Democrats Please Drop Out Texblogs

Inspired by PDiddie's lead-in, ​I'm going to open this week's Texoblogosphere post with a bit of opinion.

dbc sez: Given the environmental records of the Clinton and Obama administrations, all Democratic candidates for public office running against a candidate from the Green Party should drop out of their respective races and endorse the Green.

Dr. Tribe, you are a very smart man, but this is a very stupid tweet. Real Greens do not sign up to run for office just so they can drop out after early voting has begun.

PLEA TO GREEN PARTY CANDIDATES EVERYWHERE:

Please consider dropping out and endorsing the Democrat in your race — unless you truly believe your environmental values would be better served by leaving an unchecked Trump to despoil our green earth □ https://t.co/3tPsHOcJ7u

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) November 2, 2018

I have seen even more commentary from Arizona Greens noting that Angela Green had little to no history with local and state Green groups there. She ran an eleventh-hour write-in campaign in the 2018 Green Primary (Arizona being one of the few states that have primary elections for non-major parties).

Are Trump's policies and actions any better than his Democratic predecessors? Hell 2 tha no. But neither corporate party is doing enough the reverse, halt, or even minimize the effects of anthropogenic climate disruption. Instead, we got more pipelines crossing vital bodies of water, plus more of the Four Horsemen of the Energy Apocalypse: hydrofracturing, deepwater drilling, tar sands, and mountaintop removal.

.@tribelaw got paid big money to represent the fossil fuel industry in the legal fight to repeal President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

None of our Green Party candidates take a dime from special interests. They represent you - not corporations. #WeAreGreenhttps://t.co/Q16FjKhLeL

— Green Party US □ (@GreenPartyUS) November 5, 2018

Tribe also completely ignores that the Green movement addresses so much more than just ecological issues. Greens see the problems and propose their solutions through a lens that is holistic and intersectional—i.e., environmental problems are interconnected with systemic racism, militarism, and of course capitalism. And all of those problems are interconnected as well. As long as Democrats (including ex-Greenie Krysten Sinema) continue to embrace capitalist solutions, they will continue to be part of the problem.

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​Onward we go with this week's lefty bloggage! Oh—and if you haven't already voted in the current midterm election, ye Texas comrades who don't view voting as lending legitimacy to a rotten simulation of democracy, please do vote in your local precinct on 6 November!

One unplumbed premise that the midterms might reveal is whether the strength of the Lone Star grassroots has shifted from one major party to the other, either because of "outsiders" becoming "insiders" or because there needs to be a "bad guy" to focus on and motivate the base.

Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, says Democrats nationally—and in some parts of Texas—have unleashed the kind of intensity we used to see from the tea party.

“So the question of whether there is still that ability to motivate Republican voters on the other side is the big question going into this cycle,” Henson said.

Henson believes one reason the tea party’s galvanizing force has slipped in local and congressional races is that conservatives no longer have Barack Obama to target. And Donald Trump has taken over the role of chief agitator of conservatives.

Tea party-backed candidates have also been elected. In Texas, the movement has been changed by that success.

“I think once you have people who are part of institutions, it inevitably looks different, because you aren’t banging from the outside,” Henson said. “Like it or not, you are part of the status quo, and you are part of the establishment.”

Perhaps the only competitive statewide contest down the ballot shows signs of GOP panic, as indicted felon/AG Ken Paxton digs in to the deepest pockets of the friends he has left.

In addition to the TV ads, Paxton’s recent campaign finance filings have indicated that Republicans in high places are tuned in to the race in its home stretch. In recent days, the attorney general has received a $282,000 in-kind donation from Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign; more than $350,000 in in-kind contributions from Texas for Lawsuit Reform, the political arm of the tort reform group; and $10,000 each from two of the biggest donors in the Republican Party: Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.

Millard Fillmore's Bathtub linked to a picture of Sweaty Beto, which may have been the Halloween costume of the year.

​Stirred by Trump's call, armed militia groups head south to welcome the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free intercept the invading (sic) migrant caravan

Asked whether his group planned to deploy with weapons, McGauley laughed. “This is Texas, man,” he said.

Off the Kuff examined a pair of statewide judicial races.

In Harris County, the Texas Observer foresees a day of reckoning for Republican judges who have held fast to the money bail system, rewarding their friends and penalizing the poor.

Isiah Carey of Fox26 was first with the news that Houston mayor Sylvester Turner's first announced challenger next year will be former Democrat*, now (?) not-Trump Republican, non-DWI-convict and mega-wealthy trial lawyer--Rick Perry's defense attorney, for those catching up--Tony Buzbee.  *Lookie here, from Texpatriate:

[D]espite being the one-time Chairman of the Galveston County Democratic Party, a two-time Democrat nominee for the State Legislature and the once rumored Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor. However, of late, Buzbee has been appointed to the Board of Regents of his alma matter [sic], Texas A&M University, and become a key financial supporter of both Perry and [Gov. Greg] Abbott.

Durrel Douglas at Houston Justice blogged the 2019 Houston City Council District B early line. And in an excellent explainer, described how the local activist/consultant game--getting paid to do politics, that is--is a lot like having the app on your phone for the jukebox down at the local bar.

Socratic Gadfly, returning from a recent vacation, took a look at a major nature and environment issue that fired up up opposition to Trump—the Bears Ears downsizing--and offered his thoughts on the value of the original national monument site versus critics of several angles, and things that could make it even better.

Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher also leavens the politics with some Game of Thrones news.

And Harry Hamid's midnight tale from last week moves ahead to 1 a.m. (with no accounting for Daylight Savings Time and "falling back" noted).