QOTD: Grievance Over Governance In Texas

 

Jamelle Bouie, writing in today's New York Times:

"Faced with one of the worst crises in the recent history of the state, Republicans have turned their attention away from conditions on the ground and toward the objects of their ideological ire. The issue isn’t energy policy, it is liberals and environmentalists, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a New York congresswoman who was a child when Texas built its first wind farms — and climate activists.

Amid awful suffering and deteriorating conditions, Texas Republicans decided to fight a culture war. In doing so, they are emblematic of the national party, which has abandoned even the pretense of governance in favor of the celebration of endless grievance." (our emphasis)

This is just a brief sample of an excellent op-ed on what Bouie calls "the fruit of policy" that decades of Republican rule in Texas have wrought: deregulation, ignoring infrastructure, private profit over public good and, of course, prioritizing "owning the libs," especially when all else fails . That's why despicable Sen. Ted "Coup" Cruz's Cancun trip in the midst of Texas' crisis hit the chord it did. He's emblematic not only of his state's Republican Party failure to govern, but the national party's malign indifference to the Government's role in maintaining government services, particularly in a crisis.

BONUS:   While Flyin' Lyin' Ted Coup was shuttling back and forth to Cancun, his 2018 opponent Beto O'Rourke was setting up phone banks to get aid to vulnerable Texans. The right-wing's nemesis, the charismatic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, raised $1 million to go to food assistance and other help for desperate Texans. That's how it's done by Dems.