GOP is betting on fear to stay in power

Plus, best send 'hopes and prayers' for Texas electricity grid

Greg Abbott isn’t exactly loved by Republicans, who many suspect to be secretly a RINO, but that doesn’t mean they won’t vote for him in November, especially after he buys millions of dollars of fear-mongering ads designed to scare the absolute bejesus out voters.

Fear, most of it wholly unfounded, is a big part of political campaigns. It is used by both parties but absolutely no party has brought fear to its fullness as have the Republicans.

Abbott has millions in his campaign coffers already and he’ll be able to get as much more as he needs from his few dozen buddies giving him money. His is the furthest thing from a grass-roots campaign.

Is that fear-mongering? Nope. It is fact. It just takes a glance at the top of his contribution donars.

This race is likely going to be close, but it will not be because Abbott will prove himself to be the best candidate for Texas, because that is pure fantasy. He will hope to paint Beto O’Rourke as a wraith determined to confiscate all guns and teach homosexual love in every classroom.

Plus, he would allow women to control their own bodies!

Add in a healthy dose of voter suppression passed by the last legislature and every polling intimidation trick the GOP can legally (or not so legally) muster at the polls and Abbott could be able pull off a victory.

Maybe he can, but just maybe he will find that Texans won’t stand for Abbott’s brand of governmental mismanagement for another term.

I was told by a Democratic activist recently that the party has done studies that show if they could increase voting in East Texas by 10 percent in Beto O’Rourke’s favor, he could beat Abbott. That isn’t changing votes, that’s getting people who don’t vote to cast ballots.

Can that happen? I’m no campaign guru so I don’t know but getting out 10 percent more votes in East Texas does not seem impossible, especially considering all the things Republicans have done to clamp down on the rights of regular Texans, particularly the disaffected.

The new campaign laws were designed to keep that from happening but they just might backfire.

Those who still don’t plan on voting, though, should know that what has happened to date is only a tiny — albeit bitter — taste of what might be done if Abbott remains as governor for another term.

Think of Abbott and the Republicans unleashed, not that they’ve exactly been tied to the straight and narrow as it is.

You might believe that I am fear-mongering myself after just accusing Republicans of that, but there’s nothing here that Republican leaders haven’t already been talking about for months. They are actively campaigning on the following changes. If they win, there’s nothing to stop them.

First off, you can count on an outright assault to ban the so-called abortion pill, even though it currently has some protection from the federal government. This is about the only chance a person who is raped has from preventing an unwanted pregnancy. The same is true of those assaulted within a family, or who has a real medical need.

That’s a guarantee. The next step will be to either to severely limit or outright ban contraceptives of all kinds, including pills and devices meant to stop pregnancy. That’s high on the agenda.

This from “the only reason to have sex is to procreate” crowd or, rather, those who claim to believe that.

That’s merely in the sex arena, so to speak, and sex isn’t the only thing the Republicans want to screw up, not nearly.

They are also out to make sure that education for Texas schoolchildren is “purified” through the filter of their own choosing, one that doesn’t tend to reflect reality, but just their idea of the way it should be seen.

You may think this is only about history and, true, it focuses on subjects like slavery, the treatment of African-Americans in 400 years of American history, the genocide of Native Americans and a hundred other blemishes they would like to cover up.

But the ultimate plan goes well beyond that. They are coming for your children’s books, too, and not just in the school libraries, but public libraries. Don’t think that this is all just about history, either. This is literature. This is science. This is the way word problems are taught to your children in mathematics. Indoctrination comes in all kinds of forms large and small.

Some of this has already memorialized in law by the last legislature. Texas teachers are already going to be walking a tightrope and the rope will get smaller, tighter, and higher with each passing year.

There are extreme members in the legislature and extreme candidates running in various parts of the state. Normally, these candidates would be outliers with little chance of getting legislation passed.

That was then and this is now. Extremism has become the new normal in Texas politics and there is only one good way to stop it. Vote.

O’Rourke cannot, by himself, reverse what has already been done by the legislature, but the power of the veto should prevent the worst. We also do not know yet how the general state of the nation is going to affect the vote in Texas. A Republican rout could nationwide could wash over into Texas, and give them a veto-proof majority even if O’Rourke wins.

We probably have not seen the last news that can impact this gubernatorial election.

This election still has months of possible inflection points. Stay awake.

***

As the temperature rises, chances also rise that the Texas electricity grid will fail. The warnings have already gone out.

The good news, I suppose, is that the most eastern swath of East Texas is saved from this uncertainty because it is not connected to the Texas grid. Not every last person in Texas will suffer if the grid goes down, just about 98 percent of us will.

This is not funny or a mere inconvenience. Just as in the great freeze of 2021, people will die if any such event occurs.

The legislature could have taken steps to strengthen the grid and Abbott could have done something — anything — to encourage that action. Instead, almost nothing happened.

If a grid disaster ensues it can be laid at the feet of the Republicans. They control every lever of state government in Texas as they have for decades. One has to wonder just how much longer that will last.

The utility companies, which have Republicans just where they want them, hope that it lasts forever. Mind you, neither the utility companies nor Republicans want the grid to fail, they are just sending up hopes and prayers that it holds.

And we all know how well that tactic works.

If you found this newsletter useful, please consider subscribing to support the effort. It is free.

Phil Latham writes another newsletter on Substack, “American Slave Stories,” which aims to keep the memory alive of those built America. A subscription is $5 per month if you would like to support the effort.