That Was The Week That Was, May 26 – June 1
Two milestones – the Texas primary runoffs on Tuesday and Donald Trump’s fraud conviction on Thursday – tell us a lot about the state of the GOP.
Welcome to another installment of Life Its Ownself. I bring insight, analysis and context on Texas politics, as well as entertaining stories of life its ownself in the Lone Star State. If you like what you read, please 1) smash the Like button at the bottom of this installment, 2) subscribe to this newsletter, and 3) tell your 1,000 best friends to read and subscribe. Also, feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
But first, your moment of Zen …By the amazing Mark Cunningham, the Milky Way as shot from the Sublett House ruins in Big Bend NP!
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
From a political perspective (is there any other?), last week was a fascinating and consequential one. The Texas primary runoffs on Tuesday and the conviction of Donald Trump on Thursday were very different events, but they pointed to the same weakness in the Republican Party: a preference for intolerant loyalty over inclusive coalition-building.
After Greg Abbott’s five failed attempts to pass vouchers (euphemistically, “education savings accounts”) last year, he decided to dispense with the subtle tactics and end the political careers of every GOP House member who’d voted against the scheme. He enlisted all the megadonors, political consultants and grassroots activists he could round up and went after them. Five retirements, six primary defeats, and three runoff defeats later, he now claims to have enough votes to pass a voucher bill next session.
He and his allies did miss their Number One target, however. The First Rule of Regicide, as attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, is “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.” The charming Texas corollary to that rule, “The time to strike the snake is when the hoe is in your hands,” was uttered by former Rep. Fred Hill during the days and nights of drama at the end of the 2007 session.
It’s hard to tell what to make of House Speaker Dade Phelan’s victory over opponent David Covey in the most expensive House race in Texas history. On the one hand, he won narrowly – 366 votes out of 25,260 cast. (Covey was within rights to call for a recount, but he has conceded.) Of course, there’s some trash talking that Democrats delivered his victory.
On the other hand, Phelan’s “team” in the House has been decimated, with 12 Phelan loyalists losing their primary races, six in March and another six last night. Most were victims of either Greg Abbott’s fatwa against anti-voucher members, or Ken Paxton’s vendetta against members who voted for his impeachment a year ago.
Phelan has promised that he will be back as Speaker next January. He already has two opponents: Dr. Tom Oliverson (from the part of northwest Harris County that brought us Dan Patrick and once and future nutcases Debbie Riddle and Valoree Swanson), and Shelby Slawson (R-Abortion Ban) of Granbury. Both are running on the promise they will get the 76 votes they need exclusively from GOP members. This, of course, is the dream of the rightwing activists and donor class, the Tim Dunns and Farris Wilkses and Jonathan Sticklands, and the Texas GOP recently adopted it as a legislative priority for next year. But in 20 years of having the majority in the Texas House, the Republican caucus has never agreed on a candidate sufficiently to deliver 76 votes to him.
This is because partisan affiliation is only one of the factors considered by a member in pledging to a Speaker candidate.
1) Trust and personal relationships are most important: Did he keep his promise to give my bill a hearing two sessions ago? Did she vote for my bill once I agreed to her amendment last session?
2) What is his/her vision for Texas, and for how the House will operate? Will members be free to vote their districts, or is every vote a “Speaker vote?”
3) What’s in it for me? A chairmanship or vice-chairmanship? Ability to carry a major piece of legislation, especially if it matters in my district?
Generally, endorsements and arm-twisting from outside the House membership are useless, but that seems to be changing. Abbott may stay out of it, but there’s no doubt Dan Patrick would like to have a tame Speaker across the rotunda. For his part, Ken Paxton promised to “primary” any GOP member who votes for Phelan for Speaker in 2026. And Donald Trump may endorse a Speaker candidate, especially if he loses in November.
Where does this leave the 65 or so Democrats who will be in the House next January? Floating off into the miasmic distance on an ice floe, perhaps. But Trey Martinez Fischer, the Dems’ leader, is working to fashion a future for his caucus. Can Dems and (relatively) moderate Republicans form a governing coalition as they have for the last 20 years? Maybe, but the price may be the end of Phelan’s tenure as Speaker.
At its convention, the Texas GOP also voted to support closed primaries, prohibiting Democrats from participating. And once again, we’re told, the GOP banned the Log Cabin Republicans (their LGBTQ+ caucus) from participating in the convention.
