From healthcare to the electrical grid, two decades of Republican rule in Texas has given much of our state conditions similar to a third-world country.
Hey, Texas. How’s it going? Are you ok? Do you have power? Water? Food? Are you safe?
We still don’t know what the death toll will be, reports this morning have been ranging anywhere from 30 to 35 dead, so far. There have been many reports of the elderly, children, entire families, and the homeless dying from the cold, house fires, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Do we need to go over, again, why this has happened?
Here are some words from Beto O’Rourke.
Beto said, “We are nearing a failed state in Texas.”
While I agree on nearly everything else that Beto said, I don’t think we are nearing a failed state. Texas is already a failed state. It has been for a long time. Texas relies on Natural Gas for power. Our entire infrastructure is designed for maximum profits with minimal oversight. The blackouts in Texas are primarily because of frozen instruments at gas, coal, and nuclear plants — as well as limited supplies of gas, according to ERCOT. Frozen wind turbines were the least significant factor.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]The Texas Democrat Party put out a press release earlier today, which said “Greg Abbott and the Republican Party of Texas Continue to Blatantly Lie to the People of Texas, Falsely Shift Blame for Days of Power Outages to Renewable Energy. Facts Show that No, Renewable Energy Was Not to Blame for Abbott’s Incompetence“
Yep. While people are dying, without power, food, and water…our elected representatives have been going on Fox News and said that the push for more renewable energy and adoption of the Green New Deal is what led to historic statewide blackouts that have left millions of homes still without power and 21 people dead. (Much higher now.)
Chris Hayes explained it well:
There are now conspiracies coming from all parts of Texas that the ruling class (I.E. Republicans), is intentionally killing poor people, by keeping their power off.
Of course, that’s not true.
The power isn’t off because of malice. It’s off because of negligence, which just happened to spawn out of malice. Kind of like how 40,000 Texans have died from Covid.
Republicans are in control of Texas, Republicans are the reason we don’t have power.
It isn’t just Greg Abbott.
The Texas Republicans who get the most money from oil companies have been lying the loudest. Below are screenshots on Twitter of elected Republicans all flat out lying.
I suggest taking the time to reach out to them all, both on social media and by phone. Let them know what lying assholes they are.
That includes Jeff Cason, Bryan Slaton, Dan Crenshaw, and Pete Sessions. Likely many more than that. All of them need to be held accountable.
Then you have completely tone-deaf dipshits like Brian Babin and Lance Gooden. While people in their districts are suffering and dying, they’re tweeting about ending the 14th amendment and conspiracies about Biden and China.
It gets better.
As 4 million Texans go to bed without power, a state regulatory agency decided to update its pricing model “because energy prices should reflect the scarcity of the supply.”
While people in Texas have been without power for days now, they are jacking up the prices, so they can make more money.
Check out my expected bill for the month.
I have a big family, so we normally have high bills (usage), however, in the winter we usually pay around $400. It’s doubled. This is what happens with privatization. The CEO of Oncor makes $5 million a year, the CEO of ERCOT makes almost $900,00 per year.
The powers that be are doubling the costs of electricity right now. It isn’t just mine. Seen earlier on Collins Democrats, the bill of a Cedar Hill resident.
The elderly, single mothers, working-class families, what do you think is going to happen when their electric bills double? After this last year, when income inequality has skyrocketed?
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]All of this is because of deregulation and privatization.
Republicans in Texas live in this fantasy Ayn Rand utopia where they have become completely disillusioned with reality and what Texas is like for “everyone else.”
When I say, everyone else, I mean all 5.2 million people who voted Democrat and the millions who couldn’t vote because of voter suppression, voter depression, and voter intimidation.
Which is WAYYYYY more than the 5.8 million Republican voters we have in Texas. While it’s been discussed countless times, why rural Republicans vote against their own self-interests, it’s important that we all understand what’s happening.
Just as Chris Hayes said, it’s endless culture wars with the Republicans. That’s why Black people have been a target in rural Texas for these white militias, because of something they heard on Facebook. And this is why Abbott has gone on to TV and lied about the Green New Deal and AOC, it’s because that’s all Republicans seem to be about.
Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa issued the following statement:
“Greg Abbott is a liar who is more interested in scoring political points than helping the millions of Texans who have been without power for days.
“The gravity of this situation cannot be understated. A sitting US Governor has gone on right-wing television to blatantly and falsely spew rhetoric that has zero bases in fact. And he is doing so while his constituents freeze to death or catch hypothermia in their homes, while they struggle without access to necessary medical care and supplies, and while their families go hungry.”
They have to “own the libs.”
Look at Brian Babin and Lance Gooden, for example. Two of the most repugnant Republicans who preach hate from social media on a daily basis. No matter what is going on in Texas or in America, they make their way to Twitter to spread lies and hate. Daily. It’s exhausting. There are a select few who meet their social media accounts daily with truth and reckoning. But it never gets through.
