Time was when Democrats ruled Texas. Texas has had many legendary and larger-than-life Democratic politicians: LBJ, Bob Bullock, Ann Richards. Democratic ideology here has always been different (and more Conservative) than in places like California or New England. With the advent of the Religious Right, yesterday’s Conservative Democrats have largely morphed into moderate Republicans, some even into Right-wing ideologues. Now a Democrat couldn’t get elected to statewide office if his Republican opponent had been caught in flagrante delicto with the local sheriff’s 14-year-old daughter and his prize bull.
They haven’t held statewide office since 1998. They lost control of the state Legislature in 2002. And last year many of them got drawn into congressional districts where it will be almost impossible for them to elect one of their own to the U.S. House of Representatives.
But a Houston Chronicle poll suggests Texas Democrats aren’t counting themselves out, and analysts say Republicans shouldn’t either.
“They still think they can be influential in Texas politics, even though they got killed,” said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein, who analyzed the poll for the Chronicle.
The Zogby International poll of 800 Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery county residents shows that about 40 percent identify themselves as Democrats, and 90 percent of those say they follow politics very closely or somewhat closely — about the same percentage of attention described by Republicans.
Forty percent of Fort Bend and Montgomery counties identify themselves as Democrats? Right; and I’m the Queen of England. I can’t imagine a more endangered species in either of those two counties than Democrats. Garrison Keillor has joked that you could fire a shotgun in any direction in downtown Minneapolis and you’d be guaranteed to hit a few Swedes. Well, if you tried the same thing anywhere in Montgomery or Fort Bend county, you could be reasonably assured that you probably wouldn’t hit a Democrat. Where these alleged Democrats are is beyond me.
Even though many more of them will be represented by Republicans when the next Congress convenes in January, area Democrats remain about as confident as Republicans that they can have some influence on government.
Thirty-four percent of Democrats and 35 percent of Republicans believe they are able to influence the decisions of government a lot.
Of course, 34% of Democrats are living in a fantasy world, but hey, it’s all we’ve got right about now. There are simply too many IF’s: IF Hispanics can gain some sense of their potential political power, IF African-Americans can organize themselves, IF Tom DeLay is caught wearing lederhosen while a naked underage female intern kneels in front of him….
I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but until Texas Democrats can get a grip on the reality of the situation facing us, we are doomed to continue chasing our tails. Things may change, but it just might be a long time coming. Patience may be required…that, and a hell of a lot of hard work.
