Texas Lege: Democrats vs themselves

At the Observer, a week after Gene Wu largely self-destructed, Justin Miller wondered about the future of Texas Democrats and the future of much of their often still-unchanged mindset in the Lege. 

Per Miller's big point, as long as Wu is House minority leader, that mindset won't change, or at a minimum, he'll offer no encouragement in its change. 

The whole second half of Miller deserves quoting:

On the matter of property tax relief—perhaps the most important, broadly salient policy issue in the state—the policy divide was largely between the two Republican-run chambers, not the two parties. Democrats did not offer any sort of alternative policy message of their own, such as demanding that the state exclude downtown skyscrapers or Gulf Coast refineries from the property tax cuts, or ensure that the roughly one-third of Texas households that are renters are also provided some semblance of direct relief. 

Perhaps it’s time for House Democrats to toss out the old playbook that centers around speaker selection—one that increasingly comes at the expense of diluting Democratic politics. 

Having spent so long as the minority party in the Texas Capitol, Democrats’ emphasis on playing an inside game—to quietly make some bad bills less bad, while individual members get some traction on their own piecemeal legislation—has seemingly become the consuming identity of the party. 

Still, in that time, abortion has become near-totally outlawed. The public education system has been pushed to the brink and local school districts made the target of fear-mongering and social conservative dictates. The floodgates of publicly funded privatization have been opened with the passage of vouchers. Medicaid, far from being expanded, is hollowed out. Corporate welfare programs run rampant. 

And yet, Democrats are no closer to controlling the Texas House, to say nothing of statewide office, than they were 10 years ago. 

The time may have come for Democrats in the Legislature to withhold their cooperation, sacrifice some of the bipartisan chumminess that prevails in the House, and focus on building a party that knows why Texans should vote for it.

There we are. 

And, as long as at least some elements of that mindset percolate beyond House Democrats here in Tex-ass, the party will remain shut out of statewide offices. That's the bottom line.

And, it's a bottom line that Wu doesn't recognize. 

I think Texas House Dems need a leader from the left edge of the party, and someone, to riff on Miller, young enough to have not been in the House when Joe Straus was still there. That excludes Wu not just once but twice.