The jihad against Phelan and his allies, the demand to exclude Democrats from meaningful power in the House, and the desire to close off their primaries are all of a pattern: the Texas GOP is more interested in its political and policy purity than in governing the people of Texas. And we see the same pattern in the national GOP’s unhinged reaction to Donald Trump’s conviction.
Last Thursday, a jury in New York City unanimously convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts of financial fraud in connection with his election-year coverup of his assignation with porn star Stormy Daniels. This is the first time in US history that a former president has been convicted of a crime.
The reaction on the MAGA right was predictably hysterical, and our Texas leaders were not to be outdone. Ted Cruz:
This is a dark day for America. This entire trial has been a sham, and it is nothing more than political persecution. The only reason they prosecuted Donald Trump is because Democrats are terrified that he will win reelection. This disgraceful decision is legally baseless and should be overturned promptly on appeal. Any judge with a modicum of integrity would recognize that this entire trial has been utterly fraudulent.
This verdict is a disgrace, and this trial should have never happened. Now more than ever, we need to rally around President Trump, take back the White House and Senate, and get this country back on track. The real verdict will be Election Day.
This was a sham show trial. The Kangaroo Court will never stand on appeal.
Americans deserve better than a sitting U.S. President weaponizing our justice system against a political opponent— all to win an election.
We must FIRE Joe Biden in November.
Today's guilty verdict against President Trump is an absolute travesty of our judicial system.
There was no crime, and the prosecution's star witness was a convicted liar and an admitted thief.
The judge was biased against President Trump throughout the entire trial. This will be reversed at some point, but the Democrats got what they wanted - to prosecute and persecute a man they know they cannot beat in November.
If the justice system can do this to a former president, it can do it to anyone in America. That should frighten every American. New York & Biden have turned our country into a third-world-styled justice system that goes after political opponents like you see in Russia or North Korea.
It's a sad day for America.
From the beginning of this sham trial, I stood by President Trump, and my support for him is stronger than ever. As Attorney General of Texas, I will unleash every tool at my disposal to fight this blatant corruption and political persecution spewing from New York and the Biden administration.
And the beat goes on. In “The Texas GOP has made its bed with Trump – conviction be damned,” Christopher Hooks argues that the entire Texas GOP has cast its lot with Donald Trump, hooker, lying, and stinker.
This not limited to Texas, of course. The entire national GOP is having fainting spells over the cruel mistreatment of Donny Trump, although they seem unable to actually defend his conduct. Instead, the argument is: he should not be held accountable for any crimes he may have committed in the past.
The problem is, this is the new GOP orthodoxy, and anyone who disagrees with it is to be expelled. Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, now running for an open US Senate seat from that state, had the temerity to say, “I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders—regardless of party—must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
This, by the way, is the kind of anodyne statement politicians, especially in election years, make all the time. But you would not guess that from the reaction. RNC co-chair (and Trump daughter-in-law) Lara Trump said, “He doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican party at this point and, quite frankly, anybody in America,” and declined to say whether the RNC would support him. Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita told Hogan, “You just ended your campaign.”
Larry Hogan, it should be pointed out, was a popular Republican governor in a deep-blue state and has (had?) a good chance of winning this November at a time when the GOP is scrambling to take control of the Senate. So much for building a big tent in the Republican Party.
In Texas, so nationally: the GOP seems obsessed with purity and loyalty tests over coalition-building. And that’s a bad way for any political party to operate. The Texas GOP is making a rational, if cynical, calculation: they have so dominated Texas politics for the last 30 years that they can get away with the occasional purge of insufficiently loyal party members. But that’s a much riskier bet at the national level – and eventually will be at the Texas level, too.
“But that’s a much riskier bet at the national level – and eventually will be at the Texas level, too.” I only hope I am alive to see the tide change. Thanks for the insights Deece.
Perfection, you nailed it!
I particularly enjoyed the outrage from the Texas Criminal electorates, along with their boot licking co conspirators in Washington support that convicted criminal, DJ Trump in Washington, railing on about a corrupt legal system, while those same people weaponize our Nations Governance in the halls of Congress. It worthy of a BS award if one exists, the GOP has nailed it with their lies and false indignation! Well done, your the best❤️
I want the Criminals component of the Texas GOP/Republicans gone, replaced with people of integrity who work for the interest of the people, they serve.
Start with Abbott and keep on going down,
until you rid the self interested legislators out.
I want their Texas counterparts in the US Congress, who support the Convicted Criminal DJT gone!
Then look at the outside and inside Corporate and Wealthy influencers in Texas, (a whole different can of worms), their reach is far beyond Texas, right to the Supreme Court!