Will Texas politics settle down and become more moderate after the next election cycle?

[Pretzelogik]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Given all my emotional and life history attachments to Texas, I still take considerable interest in Texas politics. I'd like to avoid talking about the merits of any particular political position here if we can, e.g. progressive vs. conservative. Instead, I'd just like to consider whether or not people think the rhetorical shrillness is likely to abate and things swing more toward the centre in Texas politics overall after the 2012 election.

Do people think the rhetoric in Texas has already been turned down a bit? If Pres. Obama is re-elected, rather than the Republican challenger, will the political rhetoric decrease even though Texas will presumably still be a Republican-controlled State -- or not?

Can we have a civilised discussion about this without taking pot shots or swipes at one another? I'm just trying to understand the political climate forecast for Texas a little better. The rhetoric seems to have intensified there a great deal - as it has done in some other states - since I moved away in 2004.

Heck No...and ruin the culture.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Probably I should have been more specific, but I was in fact talking about the politicians. Perry would be the most obvious example but there are still people around like Warren Chisum (I know, he's been around forever) and members of the Texas Board of Education (Yes, I know the adoption of textbooks in Texas has been a circus for about as long as I can recall). Still, it seems there are quite a few loudmouths in the Texas legislature these days, and of course some members of the Texas congressional delegation in recent years have been very mean, ugly characters -- some got their comeuppance, of course. Still, my perception of the level of rhetoric was generally that the volume was lower during the governorship of GW Bush; not to mention Mark White and even Bill Clemmons - who became a virtual hermit during his second term. I realise that Ann Richards offended the sensibilities of conservative Republicans and I can't really comment on her level of rhetoric as governor (not as keynote speaker at the Dem Convention, a purely partisan gig in which she would fairly be expected to engage in strong and scathing rhetoric), as I was a big fan of her administration and at this remove in history can no longer be objective about her performance. Anyway, I wasn't talking so much about the citizenry as the political class.

I don't think history has been kind to Ann Richards' time as governor. Her speech at the Democratic convention was overtly partisan and a cheap shot - no less so than Sarah Palin's. Richards appointment of a liar, Lena Guerrero, was despicable. Her meddling in college sports (Baylor in the Big12) was dumb. Ann Richards' hair was just as much fun to make light of as Rick Perry's.

No Texas politician is as partisan as Lloyd Doggett. He carries little of Texas' traditional sensibility about "let's let each other be."

[cBach]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I don't think history has been kind to Ann Richards' time as governor. Her speech at the Democratic convention was overtly partisan and a cheap shot - no less so than Sarah Palin's. Richards appointment of a liar, Lena Guerrero, was despicable. Her meddling in college sports (Baylor in the Big12) was dumb. Ann Richards' hair was just as much fun to make light of as Rick Perry's.

No Texas politician is as partisan as Lloyd Doggett. He carries little of Texas' traditional sensibility about "let's let each other be."

Anne Richards was as Texan as they come. Many people of both parties admired her and still do (RIP), a true Texas pioneer in the best sense of the word.

[Sunderpig2]

Originally Posted by Seacove

doctorjef, You're right. It's hard to read some responses and not react. I live in Seattle and have seen a lot of Texas license plates on the roads lately. It makes me wonder why, since Seattle could not possibly be more different from Texas in every way. If Texas is so comfortably extreme in their right wing rhetoric, I can't imagine these visitors will want to stay in Seattle long.

Please don't stereotype Texas or Texans. Myself and many others here do not agree with or support the stupid right-wing extremism. There are many here who aren't comfortable with those folks. The noisemakers and radicals may try to send out the idea that Texas is full of extremist wackos, but that's not the case. It certainly doesn't match lots of people I know.

There are many here that like Seattle, as surprising as that may sound (and I know there'll be somebody to come along after me and contradict the hell out of what I'm saying, but I don't care). Seattle is cool!

[Seacove]

No worries, they already did, but I understand

[Bo]

Some posts above were deleted. We're in the TEXAS forum. We're not discussing California politics and we're not discussing national politics. Keep it in Texas to keep it on topic.

Use the Politics and Other Controversies forum if you want to discuss politics in multiple states or national politics. That's why we have that forum.

[catman]

In response to the OP, I doubt that Texas politics will ever settle down. Texas politics have always been fractious, no more so than recently.

[doctorjef]

There have been times, ISTM, that Texas politics have been relatively quieter. Let's take the historical record as far as I know it. TexasReb would possibly be a good informant here. OK -- politics during the Republic were terribly fractious, exemplified by all the warring between Houston and Lamar and their respective partisans; even the final president, Anson Jones, was quite mercurial. Skip ahead a bit and you have Houston opposing secession and then leaving Texas public life after the State voted to secede. I'm then going to skip ahead to the 1920s and the Fergusons -- they surely were a controversial pair. Miriam Ferguson proved to be a progressive and confronted the KKK head on. I'm not going to cover the also-rans like Sissy Farenthold or the one-term Sen. Ralph Yarborough. My point is that I don't think that Texas politics have always been so loud and anti-federalist, even though there have been times of great controversy in Texas politics.

[catman]

They haven't always been as fractious as they are right now, but 'calm' at most times in Texas history could only be used with 'relatively' before it as a modifier.