A very red state
Behold, the official Republican Party Platform for Texas in 2020. THIS…IS…MADNESS!
opposing any effort to classify carbon emissions as a pollutant
abolishing the EPA
repealing the Endangered Species Act
prohibiting teaching “sex education, sexual health or sexual choice or identity in any public school”
recognizing pornography as a “public health crisis”
abolishing Child Protective Services
abolishing the Department of Education
teaching American history courses “heavily weighted toward the study of original founding documents”
opposing the use of any national or international education standards
requiring mandatory daily pledges of allegiance to both the United States and Texas
banning critical race theory from schools
banning any lockdowns, contact tracing, or mask mandates as public health measures
newly limiting the time disabled people can receive SSDI benefits
eliminating the minimum wage
banning cities from passing paid sick leave ordinances, rent control, or plastic bag bans
abolishing school-based mental health care providers
“oppos[ing] all efforts to validate transgender identity”
repealing all limits on campaign contributions to politicians
repealing all estate taxes
eliminating same-sex marriage
eliminating no-fault divorce and supporting covenant marriage
entirely eliminating abortion
introducing a right to use cryptocurrency to the Texas Bill of Rights
requiring employers to verify citizenship status through E-Verify
abolishing all federal welfare programs
drug testing state welfare recipients
adding “the right to refuse vaccination” to the Texas Bill of Rights
stopping fluoridation of the water supply
disallowing prescription drugs manufactured outside the U.S.
limiting Medicaid
banning Drag Queen Story Hour from libraries
allowing people to bring guns into schools
a prohibition on using gas or vehicle taxes for public transit or bike lanes
opposing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and using mass deportation instead
abolishing the refugee resettlement program
eliminating birthright citizenship
new criminal penalties for desecrating the American or Texas flag
revoking the tax-exempt status of any organization that “knowingly aid[s] and abet[s] illegal immigrants”
ending the H1B foreign worker visa program
ending daylight saving time
“support[ing] an aggressive war on terrorism”
requiring cities that cut police budgets to cut property taxes by the same percentage
eliminating all public funding for public broadcasting
repealing the “motor voter” law that allows voter registration at state DMVs
withdrawing from the United Nations
“unequivocally oppos[ing]” the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
This is just the same old poisonous crap I heard from the John Birch Society in the 1970s…except I don’t recall that they hated bike lanes quite so much. I might believe some people are so deluded that they think some those options are a good idea, but the majority of Texans, if confronted with this list, would reel back in horror. Wouldn’t they?
In short, Texas will declare war on the future.
I suspect the future will prevail.
We want to ban abortion, because we care so much about the children. But also, let’s abolish CPS.
I’m sad that they want to eliminate Daylight Savings. I hate to think that I agree with even a single thing those Neanderthals believe.
Did one of the bad guys from the captain planet cartoon write this? “I like to pollute the environment and hate education, because I’m evil”. And how the hell did “forcibly tattooing HIV positive people” not make the list? William F. Buckley would be so disappointed.
Cool, Nathan Robinson. I’m reading his book Superpredator where he rips Bill (and Hillary) a new one for support of the ‘an army of sociopathic black kids are gonna kill everybody’ idea popular in the 90s leading to some horrific legislation on crime that contributed to mass incarceration. Bill feigned empathy for blacks while helping stab them in the back. Triangulation. There are a few tropes about him amongst the Right loons back then that may not have been too far off the mark. Was Slick Willy the superpredator?
This article by Robinson floored me. I don’t recall this event. The optics of Bill doing a photo-op at Klan picnic retreat Stone Mountain (with the Confederate bas relief ) in front of a group of black inmates makes me wonder what dog whistles were being heard by “boll weevils” or other Southern Democrats who leaned toward the Gipper:
https://jacobinmag.com/2016/09/stone-mountain-kkk-white-supremacy-simmons
Stunning…jaw drop floor!
As far as his laundry list for Texas, how far behind will Florida be?
And will this be a capital offense:
http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1479-phantom-sightings/217?
Mess with Texas.
@#3 Scott Gries
Stopped clock right twice a day and all that. But don’t worry – even if everyone is in agreement on ending DST, they’ll soon gridlock over whether to fix it to an hour earlier or an hour later.
