No End to the Crazy in Texas

Get a load of this headline —

They keep promising they’ll go, but they never do it, the jerks. How can we miss you if you won’t go away?

This happened at the recent Texas Republican state convention, which sounds like it was an even bigger clown show than the seemngly multiannual CPAC conference.

Among other things, a bunch of MAGA-head Proud Boy types got into the conference and heckled Rep. Dan Crenshaw as a “globalist RINO” and “eyepatch McCain.” I understad the latter taunt originated with Tucker Carlson after Crenshaw  visited Ukraine.

Crenshaw always seemed a typical hard-right wackjob to me. The “globalist RINO” charge came from an allegation that Crenshaw had something to do with the World Economic Forum, although I don’t know exactly what. He also was accused of supporting red flag laws, although he says that is not his position now. But somehow he is suddenly persona non grata among the insurrectionist set.

Back to the Texas GOP conference — along with calling for a secession referendum of some sort to appear on ballots in 2023, the conference appears to have approved the following:

  • A resolution rejecting the result of the 2020 presidential election and calling Joe Biden an “illegitimate president.”
  • A resolution calling for the complete repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
  • A party platform calling homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice.” Also the Log Cabin Republicans, which represents gay Republicans, was blocked from having a booth at the conference.
  • Another part of the platform called for teaching schoolchildren about “the humanity of the preborn child,”
  • Delegates adopted a formal “rebuke” of Sen. John Cornyn for engaging in bipartisan gun control talks. Cornyn was booed when he tried to give a speech explaining the talks.

This is all reminding me of a particularly creepy Twilight Zone episode. No one is allowed to disagree with the demon child. Except now there are a lot of demon children.

Going back to the Newsweek article and the secession resolution —

Under a section titled “State Sovereignty,” the platform states: “Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government. Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified.

I hope they all understand that if Texas secedes, Texas citizens will forfeit all connection to Social Security and Medicare.

“Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.”

So Texans just want to declare they have a right so secede (they don’t), not that they’re actually going to secede. Do stop being such a tease, Texas.

In related news: Former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, currently the Republican front runner for Roy Blunt’s Senate seat, has released an ad so irresponsible and offensive that it was banned from Facebook. So let’s see it!

Yeah, he’s telling his followers to go RINO hunting. I assume he’s referring to his GOP political opposition, none of whom strike me as all that RINO-ish. They’re all verious degrees of MAGA. Unfortunately. Maybe former Navy SEAL Greitens will go hunting for former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw.

Seriously, this is not sustainable. At some point the only way left for them to up the ante will be to really start shooting each other.

10 thoughts on “No End to the Crazy in Texas

  1. "Seriously, this is not sustainable."

    Oh, you just wait… AZ has always had a super inferiority complex, jealous, of TX so you just wait for all of the Ohio/Illinois transplants to try to one-up the wingnutters in TX. Up there, the 4 million+ transplants in Phoenix like pretend that they are rugged individuals, but most of those trashcans came to the wild west because they wore their howdy-doody cowboy suit when they were a kid and wanted to have play time, pretend that everything is gonna be great, and live large off the massive graft that is the Valley of the Sun (read about Fife Symington and as well as Keating, Lincoln Savings, which is the business model of AZ, and of the illusory wealth that will vanish into the desert here shortly).

    Sheesh, I digress, these were the the proto-trumps.

    Wonder what happens after the water dries up, the 4 mil in Phoenix will wander off in search of a summer night that is less than 90 degrees. Heh, they will still get one-upped by TX after the Ogalala is drained.

    Yep, this is all not sustainable, but the Phoenicians seem to think that they can live off of real estate swindles until the end of time. They seem to think it works in TX and live by that example.

     

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  2. IF there is to be any serious discussion of Tejas seceding from the Union, there MUST be the right of the counties in West Texas (north from the east side of Big Bend National Park) to secede from Texas and join the state of New Mexico.

    Ciudad El Paso and El Paso County are bastions of Democrats.  When I lived there for 8+ years (some 30 years ago), there was some not necessarily serious discussions of leaving Texas to join New Mexico.

    Sidenote: El Paso is closer to Phoenix than Dallas by about 200 miles. El Paso is about 250 miles close to the capital of New Mexico than to the capital of Texas.

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  3. Oh pretty please, TexASS!

    GO!!!!!!!!

    We swear, we won't try to stop you!

    We also won't try stop them if they want to start shooting each other. I just hope they have the decency to let us know ahead of time, so we can duck & cover!

    Oh wait!  I just made a funny!  I used the word "decency."  They never had any decency ever.  EVER!

    They want to repeal the "Voting Rights Act?"  No surprise there at all.  It's just that they used to more subtle than that.

    What's next?

    My money'd be on the 19th Amendment.

  4. No one should be surprised at the Greitens ad.  Making gun play ads threatening "second amendment solutions" is almost a requirement for any republican on shaky electoral ground who wants to win.  Even Dr. Oz in PA made one, looking ridiculous as ever.  Doesn't matter; if you're a republican and want to win, you got to shoot off some guns, blow stuff up and threaten "liberals."  They've made ads before threatening Pelosi, Omar, Clinton, AOC and others.  The Greitens ad was inevitable, as it was only a matter of time before they turned the guns on themselves.

    This is a yet another opportunity for democrats to highlight for all to see what’s becoming the inherent violence supported in the republican party. Thinking of McConnell and others, who have looked the other way on violent ads from their members, reminds me of the last line of the famous poem, “…and I didn’t speak up, and when they came for me, there was no one left to speak for me.”

     

  5. The US Constitution has no provision for secession. I'm not sure this is a good thing. No snark – I'm serious. Suppose the US Congress proposed an amendment that allowed a state to do a petition (which would require a percentage of voters from that state to endorse) which would put the issue on the state ballot. The results would be binding.

    The CA could also specify the sunset of Medicare (and all other US federal programs), some period of time after the citizens passed by a majority the ballot initiative to secede. Keep in mind: citizens of the US in other countries DO get SS as long as they haven't renounced citizenship.- I don't see how SS could be cut off if the person does not renounce citizenship. (Perhaps getting a passport in that state, which is no longer the US could be declared renouncing US citizenship.) 

    But – once you stop paying into SS, the accumulated benefits no longer increase. So how does a $400 SS retirement benefit feel to you?  Give the citizens of the seceeding state a year to move to the US with no penalty in benefits, but if you are a citizen of the new country -get in line if you want citizenship. 

    I don't think Texas would leave the US if you gave them a path (and the citizens could vote on it.)  This is s$$holery trying to provoke the federal government to respond with threats of force. (Because they want to wear the victimhood.) 

    Make them put up or shut up.

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    • Does no one remember the Civil War?

      There is no right to secede from the Union. To create such an amendment (I am assuming you mean a constitutional amendment) would require the existing mechanism for amending the Constitution. Meaning it would never pass.

      Personally, I'm all for Texas seceding. It would mean a new border and, better, the ability to deport Texans back to their benighted "state".

      Is Elon Musk still moving his business there? Great. One less person to deport.

    • I'd require Texas residents to apply for U.S. citizenship and let them have it as long as they don't have criminal records. A lot of them probably won't apply. 

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