First, Jim Forsyth of Reuters.
Taking notice of the dichotomy locally are Stewart Powell and Rachel Jackson at the Chronic.
More from Patty Hart.
If you can't get over the firewall to read the rest, just be grateful. Back to the first Chronicle article for a little more.
We're going to find out over the course of the next two months (the 2014 filing period) if the Democrats will pick up this gauntlet. Here's what's not helping: the fellow who ran against Culbertson in 2008 -- and has come the closest to unseating him over the past twelve years -- is sounding out a capitulation strategy.
I've excoriated Michael Skelly so many times for running to the right in his bid that even I'm tired of being reminded of it. Thankfully there are some commenting on his Facebook wall who are calling him on the carpet for his Stockholm Syndrome. But this is another demonstration of the defeatism zeitgeist of Texas politics among those who call themselves "moderate".
It's also evident in the polling that reveals that Americans are finally ready for a third political party... but sadly, they think it needs to lie somewhere between the Democrats and the Republicans.
Fail. That's not how revolutions organically occur; just look at the TeaPees. But back to Texas being like a whole other (far too conservative) country.
There's a few things that are capable of reversing this generational trend, and Battleground Texas is working on the most important one. Having a candidate willing to stand up and fight in the face of long odds comes in a close second. A few subroutines, a little good luck, and some mistakes by the opposition figure into the algorithm.
But the best thing Democrats can do for themselves is smash this loser's mentality. It's going to have to happen among the electorate first, bubble up to the leaders and potential candidates, and then show up in the polling data well before the media notices and reports on it.
Otherwise they'll just write pathetic horseshit like this, and then follow that up with this.
A political party in the minority everywhere else in the United States outside the South and a few mountain states, ignorant of reality, science, and facts, and oblivious to its own internal destruction is ripe for the plucking. It says more about the party that keeps losing to them if they can't capitalize on these fundamental weaknesses.
Because if they can't break through -- and soon -- Texas is going to take down the nation with it.
"After two months in Washington, it's great to be back in America," Cruz joked in speaking to a crowd of about 750 people in a packed downtown San Antonio hotel ballroom.
Cruz was greeted with an eight-minute standing ovation in an appearance organized by the Texas Federation of Republican Women. People in attendance, many of them wearing red to show their support for keeping Texas a conservative-leaning state, lined up to greet him.
Taking notice of the dichotomy locally are Stewart Powell and Rachel Jackson at the Chronic.
The 26 Republican members of Texas' House and Senate delegation on Capitol Hill expect to face no political price for uniformly voting against the hard-won congressional compromise that temporarily ended the stalemate without changing Obamacare.
Cruz, in particular, doesn't seem to care about the national criticism.
"Given the choice between being reviled in Washington, D.C., and appreciated in Texas -- or reviled in Texas and appreciated in Washington -- I would take the former 100 out of 100 times," Cruz said on Friday.
More from Patty Hart.
"Elected officials and candidates don't gravitate to individuals who hurt them politically," said (Republican political bullshit artist Matt) Mackowiak. "If they are all gravitating toward Cruz, it's in their political interest to do so."
If you can't get over the firewall to read the rest, just be grateful. Back to the first Chronicle article for a little more.
"There is just a different political culture here," says James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. "There is a strain of independent self-reliance and self-identity that political leaders can draw upon."
Polls show far more Texans believe Texas is heading in the right direction than most Americans believe the nation is on the right track. Such differing political outlooks show no sign of easing.
"The Texas Republican delegation is united in our determination to cut federal spending and stop the rapid expansion of our national debt," says Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston. "The rest of the country has a lot to learn from Texas."
We're going to find out over the course of the next two months (the 2014 filing period) if the Democrats will pick up this gauntlet. Here's what's not helping: the fellow who ran against Culbertson in 2008 -- and has come the closest to unseating him over the past twelve years -- is sounding out a capitulation strategy.
What do y'all Dems think about voting in the Republican primary so we can get some moderate R's in there and replace some of these crazy Tea party nuts?
I've excoriated Michael Skelly so many times for running to the right in his bid that even I'm tired of being reminded of it. Thankfully there are some commenting on his Facebook wall who are calling him on the carpet for his Stockholm Syndrome. But this is another demonstration of the defeatism zeitgeist of Texas politics among those who call themselves "moderate".
It's also evident in the polling that reveals that Americans are finally ready for a third political party... but sadly, they think it needs to lie somewhere between the Democrats and the Republicans.
Fail. That's not how revolutions organically occur; just look at the TeaPees. But back to Texas being like a whole other (far too conservative) country.
There's a few things that are capable of reversing this generational trend, and Battleground Texas is working on the most important one. Having a candidate willing to stand up and fight in the face of long odds comes in a close second. A few subroutines, a little good luck, and some mistakes by the opposition figure into the algorithm.
But the best thing Democrats can do for themselves is smash this loser's mentality. It's going to have to happen among the electorate first, bubble up to the leaders and potential candidates, and then show up in the polling data well before the media notices and reports on it.
Otherwise they'll just write pathetic horseshit like this, and then follow that up with this.
A political party in the minority everywhere else in the United States outside the South and a few mountain states, ignorant of reality, science, and facts, and oblivious to its own internal destruction is ripe for the plucking. It says more about the party that keeps losing to them if they can't capitalize on these fundamental weaknesses.
Because if they can't break through -- and soon -- Texas is going to take down the nation with it.
