Texas Dumb

Once upon a time Texas was known for its Democrats--Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, Ralph Yarborough, Lloyd Bentsen. Today, a fog of imbecility seems to have settled over Texas voters, as the politicians they elect have lowered the collective IQ of congress and the state house. Each week it seems a new candidate for stupidest politician is submitted, a kind of circus of idiocy. Just what is going on in Texas?

A few days ago, as I wrote below, Michael Burgess contributed the concept of fetal onanism to the national discourse. But he's just the latest and not by far the looniest.

Where to start? Let's look at the delegation to congress. Steve Stockman is a gun fetishist who claimed that the Clinton administration raided the Branch Davidian complex to further a push for a ban on assault weapons. He wanted to repeal the safety zone rule around schools, urging teachers to be armed. He also voted against the Violence Against Women Act, worried that men dressed like women would be covered by the law.

Joe Barton is an odious congressman that made headlines after the BP Gulf spill by defending BP, indicating how beholden he is to oil companies: "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words — amounts to a shakedown, so I apologize." It's nice to know that oil companies have their own congressman, bought and paid for. He also shows a child-like knowledge of wind energy: "Wind is God’s way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it’s hotter to areas where it’s cooler. That’s what wind is. Wouldn’t it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up? Now, I’m not saying that’s going to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is definitely something on the massive scale. I mean, it does make some sense. You stop something, you can’t transfer that heat, and the heat goes up. It’s just something to think about."

Certainly the dumbest member of the Texas delegation, and perhaps in all of congress, is Louie Gohmert, who almost on a daily basis displays a shocking level of both cruelty and dopiness. His list of moronic statements and causes are legion. He is a particularly ripe example of a politician who embraces both guns and the belief that life begins at conception. He told a witness at a hearing that she should have brought her child to term even though it had no brain function. He claims that the Obama administration is in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood. He thinks, like Stockman, that teachers should be armed. His latest addition was a claim that cutting food stamps isn't a big deal since we have an obesity crises. Obviously, his twisted logic determines, kids aren't that hungry.

Looking at the Senate, there are two Republican senators. John Cornyn, a nasty conservative, is the picture of reason compared to Ted Cruz, a newly minted Tea Party favorite who is even despised by his own party. A self-styled Constitutional expert, he is another God and guns cheerleader who thinks the government is hiding under our beds. He called for abolishing the IRS, threatened to filibuster any attempt to regulate guns, and wants to block immigration reform, even though he himself is an immigrant (born in Canada). He voted against the Violence Against Women Act and Hurricane Sandy relief. He is vile.

At the statehouse level, Texas is also a haven for regressive lunatics. The school board has become famous for rewriting history textbooks, de-emphasizing Thomas Jefferson and emphasizing Phyllis Schafly. They also are attempting to counter the teaching of evolution with creationism and other religious theories.

The ringmaster of this circus is the governor, Rick Perry. He had one of the most massive brain farts ever exhibited when, during a presidential debate, started listing the cabinet departments he would get rid of and forgot one. After the fertilizer plant explosion that devastated the town of West, he defended his anti-regulation stance that led to the disaster. Just recently he showed a lack of understanding of the First Amendment when he said that freedom or religion doesn't mean a freedom from religion. And this is just the tip of iceberg.

The last laugh may be that, if demographers are correct, Texas will soon be a blue state, as the Hispanic population, which shows a fondness for reasonable politicians, increases. A new star on the horizon is Juan Castro, the appealing mayor of San Antonio, who may one day be presidential timber. Until then, we must all put up with the ignorance, venality, and arrogance of Texas Republicans.