@LykeX:
Well, of course they want to abolish CPS. CPS wants to stop them from raising their kids ‘right’! (i.e., CPS might get involved if they beat their kids, for example because the child has the temerity to come out as gay.)
Most of this list is lunatic fringe cuckoo beliefs.
Forced marriage? This assumes mostly women are second class humans who don’t have the right to make their own decisions about their own life. It’s slavery or close to it.
And what in the hell is covenant marriage anyway? It even sounds fundie xian and evil.
You can’t sign away your legal rights in the USA. If you agree to a covenant marriage, you can always change your mind later.
Get lost Texas female slavers.
PS Fundie xians have higher divorce rates than normal people. You can see why.
It amuses me to no-end how quickly the GOP latched onto crypto despite still largely wanting to return to the gold standard. But it does annoy the hell out of me the only reason they’ve become fans of crypto is because of the research about how environmentally destructive crypto mining is, and therefore it became just another “we’re for it just to pwn the libs” thing.
Birthright citizenship is in the US constitution. Texas can’t eliminate it because no one can.
Anyone can burn a US or Texan flag. It’s been ruled as a 1st amendment free speech right.
Can we just declare the Repugnant Party a terrorist organization already?
As far as: “requiring mandatory daily pledges of allegiance to both the United States and Texas”…gotta love the Jehovah Witnesses.
West Virginia State Board of Education, et al. v. Walter Barnette, et al
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Board_of_Education_v._Barnette
“The Free Speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits public schools from forcing students to salute the American flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance. District Court affirmed.”
@10- raven Lone Star toilet paper!
I clearly do not understand Birth Right Citizenship. If your great grand parents never bothered to get citizenship does that mean you are not a citizen?
#11 Already do
So when they talk about eliminating federal welfare programs and requiring drug testing for welfare recipients, are they including corporate welfare like subsidies? Will they make the 1% take a drug test? Does employing “illegal immigrants” like what many companies and 1%ers do count as aid and will they lose their tax cuts if they’re caught? Will their “war on terrorism” include christian terrorists like Proud Boys or Promise Keepers? If a city increases police funding, will they be required to raise property taxes?
It’s almost funny how quickly this list goes from “won’t somebody think of the children?!?” to “screw the children, they’re on their own.” The unrestrained fascism and the race to make the planet uninhabitable is much less funny.
Raven @10 The only part of the US constitution Republicans like is the second amendment. If they could they’d scrap the whole thing and rewrite it.
Surely this must be a joke, right? Not even the most heinous authoritarian and fascist states in world history would even consider some of these items. I’m having difficulty believing it’s real, as I’m not sure a more evil set of beliefs has ever existed in the history of human government… The de-facto end of damn-near all immigration by ending H1B? Withdrawing from the UN?
Even after all we’ve seen since 2016, I’m having difficulty even comprehending this.
They forgot to declare the Earth is flat, pi is 3, and any science has to be appoved by a joint panel of elected politicians and religious leaders (but only one religion).
“introducing a right to use cryptocurrency to the Texas Bill of Rights”
They don’t already have this right? Or do they want to force all vendors to support cryptocurrency?
Some more highlights. Just a taste, though … 33 pages of this shit.
But you’re dreaming up new unenumerated rights constantly, so — fuck it, never mind.
So, no more regulations of the internet? Or more regulations of the internet? You decide.
This thing is “organized” into sections, but it really doesn’t feel like it at times…. Tried to make the rest here not too much of a Wall-O-Text.
How many Conservative Lunatic Bingo Cards did we fill out? They even got critical race theory, the coward’s version of screeching cultural Marxism!
@19: Particularly funny from the people who want to classify social media platforms as publishers so they can regulate them, as they are suggesting here. (And, you know, that’s totally a thing that isn’t a big meanie federal change).
I’m not an American, and definitely not a Texan, but this must be either a joke or the platform of a fringe group.
