Greg Abbott really doesn’t need this shit. Once upon a time, life was good. He had a war chest that looked like the gross national product from a 3rd world country, and a 14 point lead on an opponent who was struggling to find a traction issue.
But then came Uvalde. There is no way a Governor can look good when 19 10 year olds and 2 teachers are slaughtered in a classroom in his state. But then Abbott stepped on his crank with golf cleats. In his thirst to show phony leadership, Abbott spewed out inaccurate bullshit the very night of the shooting. And then he went into full statewide cover up mode to hide his state’s incompetence. And his lead dropped to 5 points over Beto.
There will be another large pro choice rally in Austin tomorrow, around the Capitol, and the guest of honor will be no one other than Beto O’Rourke. And this could be something that spells serious trouble for Abbott, following on the SCOTUS decision Friday, which made Ken Paxton so ecstatic he literally shut down the Attorney General’s office for the day to celebrate.
Here’s why I think this matters. Rachel Maddow said something in her Friday night show that went over my head in the deluge. But it was on again tonight for Teri to see, and this time I caught it. And the minute I heard it, it lit up in my mind.
Because what Rachel said stunned me. According to Rachel, 10% of United States women of childbearing age live in Texas! And all of them have already been living under a basic abortion ban for the last 10 months, since SCOTUS let SB8 slide, and signalled the death knell for Roe v Wade.
MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian had a nice scoop this weekend. She went undercover. She went to Texas, and met 20 young women in the middle of the night at a Texas church. The only reason they were there was to board a bus, and drive overnight into New Mexico to get a safe and legal abortion.
And those were the lucky ones. They had the connections and the wherewithal, and the childcare to make the trek. There are millions of Texas women who don’t have those options. And Paxton is shutting down an entire state government agency for the day to celebrate the overturning of Roe v Wade. Talk about rubbing peoples nose in it.
This is a potential one-two punch. The abortion issue isn’t going anywhere. It’s too hot, people are too pissed, and the Democrats will run on it for all it’s worth, hopefully at the state level as well. And Abbott isn’t going to get out from under the Uvalde debacle anytime soon, especially seeing how his stonewall attempt has more holes in it than the Jamestown dam. New revelations keep leaking about the almost insane incompetence of both the Texas state police, as well as the DPS.
Democrats have been hoping to turn Texas purple for years. But the combination of the abortion issue, and Abbott’s corruption and incompetence of leadership in the Uvalde massacre aren’t going to help. And neither is John Cornyn responding to Barack Obama’s tweet criticising SCOTUS for their ruling by tweeting out about maybe it’s time to revisit Brown v Board of Education. These fuckers are self destructive, I swear to God.
One problem with Rachel’s take on this: it’s TX. This state has been electing bottom-of-the-barrel candidates to public office for decades and let’s face it, one party absolutely sparkles with those types of candidates: the ‘pubes. Reckon we’ll see but if any state will continue to elect candidates who will trample on those who are not white, male, x-tians, it’s TX.
Would one expect anything better from Texas?. Like spike stated Texas is an illiterate State, so therefore they have no choice but to elect the bottom-of-the-barrel candidate who doesn’t give a shit about their Constituent!.
You can’t fix stupid
I live in Texas and I think the dems should list the insurrection, people freezing to death, Uvalde and the abortion ban and ask them, do you want more of this? If so, vote republican. Kind of my take on “do you miss me yet?”
All I can say is that I hope you are correct Murphy!