Three Stories, One Antagonist – Guess Who!
Who has done the most this year to make Texas a meaner, crueler, sadder place? It’s … c'mon, you know who it is.
Welcome to another edition of Three-Point Shots, a part of my Life Its Ownself Substack page. If you enjoy reading it, please 1) hit the Like button, 2) subscribe to the Life Its Ownself, and 3) share it with others in the link below. Comments are welcome and encouraged.
But first, your moment of Zen … The Austin skyline at Christmastime, with the Trail of Lights in the foreground. (Photo credit: austintexas.org)
Friday, December 15, 2023, 10:00 a.m.
As is my practice, I sought out three topics to write about this week. The overall theme, though, was the ways in which Texas elected officials were letting the citizens down, and it turned out the Bad Guy in all the stories was the same.
1. SCOTEX: There is no “medical exception” to the abortion law
Particularly since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision, anti-abortion advocates passing draconian laws like Texas’s “bounty hunter” scheme have insisted that they are not total abortion bans because they contain a “life of the mother” medical exception. “See how humane we are?” they stammer when confronted with the vicious cruelty of the laws they have passed.
But if the Texas Supreme Court’s decision this week blocking a trial court order allowing Kate Cox to have an abortion stands for anything, it is that the “life of the mother” exception means nothing.
No one disputes that Ms. Cox’s pregnancy has been extremely complicated. Any parents would be devastated to learn of their unborn child’s trisomy 18 diagnosis. … Some difficulties in pregnancy, however, even serious ones, do not pose the heightened risks to the mother the exception encompasses.
Among the “difficulties in pregnancy” in Ms. Cox’s case are the near certainty that, even it it survives until birth, her child will die an agonizing death, and that this pregnancy might impair Ms. Cox’s ability to have additional children in the future. (She has two and wants more.)
Which brings up a second point, mentioned by one of my Smart Friends (TM) this week: this was never about life at all; it’s all about control over women.
Consider how obscene it is that, in Texas, a woman and her doctor think they must seek permission to undergo an abortion, lest the doctor risk 1) loss of her/his medical license, 2) criminal penalties up to and including life imprisonment, and 3) a civil lawsuit from a “bounty hunter” that s/he is forced to defend at a cost of thousands of dollars.
These risks are the absolutely foreseeable consequences of the state’s laws, and the anti-abortion advocates are proud of it.
As might be expected, our Two-Time Indicted, F.B.I.-Investigated, Impeached and Acquitted Under Highly Suspicious Circumstances Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton was right in the middle of this. Not only did he appeal the trial court’s decision to the Texas Supremes, he sent threatening letters to the hospitals at which Cox’s doctor has privileges and where, presumably, the abortion would be performed.
(Kate Cox and her tormentor, Ken Paxton. Collage: Center For Reproductive Rights/Getty Images)
My take: Dobbs has been politically disastrous for the so-called “pro-life movement.” Reproductive freedom will be an issue in the 2024 elections, and you can bet Kate Cox’s saga will make it into the conversation, as will SCOTEX’s tone-deaf handling of her case.
2. Texas GOP Infighting — Dysfunction Junction, Part 1,632
Back in 2021, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) – all nine of whose members are Republicans – did a bad thing. (Actually, they do bad things all the time, but for purposes of this story we’ll talk about only one.) They decided that state law did not permit the Attorney General to unilaterally initiate prosecutions of the state’s voter fraud laws. Instead, the A.G. must partner with local county and district attorneys, whose permission he required to participate.
Actually, for anybody who stayed awake during the civic class where they discussed separation of powers, the decision was a no-brainer. A provision in the Election Code allows the A.G. to “prosecute a criminal offense prescribed by the election laws of this state.” Our hero Ken Paxton was using this provision to do high-profile prosecutions of election fraud, mostly low-hanging fruit for which he could take credit.
A recipient of his prosecutorial attentions sued to challenge the constitutionality of the statute, arguing that the A.G. is part of the executive branch and local prosecutors are part of the judicial branch. Under separation of powers, Paxton could not usurp their primary jurisdiction in criminal matters, even if the Lege said he could.
