Party Platforms Show Opposing Views On Democracy

 In 2024 there is a marked difference between the directions of the Democratic and Republican parties in Texas. The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) platform urges that majority rule be taken away and replaced with essentially rule of the minority, which happens to align with conservatism and Republican’s in control. The Texas Democratic Party (TDP) platform insists upon greater respect for voting rights and the very concept of democracy, majority rule. In this week’s column I’ve provided quotes from both platforms that specifically address how each party views democracy and the value of it.

“We further resolve that all amendments to the Texas Constitution require a majority of the voters in at least 191 counties (three-fourths), instead of a simple majority of the votes.” Here's what this really means, the smallest 191 counties in Texas each had populations less than 55,000 people. The actual total population of those counties in 2023 was approximately 3 million while the state population is 30.5 million so less than 10% of the state's population lives and votes in those 191 counties. There were over 11 million votes cast in Texas in 2020. You can see that the Republican party doesn't believe in majority rule, they want the 10% of Texans living in rural counties and who vote overwhelmingly in favor of Republicans and conservative policies to have full control of the Texas constitution. This is anti-democratic, and I don’t mean anti-Democratic Party, I mean in opposition to democracy, also known as majority rule.

"The State Legislature shall cause to be enacted a State Constitutional Amendment creating an electoral college consisting of electors selected by the popular votes cast within each individual state senatorial district, who shall then elect all statewide office holders." We know from history that the national electoral college was originally created as a compromise with the lower population slave-holding states in order to allow them to prevent free-states from outlawing slavery. We know from presidential elections that since 1988 when George H.W. Bush won his single term in office that there has only been one other Republican to win a majority of the popular vote and that was George W. Bush won his second term in the 2004 election while we were at war in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Republicans have not won the popular vote for president in the last 20 years. Texas Republicans see the handwriting on the wall and are determined to prevent control of state government changing hands regardless of what a majority of the state's voters might desire. How un-American?

Conversely the Texas Democratic Party platform demands more respect for one person, one vote and majority rule. The platform states: “Support elimination of the Electoral College and join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and until the compact is effective, proportionally award Texas's presidential electoral votes based on the U.S Presidential results within the state.” Short of passing a constitutional amendment participating in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is the only way to insure majority rule in this country.

The Democratic Party platform also calls for the elimination of “barriers to voting and encourage full participation in elections and governance.” Recognition of “November’s Election Day as a state and federal holiday.” In addition our platform recommends combining “local, state, and federal elections to minimize how often voters have to go to the polls each year.” To improve voter turnout among young Texans the platform insists on removal of “undue burdens on students by placing polling locations at all institutions of postsecondary education.”

The TDP wants to provide more democracy. Who will you choose in November?

Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 19, 2024

Would you hire this guy?

 Assuming you’ve filled out a job application in recent memory, I’ll be you noticed a question asking if you’d ever been convicted of a felony. It’s there as a screening tool meaning that nearly all employers look at that and if the answer is yes, they stop bothering with the application and move on to the next one. Ask your employer or the Human Resources Department if you doubt me. 

When you’re being seriously considered for a job, the prospective employer will usually do some checking to confirm that what you’ve said on your application and in the interviews are true.

We know from trial testimony in the E. Jean Carroll case, the New York civil fraud case, and the most recent criminal case, that Donald Trump is sexually abusive, an inveterate liar, and now a convicted felon. I don’t know too many businesses that will hire someone with such a record. If most businesses won’t hire a convicted felon why are so many business owners so enthusiastic about hiring one as the next president?

