We could add to the headline above: Surprised (Even Somewhat Pleasantly) but Not Shocked. In looking over some results from last night, the push and pull of the various emotional vectors had me numb but buzzing this morning.
UPDATE: Here are links to Part II and Part III of this series. As of this afternoon, the buzz has subsided a bit. Now comes the sober task of processing it all. It will take a few entries and at least a couple of days to put it all together, because beyond the confines of this blogspace I actually have a life. Herewith, we present the first of these entries, examining statewide races and the composition of the next Texas Legislature. We will focus on Harris County and some results for progressive candidates and issues in other states in subsequent posts. Disclaimers Before I dive in too deeply, I offer these two disclaimers:
I'm tired of talking and writing about Election 2018, and chances are you're tired of hearing and reading about it. As of today, we're five days away from it being well & truly over, and from the beginning of the incessant Wednesday-morning quarterbacking that inevitably follows. My electoral dysfunction stems in part from inability to develop any enthusiasm for the candidate with whom many progressive friends have fallen ass-over-Whataburger-cup in love.
However, electoral talk has become a reflex for me over the years, like clonic twitching in my sleep. This is mostly because I enjoy sharing the perspective of a US voter who has overcome the duopolistic view of politics that dominates the discussion (cue audio clip from Beto) in this country. In 20-plus years as a Green voter, I have become an evangelist for multi-party democracy and a prophet railing against the insidious evils of the two-headed Corporate Party. Speaking of Mr. All 254 Counties, a couple of months ago I reported that the Our Revolution chapters in Harris County and Texas had released lists of endorsees that did not include Rep. R.F. O'Rourke for US Senate. Socratic Gadfly picked up on this news and ran quite a distance with it. Since then, I guess Our Revolutionaries have changed their collective mind. To my recollection, I never received an email from OR Texas announcing that Beto had been added, but by gum, there he is. This morning's news from Arizona sure was a waker-upper: several sources reporting that US Senate nominee Angela Green had abruptly dropped out of the race and thrown her support behind Democrat Krysten Sinema.
Aw, hell no! Bad call, Ms. Green. Given that the sources on the first page of Duck Duck Go results are almost all right-leaning outlets—Fox News, Daily Caller, Politicus USA, NewMax—I wasn't sure whether to believe it. (Not gonna link to those.) The Hill (center-right pretending to be objective) also posted an item. I had to see this video clip on an interview with Green, from Phoenix's NBC affiliate, before I was convinced. As of this writing, neither Green's website nor that of the Arizona Green Party have any news about her withdrawing from the race. In fact, Green's home page specifically mentions that she has resisted calls from "those who have requested, asked, demanded, harassed, and bullied me to remove myself from the ballot in order for their major party candidate to win." The Texas Progressive Alliance wants you to be sure to encourage your like-minded friends to get to the polls this week since we know you've already voted yourself. Yep, I voted yesterday. I did not "early vote" or "earlyvote" yesterday; I voted early. A confession from a recovering grammar snob: I'm uncomfortable with the evolution of early vote as an intransitive verb, preferring the more standard vote early. Also, since elections are now de facto a two-week event in most localities, I would dispense with the qualifier altogether: I voted. The main reason for keeping the adverb is that, in most if not all Texas counties, voting takes place in local precincts on Election Day itself, but in the county-designated locations in the two weeks prior thereto. I exercised my franchise at the Alice McKean Young Neighborhood Library in the Greater Southpark area. The previous location in that area was in the Harris County offices at the old Palm Center shopping strip. The library has a more spacious community room than the Palm Center location, but a much smaller parking lot (maybe 50 spaces versus hundreds) and a much farther walk from the Purple Line ternimus. I parked at the King Best Mall (not an actual mall as we generally define it) down Griggs Road, crossed the road, and walked a long block to the library. Turnout was healthy, but Sunday's early voting has become a community ritual in that part of H-Town. ============ Ahead of the midterms, NPR notices that our indicted felon/state attorney general Ken Paxton gets busy ramping up efforts to "combat voter fraud" (sic). Voting experts say actual instances of fraudulent ballots knowingly cast are extremely rare, leading to accusations that the effort is intended to intimidate voters. UPDATE: The letter made it into the 28 October print edition of the Chronicle and online. dbc is pleased, although the Viewpoints editor cut out the portions in bold below. I've been waiting, but not holding my breath, to see whether the letter I wrote Sunday to the editors of the Houston Chronicle might appear in the print edition before posting the text of it here. No such luck (until Sunday the 28th). The Chron's editorial board's endorsement of incumbent Greg Abbott (R) for governor, alongside Beto O'Rourke (D, over incumbent Ted Cruz) for US senator and Mike Collier (D, over incumbent Dan Patrick) for lieutenant governor, inspired me to write the letter. It wasn't so much whom they chose as how they chose him—and what they overlooked. You may need a digital subscription to houstonchronicle.com to read the entire endorsement. DISCLAIMER: I am not, nor have I ever been, active with the Libertarian Party. I have voted for a few Libertarian candidates over the years, but I am careful about which Libertarians I consider worthy of that vote. As you may know the Green platform shares some policy views with the Libertarian platform. The primary shared interest between the two movements is ditching the Duopoly with all due haste, introducing reforms in the US and the various states that make it possible for more than two political parties to compete in the marketplace of ideas. To the Editors: This. Such much thisness. Just read it.