The only point that’s inconsistent with being an asshole is “ending the H1B foreign worker visa program”. That’s because the H1B program is a way to poach a relatively small number of already-educated, top-productivity, tax-paying, generally young and healthy rare and specialized workers from other countries, for whom jobs already exists in the US which cannot be filled by locals, subject to a stringent quota and a strict time limit of six years. So, in essence, it’s a way to take advantage of the subsidized education in other countries and pilfer their brains at a large net profit to the state. The industry loves the H1B program and can’t get enough of it. The visa is tied to a particular employer, so workers can’t switch jobs, and they have to leave the US if they quit or are fired; they can be treated as serfs — or, at least, more so than citizens can. Unlike work permits in civilized countries, the spouses of H1B visa holders don’t get the right to work at all, and given that the visa holders are overwhelmingly male, it’s also an instrument of oppression of women. What’s not to like about it?
Ok, I agree, all this is barbaric and savage.
One question: What are you going to do about it?
And don’t say “vote” or “protest” because that doesn’t create a permanent solution and you’re likely going to lose.
Nope! Most of this has been open, mainstream conservative/Republican dogma for as long as I’ve been politically aware. The rest was never mentioned openly but it was considered amongst the faithful in private. Now, after Trump made being a fascist trendy, nothing is taboo!
Then it’s a “fringe group” which has control over the second largest state in the country. Doesn’t sound very fringe.
It’s right here on texasgop.org (PDF, 33 pages)
There are some things scattered around which are good. For example:
This isn’t entirely horrible, but it is still pathetic:
On the other hand:
And of course, I quoted above that they want random drug testing for welfare recipients (of programs that they also want abolished or gutted).
So as they say, it’s one step forward, 957 steps back. But most of it is actually pretty “normal” in this country. A lot of conservatives just aren’t always willing to say some or all of it explicitly in public.
A question I’m still pondering … maybe some of the foreigners out there can help with this one.
If they “support foreign aid only to America’s allies who share our values,” then who the fuck is that supposed to include? Not you, surely.
well I’m glad they cleared that up.
reminds me of the adage, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool then speak up and remove all doubt.”
it is trumps lasting legacy.
Looks like a grab-bag of right wing and far right-supported policies. There was a time, I think, when “mainstream” Republicans didn’t support many of these points, at least openly, but as the party has gotten more and more far right, it has embraced what used to be fringe positions.
If they “support foreign aid only to America’s allies who share our values,” then who the fuck is that supposed to include? Not you, surely.
Ironically, the Taliban probably shares more of these values than most of our traditional allies.
“new criminal penalties for desecrating the American or Texas flag” Does that include defacing it with blue or black stripes?
This is basically calling for the elimination of the US Federal government.
Abolishing the IRS would do it by itself. No money, no government.
OTOH, it would also mean the US military would disappear. The US military consumes $741 billion per year. No money, no military.
It would be far easier and safer to just kick Texas out of the USA.
And why not? They don’t want to be here and they seriously openly call for the USA to just go away and die quietly.
There is an added bonus here as well.
Without the Texas GOP electoral votes, the christofascists of the GOP are unlikely to win any more presidential elections.
Most of that giant list of crap will never come to pass, because they literally won’t have the time to try to implement it all. Large chunks of it wouldn’t pass a Constitutional challenge, and the smarter ones know that. But it will gain them support from the rubes, and the parts they will pass will be bad enough.
I’m sure a country like Hungary would meet their criteria for foreign aid. Until the Hungarians get sick and tired of Orban, and an even slightly more liberal government takes control.
Precious bodily fluids y’all.
I like how it’s mostly federal stuff that the state party can do nothing about. Those are the safest positions for a state party to take, rhetorically.
Re: cvoinescu @ #21…
The H1B visa program is massively abused. Visa holders have to be sponsored and if the sponsor drops them, they have to go back home/be deported. This leads to implicit excessive work hours and despressing wages and job opportunities for local workers, despite the requirement that such jobs carry “prevailing local wages.” So…while eliminating H1B is probably a bad idea, enforcing the requirements of the visa should probably be done a lot more vigorously than it is at present.
On other points…
I do rather agree with eliminating DST. California passed an advisory measure to do so (that ‘s the good part). Unfortunately, it was to put in DST all the time (that’s the bad part). If people want to get up an hour earlier all year around, then they should discuss that with their employer and get their shift offset. But leave Standard Time alone. Now if they’d gone on to suggesting that every locality run on local Mean Solar Time, that I’d disagree with. Standardized time zones are useful.
