Texas progressives: Election post-mortem, more

Rather than the normal "bug" for Texas Progressives, we use this great photojournalism shot by Brendan Smialowski.

Texas politics

Off the Kuff had some initial thoughts and observations about the election.

Whistleblowers against Texas AG Ken Paxton detail their allegations.

Dade Phelan says he has the votes to be the next Speaker of the House.

Dems' woes with Hispanics continued, as Trump actually picked up a county at the edge of the Valley and vastly outperformed his 2016 performance. And, no, it was not "just rural voters." The Valley has multiple cities of over 100K. Instead, Texas magnified an issue nationwide — Biden's slipped performance, as compared to Hillary Clinton, among Hispanic voters. And Blacks. (See below.)

And, on Texas Hispanics, if it's that they're now voters, just more Trump voters than in the past? Maybe it's MORE than about damn time that Texas Democrats mayordomo Gilberto Hinojosa et al dump the "demographics is destiny" claims, as Mezzcans for Trump has put paid to the old "non-voting state Texas" claims. I've said for more than a decade that this is wrong on religious grounds. I've said for almost a decade that this is wrong on religious and other grounds. Actually, even more trye that it's time for Texas Dems to dump the "demographics is destiny" claims? It's time for Texas Democrats to dump Hinojosa.

Per Texas Observer, a Hispanic husband and wife from El Paso, divided on their presidential support, and STRONGLY DIVIDED, even, illustrate just how much demographics is not destiny. 

Speaking of? DosCentavos gives us his take on the Texas Latino vote and how Dems missed an important issue in South Texas. Stace has some good insights.

And, just like state-level Texas Dems (and some in this county) have been talking for years about turning Collin County blue, they still haven't.

That said, I blogged a year ago that state redistricting, especially for state House seats would be "fun" and might well cause internecine GOP infighting. I stand by that. And, in the case of declining population in rural Texas, demographics IS destiny.

Meet José Garza, the new Travis County DA.

Ed Espinoza presents his notes on the election.

Elise Hu recaps her Election Night.

Therese Odell leaned into the Veep comparisons while things were still up in the air.

National

Yesterday, National Review told Trump, Bill Barr and their bullshit lawsuits that "it's over." Period and end of story.

It wasn't "shy Trump voters" skewing polls, but it was (in part) QAnon Trump voters, who in many cases, might also be called "fuck you, pollsters, Trump voters." (I do NOT consider "shy Trump voter" a proper identifier for people like this; rather, it's for a person who, if it were known to their friends that they were voting for Trump, would be ridiculed.) That said, I don't buy this as a total explanation. There weren't THAT many Black and Hispanic QAnoners. 

Per what I said above about Biden in Texas? Nationally, Biden ran lower than Hillary Clinton among both Hispanics AND Blacks. Maybe, per Nikole Hannah Jones of the 1619 Project, it's past time to ditch "Hispanic," which is about as meaningful as "Asian" as an ethnic category. (For that matter, re "African American," where do you fit new or newish Nigerian immigrants who came to America freely vs the descendants of slaves?) More here from Margaret Sullivan, where that Twitter thread link was seen. 

Meanwhile, ConservaDems in Congress are making new noise about moving that old Overton Window further right. That's even though, per Mondoweiss, "Squad" type new Congresscritters won most their races. 

Beyond more states legalizing pot, and California sadly getting snookered by Uber and Lyft and (paid to play?) drivers to pass Prop 22, another measure from California could have national implications in the near future. Voters there passed Prop 24, which toughens California's previous privacy law passed by the state lege and just in effect for one year. It bans data sharing, not just selling, among other things. Plus, companies must provide a clear link on a webpage for people to opt out of data sharing. AND? It creates a state agency to enforce this. I can't imagine that a lot of websites will bifurcate webpages. EFF said this summer it was a mixed bag. I agree on wishing it had opt-in rather than opt-out, but I think their pay-for-privacy worries are overblown.

Beyond drugs, Colorado voters passed a referendum to reintroduce wolves. Reportedly, the occasional Yellowstone wanderer has gotten into NW Colorado already — since confirmed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife — but the referendum calls for an active state reintroduction program like what brought them back to Yellowstone decades ago. I find it interesting that a lot of support came from southwestern Colorado. True, Durango is hippie-blue, but there's also lots of Mormons and lots of oil and gas folks there. Speaking of, and showing that "American Indian" is perhaps not much more monolithic than "Hispanic," the Southern Ute tribe opposed.

Daniel writes an excellent, in-depth piece about the old tu quoque fallacy and related modern whataboutism re the presidential campaign. 

Besides Trump himself and his family? Yes, it will indeed be nicest to say goodbye to Bill Barr.

Some centrist Catholic type, writing in Merika for British paper The Independent, says Biden should pardon Trump. Wrong. Ford's pardon of Nixon, without saying what he was being pardoned for and without publicly confirmed guilt (even if accepting a pardon insinuates that) was itself wrong, and her citing it as a precedent shows how all wet she is. In reality, this just enables bad behavior.

Matt Bai, in the face of Trump's staff egging him on in the votes issue, GOP Congresscritters carefully circumscribing their responses, and right wing puntry egging Trump on even more than his own staff, and ignoring that COVID got Biden elected, laughingly claims "Trumpism has been repudiated." (The latest example for why Bai has faded from punditry prominence.)

Per numbers from Great Lakes states in this National Review piece, Howie Hawkins 2020 finished well behind Jill Stein. Partly not his fault, I'm sure; likely that 2016 Greens had many "safe candidate" Berniecrats who went back to the Dem tribe this year. Hey, the Rhode Island Green Party even gave them an excuse. "Well, if GREENS are saying 'You have to vote Biden,' ..." you get the results pictured in the poll.

And, while the relatively small numbers on the poll on this blog make it anecdotal, it is an anecdotal confirmation.

Non-politics

SocraticGadfly takes his first look at what the St. Louis Cardinals might do and probably will do this offseason.

Traces of Texas has an amazing photo of the Astrodome.

Sara Cress sums up her experience running the super popular Harris County Clerk Twitter feed.

Grits for Breakfast evaluates the state of criminal justice reform after the election.

Texana/national/global

All three, since he's not native to Texas and no country owns Antarctica. Meet Wayne White, the man who has spent three winters at the South Pole as station manager of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Sustainable farming, at least at the leadership cadre level, is racist.