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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Is Pushing Republicans Across the Country to the Extreme Right


Everything is bigger in Texas, including radicalize, weaponization, and encourage GOP’s bold abuse of power to empower them culture war and overthrow democracy.

If you want a preview of the GOP’s national project to perpetuate white, minority rule look no further than Texas, the second most populous state in the nation, which now serves as a starter trendsetters for Republican legislatures across the country.

Texas Republicans, led by Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz, pledged to bolster their colleagues by introducing the harshest versions of voter suppression, the law banning public transportation. declarations, the anti-abortion bill, and racial segregation (CRT) bans. While the state serves as a major warning to Democrats and the majority of Americans about what to expect when Republicans prevail in the state legislature, it also reveals the insights into how activists and organizations can creatively protest and advocate for popular, progressive policies.

The Lone Star State has become a “laboratory” for GOP politicians and their hardline agenda, according to Democrat Ben Chou, who is running to become Harris County Commissioner for District 4. “This is all for a national background as they head into the Republican primaries,” Chou said, predicting Abbott and Cruz are nurturing 2024 presidential ambitions and trying to be “one of two.” their conservative competition, including Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida.

Like a reality TV contest from hell, Texas Republicans are showing off their skills.

They were flexible for the first time with voter suppression. “More than 440 invoices with provisions restricting voting access was introduced in 49 states during the 2021 legislative sessions,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks GOP voter suppression efforts across the country. Texas is leading.

Under the guise of fighting voter fraud, which is almost non-existent, Texas Republican Party passed Senate Bill 1, this limits the state’s voting process, narrows local control over elections, and implements ridiculous voting ID requirements that negatively impact Democrats and skin voters color. For example, in multiracial and multiracial Harris County, nearly 16% of 1,276 applications to vote absentee received for the upcoming primaries was denied due to failure to meet the new ID requirements. For perspective, in the 2018 Texas primaries, only 2.5% out of 4,800 applications were rejected, according to election officials. Fewer people can vote, meaning the bill is working exactly as planned.

Azra Siddiqui, president of Wise Up Texas, a nonpartisan nonprofit that empowers and educates South Asian Texans, said it is responding to its radical base.

Previously, watch the sadistic acts of Senator Cruz Audience of Tucker Carlson on Fox News, where he stepped back from an earlier statement where he correctly called the January 6 violent uprising a “terrorist attack”. A few days later, Senator Cruz had trouble giving birth again, and he shamelessly sold Carlson’s “false flags” conspiracy theory at a Senate hearing questioning DOJ officials.

As for Governor Abbott, Siddiqui believes he has been pushed further to the right after being beaten by far-right candidates, such as former Representative Allen West, whose “really far-right primaries really came out”. appear in the primaries”. As a result, Abbott criticized the vaccine and mask mandates, and banned any Texas organization, including private companies, don’t ask for a vaccine.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton watched by Sue against President Biden’s federal vaccination order for the National Guard. In turn, these anti-mask and anti-vaccine regulations have hurt progressive activism, according to Texas Democrat Jen Ramos, State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) “It is not easy for the GOP to pass their bills without opposition,” she said. In previous years, progressive groups and allies protested at the Texas Capitol against GOP bills. More recently, she said, progressives are outnumbered in testimony because many people don’t feel safe or comfortable going to the Capitol, where even Texas soldiers don’t wear them. mask in the building.

Texas serves as a warning to Democrats nationwide to pay special attention to races for the state legislature. Currently, both houses in Texas have a Republican majority. Thus, the GOP controls the redistricting.

“Gerrymandering exists and we have trouble when it comes to the state legislature. We’re not going to get a majority there anytime soon,” Chou said. “Basically, the GOP has never supported a fair and representative democracy,” Ramos told me. However, with the Republican Party’s consolidation of power, Ramos said that their new position is, essentially, “We’re out of influence, so we’re going to run for it.”

That includes passing a dangerous and reckless expansion bill that could weaponize the worst of us. Before 2020, Siddiqui couldn’t have imagined that moderate Republicans would pass a gun ban bill that would allow Texans to carry handguns in public without a license or training. Governor Abbott’s signing into law “shocked a lot of us.” It is proof that what was once the extreme fringes of the GOP is now at its heart.

“This past legislative session is the furthest I have ever seen,” Siddiqui said, citing the introduction of Texas abortion law, SB8, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who facilitates it. for abortion after six weeks, without any exception for rape or incest. Anyone who succeeds in their claim could be awarded $10,000 by the court. The law stopped most abortions in Texas and served as a template for Republicans nationwide, especially after the conservative majority of the US Supreme Court refused to hear objections. with the law — for the law to be effectively applied.

Furthermore, the Texas bill is the model used by Governor DeSantis of Florida for Stop the WOKE Act, This gives parents the right to sue a teacher if they believe their child is being taught important racial theory and to obtain an attorney if they succeed in their case. Not to be outdone, Governor Abbott just beat him with a “Declaration of parental rights“Gives Texas parents more control over their children’s education, including curriculum decisions, particularly on topics related to race and LGBTQ+ issues. The bill would allow parents to prevent educators from providing books depicting same-sex relationships, described as “erotic material. ”

The pivot for the Democratic Party in Texas is not necessarily chasing the moderates or abandoning their progressive policies. Ramos cites the example of “Rising Star” Lena Hidalgo. of the biggest executives. in Houston. Hidalgo was the first woman and Latina was elected to office. Ramos says Hidalgo is an example of a forward-thinking, unrepentant young woman of her Latinx heritage who is young – and all of those factors are her assets to win mainly because of her focus. on issues that people care about. As a result, she was able to fight the GOP and advocate for COVID safety protocols, which Ramos says has saved many lives.

Chou recommends that Democrats focus on counties and cities, where they could fight the Republican-dominated state legislature, which meets only every five months and two years and therefore cannot spend all the time to limit their efforts. “Until that next legislative session, we are in the counties, we make plans, we make strategies and we start enacting policies,” he said. Democrats in Harris County, for example, set up a polling place in the county jail because almost two-thirds of the people there because they’re poor and can’t afford bail but can still vote legally. They did this without making it public.

Ultimately, Democrats must give people a reason to come out and vote for them, and that means focusing on the issues they care about. They can’t just rely on people of color – especially Latinos – to show up because of a significant and disturbing number of xenophobic and hateful Republicans. In fact, some disturbing data suggests that the GOP has been able to win over Latino voters recently, focuses on issues related to the economy, immigration and culture wars.

Ramos says it’s a good lesson to remember that Latinos are not monolithic and that Latinos in Texas “feel disenfranchised despite being represented,” with politicians often ignoring these concerns. community concerns about health care, transportation and safe drinking water. She said Latino voters will show up for “anyone who really supports the issues that affect our community – job security, living wages, and food on the table.”

One great hope and challenge for Democrats is the upcoming gubernatorial race featuring former Representative Beto O’Rourke. Both Ramos and Chou believe that O’Rourke has succeeded in mobilizing grassroots communities, with a particular focus on rural broadband and healthcare, while avoiding the right-wing lure of The issue of culture war is divisive.

While it may seem hopeless to Democrats in Texas, Ramos urges people not to dismiss Texas as sacrosanct or dismiss it as a radically conservative state. Texas is not a left-wing state, she said, but Democrats are still mobilized, especially in large metropolitan areas, where there is still hope for systemic change.

However, hope is no longer enough for Democrats. If they really want to mass mobilize and repel an extreme GOP, they must promote, organize, resist, strategize, and ultimately provide for increasingly disillusioned voters who are already over Tired of empty promises and empty slogans.



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