The one about eliminating fluoridation is sort of hilarious, considering that it was the naturally (over) fluoridated water in Deaf Smith County, Texas that led to the discovery of the benefits of fluoridated water. Does the Texas GOP want to pay to remove the fluorides from the Deaf Smith County water supplies?
Is this why Elon Musk moved to Texas? (Along with Tesla)
The stars at night, blot them from sight.
(Slap slap slap slap)
Deep in the heart of Texas.
The prairie sky, turned smog and dry. (Slapx4)
Deep in the heart of Texas.
The sage don’t bloom, we welcome doom.
Deep in the heart of Texas.
Tumor?
Yo, this shit is stage 4. Call a hospice because Texas needs a bed.
No mention of this only applying to public schools. Will all workplaces introduce it? Will all employees be required to join in at, say, 8am, or will it simply be a requirement to say the pledge in front of the flag immediately upon entering the building? Who is going to check these events for backsliders, dissenters and ne’er-do-wells? Will unemployed people, pre-schoolers and retirees be required to install a flag at home (although True Patriots will already proudly own one) and use that for their daily act of enforced jingoism, and will they have to pay for the cameras necessary for the all-seeing eye of the state apparatus to monitor them? Will only Texans residing in Texas be required to take part in the state pledge, or does it apply to all Americans present on Texan soil?
No, I’m joking, of course. It’s only schoolchildren who will be indoctrinated from an early age, forced to swear to defend freedom and liberty for all else face deportation to the re-education camps where the real inculcation of True Texican Values can begin.
Well, I’m totally in on guns in schools – as long as they’re concealed carry 155mm howitzers.
Given the 5 – 7 ton weight, I’d be disinclined to argue the point anyway. ;)
Of course, each round is an NFA destructive weapon in its own right, which should also be carried concealed.
As for CRT, it’s a rage machine invention, as no K-12 in the land ever considered carrying a graduate level course. Especially in a state where the words dog and cat count as advanced English.
I agree!
… with exactly one thing in that list. Daylight savings time is pointless clock fiddling twice a year.
Most of the rest sounds like either The Ghosts of Terrible Ideas from Elections Past or they’re Things Man Was Not Meant to Do because doing them is counterproductive.
consciousness razor @ #25:
Maybe one of you Americans can illuminate me, but what the fuck are are America’s values?
I struggle with the same question here. The requirements for schools have recently been changed to include the promotion of “British values”. There would have been a vast pot to pick from, including imperialism, colonialism, isolationism, systemic racism, misogyny, polarization, disenfranchisement (first-past-the-post voting…), corruption and cronyism, hypocrisy — and more, quite a few of them positive — but, luckily, they actually supplied a list of four “fundamental” ones: Democracy; Rule of Law; Respect & Tolerance; Individual Liberty.
Yay! Values!
My rule is that whenever a person refers to the unspecified values of their group/community/country, I assume they mean their own personal values, however repugnant they may be to other members of the said group/community/country.
whheydt @ #32:
I know.
Which is why it stands out from the rest, because it’s not a 100% asshole proposition.
covinescu @39
They mean Israel. It’s only ever Israel with these Christian fascists. And only because of their end-times apocalyptic death cult.
I recall that studies have been done indicating that not only do most Republican voters not know what is in the party’s platform they will not believe you if you accurately describe it.
Even more batshit insane than I imagined. This was interesting: ”teaching American history courses “heavily weighted toward the study of original founding documents””. I wonder if that includes teaching the original articles of secession of the states involved in the slavers rebellion. That would surely damage their cherished lost cause mythology.
tedw @ 42:
Of course not! They only will ever show the Founding Fathers as paragons of perfection who loved Jesus and thought the Bible should be the founding document of the United States and thought all humans were equal in their eyes.
