SocraticGadfly: Gilberto Hinojosa walks the plank of the Texas Democrats' SS Minnow

November 11, 2024

Gilberto Hinojosa walks the plank of the Texas Democrats' SS Minnow

At least for public consumption, nobody had to push the long-time executive director of the Texas Democratic Party's SS Minnow overboard; he did it on his own. As the Trib notes, the stupidity of saying Texas would break for Harris, combined with the Democratic ineptitude plus GOP inroads on the Hispanic vote being so bad that Trump won a majority of Texas Hispanics, made his position untenable. And yes, Trump ran ahead of Havana Ted Cruz, took 55 percent of Texas Hispanics (that's the term Hispanics nationally prefer, well ahead of "Latino" and WAY ahead of the laughed-at and despised "Latinx") and took 14 of 18 border counties.

His biggest failure? It's directly tied to that one failure above, and it's that Hinojosa has peddled that old "demographics is destiny" for Texas Democrats for more than a decade, as did Battleground Texas, Markos Moulitsas himself of Daily Kos and various other #BlueAnon idiots. I called bullshit back in 2013, and updated as needed. But, many Texas Dems, the type like Charles Kuffner and many who follow him at Off the Kuff, kept drinking and even peddling that Kool-Aid.

He finally faced a leadership challenge back in 2022. Sadly for the party, not only did he win, but looking ahead, both the challengers were ConservaDems of the type that make Greg Summerlin types salivate. Kim Olson, who finished No. 2, did the typical nice, polite Dem thing and didn't challenge him and fight him publicly, even as she was being anonymously shivved over an old assault allegation. No wonder he won, holding on like a South Texas jefe.

Elsewhere, the Trib looks more at this year's Texas Democrats' failures. Overall, I suspect that Texas Democrats are about as ready to learn the real lessens that are available for the learning as are national Democrats.

At the Observer, Gus Bova talks about "a lost decade"when it's actually been two now, and never mentions Hinojosa's name. True, it was a day before his resignation, but he's still the guy at fault,

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