Rick Perlstein writes in The American Prospect about a conversation with a friend who is a journalist in Texas. His friend describes how his native state is run by men who are determined to stamp out every last vestige of democracy in Texas. The Republican Party keeps moving to the extreme and crushing reasonableness and sanity. The result is a fascist state where all power is concentrated in the hands of Gregg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and far-right fascists.
Perlstein writes:
I made a friend a few years back, a young journalist at a newspaper in a smaller Texas city, bored with his work and seeking out conversation on the kind of things I write about. As time went on, however, he just wanted to talk about escape. “A local city I cover, as a matter of habit, appeals every single public records request,” went a typical plaint. “In a state that hasn’t completely lost its mind, maybe the solution is to reach out to the AG’s office. Except in Texas, you’re trying to get an indicted man who might have helped with January 6 to act on behalf of the public.”
At the end of that year, he approached me on the horns of a dilemma: take a job offer as a beat reporter at a daily in a big Texas city, or quit journalism and find some job at a do-gooder nonprofit. The guy’s dog was named “Molly Ivins.” I told him I didn’t think he had much choice. Alas, he took this graybeard’s advice. Things since have been hardly more rewarding.
One day: “Working on a deep dive into how the state of Texas fails to protect intellectually disabled people from predatory guardians. Depressing stuff.”
Another day: “A thing that really irks me about covering conservative dustups is how profoundly dishonest the whole thing is … When it comes time to write, you have two options. Either cut through the BS and call it what it is; then they’ll tell you you’re just biased. Or you can try to finesse it and sound insane.”
Another: “I also just finished a story about how domestic violence homicides are through the roof in Texas (even as overall homicide rates have declined), but we don’t have the infrastructure to really know how bad conditions have become. It turns out when you turn women into second-class citizens and make guns easily accessible, that doesn’t go well.”
A couple of weeks back, he shared with me a dark epiphany: He no longer felt hope. Thought it might be high time to get the hell out of his native state forever. He asked if there was anything out there that gave me hope. Having reached the “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown” stage of my relationship with the United States (in part thanks to his testimony from the front lines), I had no comfort to offer.
I did, however, have a suggestion. He could tell me about what all this was like. I could let you listen in. Forthwith, an edited and annotated transcript of my conversation with a man I’ll call Lonely Star. Though it’s not so much that he’s lonely; he has manyanguished compatriots who feel the same way. It’s just that they feel like there’s less they can do about it with every passing day.
Please open the link and read their conversation. It’s enlightening and frightening.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
” It turns out when you turn women into second-class citizens and make guns easily accessible, that doesn’t go well.””
Who would have thought?
The disturbing thing about this interview is the degree to which certain people are moving within the country to places where they can control the political makeup of entire states. Tennessee is becoming one of these. I know so many newcomers to Tennessee who cite a political motivation for moving here. Who has the ability to move? Rich folks. Who has to put up with the results of the move? Folks that are already there.
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To your point, we are a mid-stage oligarchy.
The hyperwealthy make donations to candidates that will do their bidding. These are not donations. They’re investments. (As Diane has repeatedly noted in Abbott’s push for vouchers or Trump’s swift about face regarding TikTok.)
Politicians are beholden to their major donors. Regular citizens have a limited voice, or virtually none at all.
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This is the same trend in Florida. Affluent extremists are moving here in droves.
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Traitor Trump’s MAGARINO fascists are working overtime to turn all the former red states controlled by the Republican Party that Traitor Trump hijacked into dictatorships that ignore the US Constitution and do what fascists like Hitler have always done.
Traitor Trump made it very clear recently how he will govern if re-elected. This isn’t the first time he’s made that clear. His MAGARINO cult still worships him, too.
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Again, Heather Cox Richardson is on point. “Texas says it will not comply.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-1-2024
As my Spanish 1 students were fond of saying: “No bueno.”
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Well, that was depressing.
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I just connected part of this story where Lonely Star writes about domestic violence homicides that are going through the roof in Texas and a story in the Washington Post where, in Texas, a man is suing his EX-partner for traveling to Colorado for an abortion and where Texas lawmakers make more of a stink about gun rights (think Uvalde) than the rights of a woman and her right to choose. Go figure…Texas.
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