@10 Raven Those two things are no the only things in the list that are serious attacks on the constitution. And, “Not possible to get rid of.”, only works if they don’t somehow take control of all parts of the Fed again, and use that to push through amendments to the amendments, which fuck everything up. Now, 90% of the country won’t ratify any such thing, but they could in principle pass it, and if they got enough idiots in power around the country they could also enforce it, despite it not being accepted and ratified – much like the Equal Rights Amendment itself, which some states have “still” refused to ratify.
This is the problem with both trusting the system, and failing to do anything at all to keep people out of the system whose entirely purpose is to undermine the very principles of the constitution – to protect “people” – if they can get in, they can smash things.
One thing that’s funny is that in the US conservatives want to have senators appointed by the states, in Canada conservatives want senators (we have them too) to be elected. It’s almost as if it’s not so much a principled stand as it is looking for anything that would give them an advantage.
Is this another way to game the algorithm and get more visbility?
If it’s the official GOP surely they wouldn’t need this?
Or maybe the platform has been written by all those people who managed to game the algorithm?
These loons would just love Sweden. We incorporated the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Swedish domestic law in January 2020, so we’re currently working systematically through our laws pertaining to children to check which Article in the Convention applies … and to make sure that we respect both the letter and the spirit of the Convention.
I live in Texas and none of the Republicans I know have the slightest idea of what is in their party’s platform and would not believe me if I linked them to the page.
Re: cvoinescu @ #39…
(In ref to H1B) What you cite is why it’s puzzling that the Texas GOP is opposed to it. It’s a tool US corporations love to use to get around a lot of US labor law and should appeal–very strongly–to the top GOP funders.
I guess they’ll have to move Austin to another state somehow.
whheydt@49, With the caveat this is all entirely from memory, teh thugs have hated H1-B for many many years. E.g., hair furor suspended the programme in 2020, and it only recently(?) has been restored. And yes, it certainly is gamed, a colleague of mine years ago had their visa gamed (they were from Hong Kong — this was about the time Big China took the place back) because they didn’t want to return to a different & hostile regime (and they were very very good, so the company wanted to keep them).
Anyways, my memory of why teh thugs hate H1-B is (mostly?) because it sounds good to teh morans who are the base — Nasty Big Companies are hiring cheap labor with gubbermint help and denying jobs to ‘merkins! — which is a severe distraction and very unlikely to directly affect most of that base (as H1-Bs are supposedly for “highly skilled” people)… albeit I am aware some members of some professional societies agree waaaay-too-closely with that “cheap labor stealing jobs” gibberish.
I wonder, though, what they actually mean by ending “birthright citizenship”? Taken literally, that would turn all Americans except immigrants and holders of dual citizenship into stateless persons. My guess is that they want to keep children of illegal immigrants from claiming citizenship on the basis of having been born here.
And the state will now be spelled Texsux.
@39
Take what you can, give nothing back.
ending daylight savings time
Okay, I can get behind that one but it’s the only one. That’s like finding one single nugget of decency in the bible; the rest is still crap.
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that all Texans believe in that crap. I’m a Texan, and I find that as monstrous as you do. Of course, I’m almost everything those fucktards hate: a woman, a liberal, an agnostic, an advocate for science and sanity…
Fact is, I haven’t had a legitimate vote at the federal level since 2000, aka the first time Democrats tried to block the insane gerrymandering by leaving the state. My congresscritter primarily supports… is it Waco or College Station this year? I honestly can’t remember. Either way, it’s balls-crazy Republiban territory. Doesn’t keep me from writing them and calling them, though I know it does no good. I burn up Cornyn’s mailbox pretty regularly, too, though I don’t even bother with that slime-bucket Cruz.
I vote in every election. Protest, as my health allows. Donate, as my finances allow. And I’m not the only one. I know it’s hard to see and hear over the furor, but there’s a lot of us down here fighting the good fight, trying to live our lives and leave the world a little better than we found it.
English, and only English, shall appear on any ballot for any election in the United States of America and in the State of Texas.
As a Canadian, I am horrified. Come to think of it the USA has no official language(s). Why not Chinese?
We support foreign aid only to America’s allies who share our values
Good luck in finding them.
“the majority of Texans, if confronted with this list, would reel back in horror. Wouldn’t they?”
The beauty of gerrymandering is that the answer to this question will never matter.