Why I left the Democratic Party

Agreed. This unexpected slap at the NRA is a nice signpost during our hopefully brief sojourn in bizarro land.

I’m calling my own shots.

I hear the words coming out of the NRA’s mouthpiece. That’s all I need to hear.

I'd think finding out facts would be of prime importance.

I don't really believe this poll, but it still is a move in the right direction.

Mike Collier (Facebook post)

GALLOP & CNN SAY TEXAS IN NO LONGER SOLIDLY REPUBLICAN

Hey Texas GOP & Dan Patrick, that dog just won’t hunt anymore - not in Texas.

Texas Republicans have spent two decades raising property taxes, underfunding schools and roads, encroaching on local control, betraying our Texas values of compassion and civility - Texans have had ENOUGH.

All across the state, there is a movement building of Texans who are taking a stand against the politics of corruption and inaction. We will vote and our voice will be heard this November.

If Democrats can compete in Texas, they can make it anywhere, but if Texas Republicans can hold on in the face of those demographic and cultural shifts, they’ll have produced a blueprint that other similarly changing states can follow. “As goes Texas, so goes America,” Abbott told Texans in his inaugural address two years ago. As they gear up for 2018, the one thing Texas Democrats and Republicans still agree on is that they are the vanguard of the future. But just what kind of future will it be?

Long shot, say the political insiders, because a Democrat hasn’t won statewide office in Texas since 1994. Because top Democrats in Washington have too many incumbents to defend and can’t afford to give money to candidates who don’t have a chance. And because Texas is a red state, and the demographic wave isn’t projected to turn it blue until 2024, or 2030.

Don’t tell that to the hundreds of voters who crowded into the grounds of a meeting hall in this Austin suburb on a recent Sunday afternoon. Like Democrats all over the country – especially women, especially in the suburbs – they are fired up over guns, racism, women’s rights and Trump, and they are all-in for Beto.

And don’t tell O’Rourke he can’t win. He’s running a frenetic campaign that feels like it’s catching fire. He raised nearly three times as much money as Cruz in the first reporting period of the year and CNN just moved the Texas race from “solid GOP” to “likely GOP.” As for the national Democratic establishment, O’Rourke isn’t listening. He doesn’t take PAC money, and he hasn’t hired outside consultants or pollsters.

He’s also old-style. He wants to meet voters face-to-face. O’Rourke has already visited 223 out of state’s 254 counties and promises to hit every county before November. Cruz hasn’t done that, O’Rourke notes, though Cruz has promised to visit every one of Iowa’s 99 counties.

That’s not what most party establishment consultants would recommend. Their playbook calls for micro-targeting demographic groups. They frown on lawn signs because they are too broad-brushed. They put their trust in algorithms, not door-knocking. They put resources into getting out the base in places they’ll win rather than strengthening the grassroots in places where they are far behind.

That kind of thinking is one of many problems with our red state/blue state political shorthand. It intensifies tribalism, implying that individuals must be one or the other. It oversimplifies political geography. Texas is typically deep red on the national maps, but its cities – Houston, Dallas and Austin – vote reliably Democratic, as does most of the poor and heavily Hispanic Rio Grande Valley. Its rural counties vote Republican, but it’s not unanimous even there, which is why O’Rourke visits even the most conservative towns to share his thoughts and listen to theirs.

The red state/blue state shorthand implies a permanence to political attitudes that are always changing. It devalues voters whose parties are in the minority. Thanks to the winner-take-all Electoral College, their votes don’t count. A conservative Republican in Massachusetts – or a liberal Democrat in Texas – might as well stay home on Election Day.

In Texas, they often do. The state consistently ranks near the bottom in voter participation. “Texas isn’t a red state or a blue state,” O’Rourke says, “it’s a nonvoting state.”

That’s another problem with the red/blue model: It hides the people who don’t vote. Will a blue wave wash over Texas in November? Watch the turnout in the state’s party primaries March 6.

Let me know Lash when this "progressive takeover" of the Democratic party begins to actually accomplish something.