Convicted felons cannot join the military if they are on probation or parole, in jail, or facing criminal charges. Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies. His former Chief-of-Staff General John Kelly certainly doesn’t want him in the oval office again. Kelly was quoted in a CNN interview as describing Trump as “a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.” Then there’s the classified documents case in which Trump not only refused to return various highly secret documents to the appropriate government agency but even lied claiming he didn’t have them until his home was raided by FBI agents who found over 100 of them in various rooms many of which were publicly accessible. Trump also discussed nuclear submarines and the number of missiles they carry with Australian business executive Anthony Pratt, a man with no security clearance whatsoever. Remember that Trump led the chant to have Hillary Clinton locked up over less than a handful of email messages stored on a secure server.

Why would anyone serving in the military now or in the past want Trump as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces?

I think it is a combination of several things. One is selfishness, in that he promises to lower taxes for the wealthy. Another is racism in that he says things that they feel; like brown immigrants are the enemy or criminals but white immigrants are great. Then there’s the authoritarian leaning of conservatives in that they want to be told what to do and believe that discipline should be top down, which Trump has made clear he believes in and acts upon.

All I see is a would be Mussolini, a pretender, a fraud, and an incompetent who used his performance as an entertainer on television to convince many members of the public that he is an incredibly talented businessman when in fact he is so bad he managed to drive his casino and several other of his businesses into bankruptcy.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 12, 2024

Disgust With Republicans

 The last 10 days of May were tumultuous; those days included the conclusion of one of four Trump criminal trials, runoff elections for state legislature and congress, as well as the Republican Party of Texas convention, held in San Antonio.

The party that claims to be all about law and order is now the party whose likely nominee is the first convicted felon to run for president. That’s right the man leading the party since 2016 has been convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.  Falsifying those business records would have been a misdemeanor if the reason hadn’t been to cover-up another crime like violating campaign finance laws or tax evasion. He committed the crime in an effort to cover up hush money payments made to avoid scandal while running for president in 2016. Let’s not forget he’s previously been found at fault for falsifying documents related to bank loans and property taxes with a penalty of $450 million and that’s in addition to being penalized $83 million for defaming E. Jean Carroll whom he sexually assaulted. At least when Richard Nixon ran for president Republicans didn’t know he was a crook, unlike Donald J. Trump.

While I was never a fan of our state representative John Kuempel, he at least he repeatedly voted against defunding public education unlike so many of his Republican colleagues. Kuempel’s defense of public education ultimately caused his downfall as Gov. Abbott targeted him for replacement with Donald Trump bootlicker, Alan Schoolcraft. Abbott funneled millions in out of state money from school voucher supporters to his preferred primary challengers in several races including Schoolcraft. I laughed so hard watching the commercials calling Kuempel a California style liberal. If you’ve ever looked at Kuempel’s voting record you’d know that’s bald faced lie. The only silver lining I see is that perhaps having a supporter of defunding public education running for state legislature will cause Republicans and conservative independents who believe in the mission of public education to vote for Eric Norman, the Democrat running in HD-44.

The Republican Party of Texas lurched further to the right as a result of votes taken at their latest state convention. Lower than normal turnout may have contributed to the ease with which Christian Nationalist billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks used their influence to get their handpicked candidate, Abraham George, elected as party chair. The influence of Dunn and Wilks can also be seen in the ever deepening Christian Nationalist ideology appearing in the party platform.

In an interview with the Texas Tribune, Zach Maxwell, who previously served as chief of staff for former Rep. Mike Lang, and later worked for Empower Texans, a political action committee that was funded primarily by Dunn and Wilks, said the Texas Republican party has increasingly been driven by purity tests and opposition to religious or political diversity. In his opinion this year’s convention was the culmination of those trends. Maxwell told the Tribune “God was not only used as a tool at this convention, but if you didn’t mention God in some way, fake or genuine, I did feel it was seen as distasteful. There is a growing group of people who want to turn this nation into a straight-up theocracy. I believe they are doing it on the backs of people who are easily manipulated.”

To sum up, the Republican party is led by a convicted felon and Nazi sympathizer, the Texas party works to defund public education, contrary to the requirements of the state constitution, and make this country into a Christian version of Iran.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 5, 2024