You Need To Feel Sorry For Me For Here I Sit. UPDATED
I am sitting in Austin, Texas, supposedly the Cadillac of Liberalism, at the temporary platform committee meeting of the Texas Democratic Party.
I am watching. Bubba is participating. I am fully convinced that the only reason they put him on this committee was to give his progressive patootie a heart attack.
When Texas was a one party state, Democrats got pulled off the tracks by blue dogs. So, we politely asked the conservatives to form their own party. In the days of Ann Richards, the Texas Democratic Party stood for something. Well, the Republicans responded by sending a few of their own back to the Democratic party … as political consultants. Now the damn blue dogs even have their own caucus at the state convention, where they plot to keep the Democratic Party so vanilla that we seem to be an afterthought in the voting booth.
The blue dogs argue that if we stand for something like a moratorium on the death penalty or medical marijuana, or marriage equality, some damn Democratic sheriff in some damn rural east Texas county won’t get re-elected or some fool county commissioner in deep fool west Texas will leave the party if we let someone dying of cancer smoke a joint.
Whoop-de-damn-do.
They grabbed a little power and a regular paycheck where they don’t have to actually work for a living, and sit around all day playing with numbers trying to prove that if we don’t kowtow to blue dogs in Lufkin, we can’t win Texas.
That’s hogwash.
Trading the youth, urban, female, and progressive vote to win a county commissioners race in a county with 10,000 voters is …. Well, it’s gonna give Bubba a heart attack.
So, I’m fixing to take my seat and watch Bubba and a handful of other strong progressives get whipped by people who think the Democratic party in Texas needs to continue to stand for nothing, but this time we need to do it a little softer.
If you’re going to the Texas Democratic convention in June, please oh please elect someone from your senatorial caucus to the platform committee who is smart, tough, and progressive.
Changing the platform won’t change the blue dog culture, but it’s a damn start.
The meeting starts at 10:30. I’ll try to Tweet it. #tdpplatform. but, remember — tweeting is not natural to me. I can’t saying hello in 140 characters.
UPDATED: Maybe it’s the time and place of the meeting but out of 16 people here, I only see one person here under the age of 55, two South Asians, one Hispanic, 5 women. Every else is an OLD white male.
NOTE, State Rep Garnett Coleman, an African American, just showed up to lead the meeting. (He had been in a meeting at the Capitol.)
If you don’t kowtow to the blue dogs you may lose. But if you do kowtow to the blue dogs you have already lost.
1sfx: (Marge Simpson growl)
2In the great State of Texas, 45% of the population is non-Hispanic White, what the neologists decided to call a “minority-majority” because heck, “plurality” sounded foreign, somehow, like all them damn SAT words.
Only 30% of Texas children under 5 are non-Hispanic white.
Angelina County may be 75% white, but the blue dogs there aren’t gonna get anywhere by being Gohmert-lite.
And they’re going to continue to get nowhere if they don’t wake up and smell the cafe.
Plan for the future. It’s what being progessive MEANS!
3We owned a blue tick hound when I was a kid.
4It was a chicken-s— too!
Stand tall, Bubba. Sounds like they need a damn spine!
5These are the people that send Texas money into other states
6instead of building grass roots here in Texas.
Since Bubba is participating, he should remind them all what integrity means. If people can’t stick to their progressive values, we don’t need them representing us. Blue Dogs screwed us in 2008, so now they can kiss my blue butt. And that’s what I told the DCCC when they called me for a donation two weeks ago. Good luck, JJ.
7“Insanity” is the term for repeating the same behavior, over and over again, ……. and expecting different results.
Hang in there ……. more and more of us everyday, are getting tired of losing elections…. from doing the same thing, over and over again……. and not seeing changes. We are not “insane”. And we are not going to let blue dogs drive us there, or to heart attacks.
We ain’t getting mad, were plotting on how to get even.
8Might be a good idea for Bubba to remind the Lufkin blue dogs about where their rural electricity and farm to market roads came from.
9Sam Rayburn and Dolph Briscoe would kick their cowardly asses.
About 30 years ago, in our Texas county, the executive committee repeatedly appointed a district convention, resolutions committee chair who was intelligent but whose speech was unintelligible. During the convention he would read the report of the resolutions committee, and no one would understand a word he said. When he stopped talking someone else would jump to his feet and second the motion that we adopt the report of the committee. The chair would call for the vote, and the report was always adopted. That process avoided open warfare and we got to the bar early.
Bubba, two thoughts, three actually: 1 There are matters of principal that should not be sacrificed for the immediate gratification of winning elections; but 2. winning elections can be important too, as in electing the president who nominates Supreme Court justices; and
10Hell Bubba, I pushed the wrong thingy. 3. perception is sometimes the only reality, and maybe we can have a platform that is both progressive and garners votes because it strikes the right chord with the majority of Texans who show up on electon day. This is probably preaching to the choir, it’s not your first rodeo, or jury argument.
11My money’s on Bubba.
12I’m with “BarbinDC”
13The meeting is being held during the day on a Tuesday, yes, there will be old people there.
14Where’s the meeting, JJ? I’m having difficulty finding info on it. I always want to come by and say hi when you are in town if I can shake away from work for a few. Probably not this trip, unless you are staying overnight. Hope Bubba helps them grow a new pair [sorry Momma]. God bless you both for the work you do!
15Okay, here’s how it worked. Committees were broken into groups. The groups will meet and report back on Thursday at the state convention before delegates arrive.
Bubba got named to the Access to Justice (marijuana laws, death penalty),Rights and Freedoms (marriage equality). He really likes the people on those committees, plus there’s 3 Young Democrats on it. He’s a happy man.
16Good luck, Bubba. It’s good to know a real progressive man like you is on the Access to Justice committee.
17I’ve always believed that given a choice between two candidates, a Republican and a Republican Light, people will elect the Republican. It’s stupid to be fighting over a demographic group (old, scared white people) that is declining while irritating growing demographics (Hispanics, young people, people who aren’t scared of two dudes making out, etc.).
18So glad Bubba’s happy! Much better than having a heart attack. Go get ’em, Bubba!
19Sean Hubbard
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