And if you doubt its veracity, think back to how many times you read (or wrote) variations on the "Jill Stein is an anti-vaxxer" smear. Those variations didn't even vary all that much. I'd like to believe that Caitlin Johnstone's youthful experiments with psychedelics has helped her in developing that "mental sovereignty" she often writes and talks about. But I'd wager that I know a few psychonauts—or occasional hallucinogenic dabblers—who nevertheless have relinquished that sovereignty, frequently add echoes to the liberal echo-chamber, and vote Democratic mostly out of fear. Thus quoth the prophet Kermit: "It's not easy being Green." Certainly, to be marginalized or persecuted for things you can't help—ethnicity, gender, orientation, age—is a far heavier burden. But, as with atheism, what with atheists' poll numbers lower than used car salespeople, persecution on matters of conscience or philosophical orientation is still persecution. It's un-American, but it still happens in America.
This year in Texas, for the first time since 2008, we of the Green persuasion have no candidates politically aligned with us. There may be a few Democrats with progressive reputations and policy positions, except for those one or two positions that are deal-breakers. It's difficult to find anyone on the ballot, at any level, who explicitly favors
Yeah, most of these are issues that candidates for Land Commissioner or Justice of the Peace would find outside their purview. Candidates for any office in Texas can still take a soundly progressive position on matters germane to that office. Whether they can expect to win the nomination in a Democratic Party with those positions is another matter. Speaking of positions on issues, this would be a good time to remind folks heading to the polls the peek at the League of Women Voters guide, available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Friends tell me that they can't wait to vote in this midterm election. My response is that I can't wait for this midterm election to be over. I'm happy for my Texas friends who have been energized by the emergence of a viable Democratic candidate to challenge Ted Cruz and possibly score the first Democratic statewide victory in Texas since the 1990s. I do not look forward happily to the likely outcome of the Cruz-O'Rourke race and hearing all those friends simultaneously deflate (a la 2016).
Harris County early voters, check out the available locations from harrisvotes. My current plan is to bicycle to the Ripley Center with a large cluster of my fellow H-Town cyclists after work. Kayleen and I just visited San Antonio, where, apart from Betomania, the big talk is about Republican Congressman Will Hurd and his Democratic challenger Gina Ortiz-Jones. O'Rourke has declined to campaign against his friend from across the aisle. Ortiz-Jones is one of the dozen or so 2018 Democratic candidates who have a background in the military intelligence field. This is the part where normally I would copy and paste some information from Brains and Eggs, but his Weekly Wrangle appears to require extra time and effort this week. Meanwhile, check out the space-filler. Ho-hum. Kayleen and I have lost another friend, both on Facebook and in real life, due to his advanced Trump Derangement Syndrome. He wasn't a close friend, but I'll miss his humor-laden political posts and his keen insight on soccer for someone who's relatively new to the game. I wish him well in the new, improved life he is currently undertaking. His occasional post-midnight drunken rants, however, I shall not miss.
In this man's mind, all of us who voted for Jill Stein and Gary Johnson in 2016 are responsible for throwing the presidential race to the Republicans. We purposefully ignored Democrats' warnings about how a Trump presidency would alter the Supreme Court irreparably, now giving us Justice Brett "Devil's Triangle" Kavanaugh and possible lifetime appointments for more accused pussy-grabbers. When reminded that a) those votes weren't stolen from Hillary Clinton because they didn't belong to her in the first place, and b) third-party votes in Texas did not affect who won the state's 38 electoral votes, this fellow busted out some hyperbole about Stein "getting the 0.000001% of the vote that she deserved" or words to that effect, thus defeating his own argument. It's rather startling how this little episode has brought certain things into sharper focus:
More on both of these later in this post.
Recently it occurred to me that it was time for an exhaustive summary—if such a thing is possible—of why I and others like me don't just fall in line and vote for the lesser evil. This is my attempt. Covering all the points will require separation into multiple entries. Because I take this topic very seriously, I will try to maintain a serious tone, resisting the temptation to call public figures by silly or satirical made-up names like "Beto-Bob."
In advance, I wish to apologize humbly and profusely for any phrases you have already read and heard dozens of times, especially if you have read and heard those phrases dozens of times from me. Lastly, before we start digging in, I don't presume to speak for all Progressives, Greens, Socialists, or leftists of whatever category. But please know that I am not alone, that millions of US residents share my opinions on most of the topics addressed below. I'm Not Great at Analogies, But... Friends with good intentions will tell us lefties that voting for, e.g., Beto O'Rourke is a no-brainer. In multiple ways Rep. O'Rourke is the preferable option to incumbent Senator Ted Cruz. The way he speaks, carries himself, campaigns, and raises funds, as well as the policy positions he has adopted, make O'Rourke an obvious choice for a thinking left-of-center voter, right? In my pre-teen and early-teen years, quite a few of my male friends loved to ask this question of each other: "If you were sentenced to be shot, and you had a choice of in the head, in the heart, or in the nuts, which would you pick?" |
Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
All
Archives
April 2023
|