Drew and Pat's semi-excellent road trip

Perhaps in kind of emulation of Robert Francis O'Rourke and Will Hurd, State Sen. Dan Fallon (R-Prosper) and State Rep. Drew Springer (R-Muenster) had a joint town hall recently, though Fallon did 95 percent of the talking.

Thank doorknobs for our Texas Legislature state legiscritters, Fallon (R-Yankee Catholicdom) and Springer having this road trip.

Fallon, sounding like a true libertarian, said:

“You rent your home back from the state after you pay off your mortgage.” (He's not a true libertarian, of course.)

He claims a 2.5/3.5 percent property tax rate cap is in line with inflation. With general inflation, maybe. With valuation rates in metropolitan areas, no it’s not.

I’ve blogged about, and even written a newspaper column about, this bullshit before. If you believe in capitalism, you have to accept housing rates spiking in fast growing urban areas. Senate Bill 2 substitutes the dead weighted hand of GOP Legiscritter wingnuts for Adam Smith’s invisible hand.

Of course, that hand is mythical, but it’s invoked by wingnuts all the time. They then pull a reverse No True Scotsman and claim to still be capitalists.

If free/reduced lunch students are the fastest growing demographic, the Texas miracle already isn’t succeeding, Fallon also said.

It ain’t succeeding, and as shown back when Tricky Ricky was governor, is built on Earl — the stuff in wells — and Ill Eagles. The Straus wing of the GOP likes to pretend the state doesn’t depend on Earl or his cousin Nat (Gas). But it does. The Danny Goeb wing likes to pretend it doesn’t depend on Ill Eagles. Gov. Strangeabbott likes to pretend he’s above the fray.

He then mentioned the “save Chick-fil-A” (from what, tasting crappy?) bill. Claims San Antonio airport was harming it. Claims SA Express-News is “no bastion of conservativism.” Claims San Antonio. is very blue.

“California” four-lettering was sprinkled throughout. Not as in four-letter words being used, but wingnut use of "California" as a four-letter word.

Anyway, Fallon has bravely helped save Texas from being Californianized** and other exploits, so Hip, Hip, Hooray.

More seriously, as more and more people call out the modern GOP as a "party of fear," that's what I think of here in Texas. Every time the "we're not California" gets pulled out, behind a boast, I see a touch of fear that maybe California is right.

Also more seriously, I know that events like these are all base-appealing red meat. Not sure about Fallon's electoral history, but Springer hasn't been primaried since his first election and never has faced a general election foe of Dem, Lib OR Green. That's kind of sad.

So, when you're running in a rural district that runs out to the Panhandle (that will change in some way with redistricting, I expect) you can do this.

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** Being Californianized, the Texas fear that the state will in any way be influenced by California, is not the same as being Californicated.

THAT is when Californians of any and all political stripes "discover" a small town in the Mountain or Intermountain West and overrun it. Taos, New Mexico is a recent example. A larger city like this is Bend, Oregon. Fanta Se was partially, and more slowly, Californicated. Silver City, New Mexico, is a case of a failed Californication.