Elections 2012: BFP Watch Party

[Martina]

Originally Posted by TexasCowboi

Excuse me?

Obviously I am joking, but . . . Texas brought us George W. Bush and all that has meant. I think there's going to be some derision -- for a generation or two anyway. Maybe more.

Seriously, is there a more proudly reactionary state in the union? Texas has had FIVE times, FIVE TIMES the number of executions of any other state.

Texas is an outlier in so many measurements of progress, especially given its great wealth, that it boggles the mind. It's not that it's poor and ignorant. It's rich and determinedly proudly ignorant. I can imagine loving one's home regardless, but conservative Texas is beyond a red state. It really is another country.

The Texas Board of Education has done more harm to high school social science and science teaching -- nationwide -- than maybe any other entity in the U.S. Texas is a huge market, and, in the past, publishers created texts that could be sold in Texas under their laws, texts that deny there is a separation of church and state, that discuss evolution as if it were ONE possible explanation for biological diversity, texts that pretty much ignore the presence Hispanics in the U.S.

As an educator, I have thank Texas so much for wielding that influence.

I googled -- this article is a year old. It quotes another article, from The Washington Post, that I did not bother to look up.

"Perry is known in Texas as "Governor Supercuts," not only for his spiffy hairdo, but also for cutting the budgets of schools and poverty programs and holding down wages," writes Texas liberal James Hightower. "In his 10-year tenure, Perry has created more minimum wage jobs than all other states combined, and his superrich state now has more families in poverty than any other."

The Washington Post's Harold Meyerson provides more particulars:

Rick Perry's Texas is Ross Perot's Mexico in reverse, says Meyerson. Through a third world combination of low wages, no benefits, high rates of poverty, scant taxes, few regulations, but generous corporate subsidies in the Texas "crony capitalist" tradition, the Lone Star State has managed to attract businesses from other states "to a place where workers come cheap," says Meyerson.

Texas also boasts a number of other firsts, writes Meyerson:

It is first in the percentage of workers in minimum wage jobs.

It is first in adults without high school diplomas, at around 12% and projected to reach 30% by 2030 if there is not more support given to public education.

It is first in the percentage of medically uninsured adults and first in the percentage of children without medical insurance.

It is first in the number of executions.

It has the fourth-highest rate of poverty of any state.

Confronted with a $27 billion budget deficit this year, Perry did not raise taxes but instead slashed $4 billion from the public schools, Meyerson reports.

Oooo, I read the rest of the article. I like this quote --

"The failure of the nation to Americanize the South has made it possible for the South, under leaders like George W. Bush (and now Rick Perry) to Southernize the United States," writes Lind.

Lind, who is a Texas native himself, believes that the revival of Southern conservatism is "an aberration" and that white, Protestant fundamentalism will be a shrinking influence in our politics. "Trigger-happy, free-spending, Bible-thumping Southern conservatism" is doomed in the long run, says Lind. "The only question is how much damage it will do before its unregretted demise."

Thank you, Texas.

I have to enjoy the fact that changing demographics are eventually going to turn Texas into one big beautiful blue state, regardless of how reactionary its conservatives are. Looking forward to that day.