The CCA agreed, holding in an 8-1 opinion that “because Texas Election Code section 273.021 delegates to the Attorney General a power more properly assigned to the judicial department, we conclude that the statute is unconstitutional.”
SIDEBAR: Just because the Lege passes a law does not mean it’s constitutional. A few laws each session are unconstitutional, but someone has to file a lawsuit and get a court to agree. Thanks to organizations like the ACLU, the Texas Civil Right Project, and the Center for Reproductive Rights (which represents Kate Cox in her efforts to get an abortion), bad laws get knocked down every now and then. They are an important part of the ecosystem that keeps tyranny and injustice at bay in Texas, at least on good days. Consider an end-of-year charitable donation to one of these or similar groups.
Anyway, Ken Paxton did not take kindly to the CCA’s decision. Fighting voter fraud is an important part of his “brand.” He has a Voter Fraud (now renamed Election Fraud) Unit of which he is very proud. In the last 20 years, according to a Heritage Foundation database, there have been 67 criminal convictions for election-related crimes in Texas, most of which were achieved by local prosecutors in spite of the millions of dollars spent and thousands of press releases issued by the OAG.
This may sound impressive until you consider that in those same 20 years, over 120,000,000 ballots have been cast in Texas. This is a baseline number of voters: we can estimate they each voted in 8-12 races in each election, so let’s just multiple that by 10 and round it down to 1 billion individual votes cast. And that’s not counting votes cast in local elections for city councils, county commissioners courts, school boards, etc.
And never in those 67 cases, or in any other instance of “getting tough on voter fraud” in Texas, has anyone even suggested that the alleged fraud affected the outcome of an election.
Never in those 67 cases, or in any other instance of “getting tough on voter fraud” in Texas, has anyone even suggested that the alleged fraud affected the outcome of an election.
Notwithstanding its unicorn-like rarity, poltroons like Ken Paxton, and the GOP generally, have turned “rampant election fraud” into an article of faith, flogging that dead horse so badly that they precipitated the murderous January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to impede the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (Paxton, it should be remembered, spoke at the rally on the Ellipse that morning.)
… where was I going with all this? Oh, right – Paxton, as part of his revenge tour, is targeting the three members of the CCA – all Republicans, mind you – who are up for re-election in 2024.
(From left: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Michelle Slaughter, Judge Barbara Hervey and Presiding Judge Sharon Keller. Ken Paxton is supporting challengers to all three. Collage: The Texas Tribune)
My take: I should start by clarifying that the loss of any, or all, of these justices would not set back the cause of justice in Texas much; in fact, probably the opposite. But Paxton is certainly feeling his post-acquittal oats. In addition to the three CCA justices, he is going after several GOP House members in his Collin County home, all of whom voted for his impeachment. Plus, he has recently initiated or intervened in a number of lawsuits burnishing his reputation as the most ideological and least competent A.G. in the country.
3. Deplorables of the Year List Includes Three Texans
Charlie Sykes of The Bulwark has compiled a Deplorables of the Year list. (There were so many possibilities he had to include an undercard.) The list, issued this morning, included three Texans: Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton (surprise!) and overall Deplorable #1 Elon Musk.
For my part, I think Paxton merits the first Life Its Ownself Deplorable Texan of the Year Award. My feelings about Paxton can be summed up by a quote from writer Noah Berlatsky (Public Notice, October 16, 2023):
“If those in power rule by right and without accountability, corruption isn’t a moral failing. It’s a perk.”
On the other hand, Texas Monthly makes a good case that Dan Patrick is the Bum Steer of the Year.
What do you think? Please share your recommendations in the comments.
Have a great weekend!
I’m toying with the Fickle Finger of Fate as Deplorable #1. Strange I know, but how else do you get three of the most corruptible, cockamamie, flagrantly power-hungry elected officials in the top three offices of this state at the same damn time without some extraterrestrial intervention. We have three politicians doing nothing short of running on Make Texas White Again with the strong stench of Christian Nationalism trailing them like a lingering fart.
It past time to bring in blood! Thank you Deece for the ups and downs of the Texas political insanity, none better!❤️