Take our poor, our tired, those yearning to be free…
Also, Abbott appoints criminal suspect to police standards board
If you happen to be poor, sick, abused, mentally ill, different, or haven’t had the good fortune to be born in the U.S.A., Texas had rather you just go away.
Where do we want you to go? Not too many really care about that, just away, out of sight, someplace we don’t have to look at you. Most surely don’t want to consider the idea of, say, doing anything to help you other than through the annual United Way campaign or maybe a few coins in the Salvation Army pot at Christmas.
You’re just too needy for Texas. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and, if you don’t have any boots, go to the store and buy some, for heaven sakes.
Texans are doing their best to ease their own burdens and, well, we’re sorry that easing our burdens exponentially increases yours.
Them’s the breaks.
Our latest move, brought to you by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, is to take migrants — who have followed our nation’s rules and legally presented themselves at the border seeking asylum — and bus them to Washington, D.C. and New York City.
Abbott says that filling buses with migrants will help keep Texans “safe,” because, you know, the people from Mexico carry diseases of all kinds.
That old fear-mongering excuse has been around since at least the turn of the century. No, not the turn of the 21st Century, the one before that, before penicillin and most modern medicine. It might have been true then, though I’m doubtful.
The other possibility designed to stir up fear is that migrants might be part of a violent drug cartel. Could be true, I suppose, but sending these folks by bus to New York City is supposed to do what, exactly? Open a new territory for them? Allow them to melt into the sea of people? It looks like we’d be better off knowing where they are and keeping track of them.
What sort of thing would Abbott refuse to do to just to win another term as Texas governor? Treating human beings like cattle and shipping them against their will to all points on the map seems low, indeed, but I have the feeling this is only the beginning of an even more inhumane reality we may see in the days ahead.
The better news is that, at least in Washington and New York City, Abbott’s castoffs seem to be treated in better fashion once they arrived. Of course, a number of them skipped out of the bus on the trip up.
I would suggest that if there were any bad actors among the migrants, they drifted away on the way to New York and Washington, probably not to be heard from again.
This is a common theme with Abbott’s plans. They are quickly thought out to achieve maximum political pain and wind up either just hurting Abbott or Texas taxpayers. Both seem to be the victims in this case.
Remember his disaster of stopping trucks at the border for “safety” inspections and the morass that created? That’s an example of Abbott’s governance.
How much are these little sight-seeing tours costing us? Are they being paid for by Abbott campaign funds? I don’t definitively know the answer to either question but I’m thinking Abbott isn’t paying a cent for this stunt, which must cost taxpayers thousands for each bus trip.
Those who support Abbott aren’t likely to care a whit about the migrants. I’ve had plenty of Pine Curtain folks explain to me that machine gun placements aligned on the border would be just fine with them. Mow’em down, they say.
This attitude is just what Abbott is hoping for.
Abbott’s motives have nothing to do with policy — unless you consider that his only real “policy” is getting elected for another term. He would be willing to change virtually any decision he’s ever made if it would give him a few more votes. It should be noted that Abbott isn’t just running for re-election, though, he wants to be president.
Governance this bad is darn near historic.
***
While not quite equating to using human beings as political pawns, Abbott recently made another outrageous decision in nominating indicted Austin Police officer Justin Berry to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, a body that sets standards for police forces across the state.
Berry was among 19 Austin officers indicted for using excessive force when trying to control a riot that happened in Austin after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
An indictment is a step up from a charge, with a grand jury deciding that a reasonable reason exists to believe a crime has been committed. It is not a guilty verdict. Berry should still be presumed innocent.
But it is serious enough that a person indicted for a felony should not be appointed to a state commission on police standards. Doesn’t that sound like a sane, logical, prudent path?
Yeah, but it is not the courser Abbott decided to take. If a Democratic governor appointed an indicted rioter to ANY position, ANY committee, ANY board, there would be howling from the Republicans that would still be causing our ears to ring.
There’s more to the story. Berry ran for the Texas Legislature earlier this year in the Republican primary and lost in the runoff to eventual nominee Ellen Troxclair, despite being endorsed by Abbott.
Troxclair is likely to win in this Republican dominated district near Austin and it is hard to believe she’ll be all that chummy with Abbott should he remain governor.
It will be interesting to see how Berry fares in his criminal case and whether he resigns if convicted. This is just another example of Abbott making a bad decision just because he can.
If you found this newsletter useful, please consider supporting the effort by subscribing. It is free.
Phil Latham also writes another newsletter on Substack, American Slave Stories, which aims to keep the memory of the struggles of slavery alive. Subscribe to support that effort. The cost is $5 per month.