Then take Kevin Steele from East Texas, who was a news anchor and then got fired, or quit, I don’t know the entire story. This “media personality,” is also daily using his Facebook page to spread lies and pure unadulterated hatred. While that’s normal for Texas, it’s alarming as to how many people comment on his content in hate and conspiracies about Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Democrats, or whoever they are focused on at the moment. These people, (mostly elderly), in East Texas hate Democrats, but they can’t even tell you if they have met one before.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]Spoiler, they have, but there are a lot of Democrats in East Texas that don’t let other people know their political affiliation.
Why?
Because of endless cultural wars. How many of the domestic terrorists from January 6th came from Texas? I’ve lost count, now. Thirty? Fifty? What was the only state where Trump terrorists attempt to drive the Biden/Harris bus off the road? Texas, again. They didn’t even finish the political tour they had planned. As of now, still, none of them have been charged, and they still brag about their crimes on Facebook. Which state has the most congressmen vote to overturn the election? Yep, Texas again.
This strange phenomenon has been happening these last few days. As Texans are dying in their homes from freezing temperatures, carbon monoxide, and fires people all over social media have been criticizing the responses and backlash they’ve been getting from other states. In other states, they don’t feel sorry for us and are talking about how we get what we vote for. Many are enraged by this because we know that 46% of us DID NOT vote for this. Texas has 5.2 million Democratic voters who are not represented at any level of government.
Living Blue in Texas friend, Jessica Luther Rummel said it best.
America hates Texas. I always knew that, but I didn’t realize how much until this week. However, what everyone in America is failing to realize is that America doesn’t hate Texas, they hate Texas Republicans. They just don’t know that there are 5.2 million Democrats here.
Now, there are countless people on Tik Tok and Twitter trying to explain to everyone that we’re not the Republicans. We agree with you, they’re fucking evil.
It was Texas Republicans who blocked funding aid for Hurricane Sandy when people in the Northeast were suffering.
When California was on fire, it was Texas Republicans who took to social media making fun of people’s loss of life and property, as well as blaming Democrats. It was a Texas Republican who sued all of the other states at the Supreme Court to overturn the election in 2020.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]Democrats in Texas are being held hostage.
Texas is under control by the same Conservatives who seceded in 1861, the same Conservatives who implemented Jim Crow, the same Conservatives who belonged to the Dixiecrat wing of the party, and the same Conservatives who have built generations of a corrupt government. Texas has the most corrupt state government in America. Our elected Republicans are all millionaires who bathe in donations from oil and insurance companies and none of them give a shit about Texans.
There are 5.2 million Democrats in Texas, most of who have no representation, due to extreme racial gerrymandering.
These maps are drawn in a way so that BIPOC and lower-income groups are a small portion of what they represent. This is done intentionally to keep rich, white, Republicans in charge.
If how egregious these maps are drawn doesn’t anger you, then these next words by Greg Abbott will.
“It is perfectly constitutional for a Republican-controlled legislature to make
Greg Abbott – Shannon Perez v. State of Texas
partisan districting decisions, even if there are incidental effects on minority
voters who support Democratic candidates.”
This was a lawsuit about how racial gerrymandering stripped minority groups of their constitutional rights to have fair representation. Abbott’s argument in this lawsuit was that the Republican’s intention was to make sure that Democrats couldn’t get representation in congress and it’s not their fault if most Democrats are Black. Republican judges upheld it. This was in 2013, soon after the Republican majority on the Supreme Court with a 5-4 vote ruled that racism in America was over with Shelby v. Holder.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]Greg Abbott has always been an asshole and he’s always been part of a conspiracy to keep corrupt, rich Republicans in control, stripping away representation from millions, upon millions of people.
In 2020, there was 21 million people over the voting age in Texas. From there, 16 million people were registered to vote.
That means there were 5 million people who were old enough to vote but didn’t.
From the 16 million people who were registered, only 12 million showed up to vote. That means out of the 21 million people who were eligible to vote, 9 million people never even made it to the polls. Republicans won 5.8 million votes and Democrats won 5.2 million.
The elected Republicans only represent 25% of eligible voters and 17% of the overall population. What do you think is the reason so many in rural Texas still don’t have access to broadband internet? Is it a deliberate attempt to keep the flow of information out of these traditionally reliable Republican areas?
Have you had it, yet?
A lot of us have had it. If you aren’t organized with any local progressive or Democratic groups already, it’s really time to get involved. There are 5.2 million of us. Getting Republicans out of control will save lives, give us access to healthcare, education, and equality. It is going to take every one of us to work our asses off to turn Texas blue.
If Georgia can do it, we can too.
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Still Blue in Texas 