas, Evangelical Christianity and the Republican Party are mirror images of each other and are in firm control. Critical thinking and curiosity are in short supply. After several years of block walking the only movement I have seen is with women in 2018 and not many of them. Frankly I think Beto’s charisma and good looks vs Cruz’s total lack of humanity and hound dog visage had as much to do with that as any substantive issue.
8The Democratic Party is a democratic party. It reflects the will of the people who go to the meetings. Just like a union, there are a lot of people who carp about change, but they don’t go to the damn meetings.
9Agree with Caren above. Democrats must quell their fervor to confront all issues with colossal federal programs and instead move forward incrementally. You can’t have a revolution when half of the country is not with you. Heed the warning or you will be in the minority by the midterm.
10@Ralph – I disagree. You’re right that more people should go to the meetings. The problem is that the same cabal controls the party and keeps it from moving forward. When a party loses race after race after race, the problem is not those who don’t attend the meetings. It’s that leadership stonewalls real change. People then give up.
11I live in far away northern NY near Canada. From here I couldn’t help but notice that the prior winners you mention, e.g. Paxton, Perry etc, seem to having staying power. Texas Dems, hang in there!
12I can go back in time many years before 1992 as a Texas Democrat who is tired of beating my head against a brick wall.
When Dan Patrick first ran for office he had his best friend run against him on the D ticket. Of course when the subject of ol Dan keeping on his radio program on his station and being a candidate came up, they asked his opponent he told the world had no objections. The Ds had no clue who that guy was when he filed.
This last cycle, a non existent person with a hispanic name was on the ballot in a state race. She did get enough votes to influence the primary.
IDK who picks Texas congressional candidates. Maybe it’s the DCCC or Schumer for the senate. We have had one carpet bagger on the ticket for senator who said out loud she didn’t vote for Obama. She already had the DC and Texas blessing over a very good guy, Royce West in the primary.
Read Shadow Network by Anne Nelson.
13I agree with Ralph #9 in that people don’t go to meetings, but I will say why I haven’t gone. Last cycle was the first time I had time and the Harris County Dems. advertised that Tom Perez would speak and I, along with many people, showed up at the electricians union to hear him. It turned out to be a bait and switch – they just wanted us all for, surprise, phone bank! I would say about 100 of us left and I only donate to particular candidates. I think Lizzie Fletcher has done a great job with town halls, they were full and everyone got to ask questions. We need more of that and less tricks!
14Grandma Ada
Some of us have given up. We called to volunteer to be a precinct captain for our area. Never heard back. Our precinct still has no organizer.
One email to the Beto campaign resulted in one of their organizers from California moving in for 2 months and running volunteer training out of the dining room. Not all Ds have their heads****. Now we only deal with candidates.
15El Jefe, “the same cabal controls the party” ??? They were elected by the people who attend the meetings. They can be un-elected by people who attend the meetings. If you don’t like the leadership, become the leadership.
16“Don’t mourn. Organize.”
– Joe Hill
Some suggestions:
* send all Texas Democrats the link: https://www.forthewin.us/
* If the county party is too disorganized to appoint precinct captains, they’re probably too disorganized to prevent more motivated Democrats from taking over.
* We need to start with dogcatcher-level local offices – win those, and we’ll have tested candidates for higher and higher offices.
* Start checking out “volunteers” to make sure they aren’t from James O’Keefe or his imitators.
* If a campaign consultant doesn’t produce winning strategies, look for new consultants. Perhaps those local offices could be used to test a new campaign consultant’s effectiveness…
* Those local elections will help build social media “spread the good word” chains. These will be a good base for state-wide elections.
17The Pubs outmaneuvered the Dems in South Texas. There are a bunch of Hispanics for whom the socialism and criminal illegal alien arguments really resonate, and they caught the Dems with their pants down.
18When I moved to Colorado in the early 90s, it was considered a bright red state. Republicans had 1 US Senator & 4 of 6 US Representatives. They had majorities in both the state House and Senate. The Democratic governor was an incumbent in the last term before term limits kicked him out. The Evangelicals and Republicans (but I repeat myself) had spearheaded the 1992 passage of Amendment 2, a ballot initiative to prohibit the state and any subordinate governments from enacting anti-discrimination protections for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.
In 1995, the Democratic US Senator became a Republican. In 1998, a Republican Governor was elected, giving Republicans trifecta power of the State House, Senate and Governor. In 2000, the state voted for Bush by a 50.75% to 42.39% margin, almost 150,000 votes out of 1.7 million cast.
From that low point, Colorado is not clearly NOT a red state. 2 Democratic Senators; 4 of 7 US Representatives; the Governor; three other state-wide executive offices. There are Democratic majorities in the state Senate; the state House; the state board of regents and the state school board.
The turnaround came from a variety of sources — one version of the story is in a book: The blueprint : how the Democrats won Colorado
One reader’s comment: “The model consists of taking over the operations of the political parties, which were hindered by campaign finance reform laws, and bringing these operations to a new level using cutting edge business practices and computer technologies.”
I’m pretty certain the Colorado Democratic Party was not a driving force in the change — but was willing to stand out of the way. Coalition building, grass-roots activity, advanced organization and tactics, and a fair amount of money … and voila, it worked.
Perhaps, just perhaps, something like that could take advantage of what I keep hearing is a demographic tsunami that will sweep away Republicans “in the next election or two.”
19Here’s a question: what impact did LBJ have on the Texas Democratic party? If he actually did so, what happened to that model?
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