Singing the Blues in a Red state

It’s not easy being a progressive activist in Texas. Not only are the state’s progressives up against a conservative majority and completely ignored by national politicians, they’re also stuck with the media’s label of “red state voters” who have completely different values from “blue state voters.”

“I’m a redneck. I was raised Pentecostal and listen to country music. So what?” says Diane Wilson, 51, a member of Code Pink and author of the forthcoming book, An Unreasonable Woman, about her battle to save her hometown from industrial chemicals. “Redneck progressives are capable of a lot more than the media would have you think.”

Labels being what they are, of course, it becomes far too easy to hide behind the barricades of “Red” or “Blue”. The reality is the vast majority of Texans are reasonable, albeit of the right-ward persuasion. If you want to find a collection of real, true-blue, Texas nutjobs, you don’t have to go far, though. All you really need to do is attend a state GOP convention. The Texas Republican Party has been hijacked in toto by the Religious Right, which if nothing else makes for some very entertaining political machinations. If memory serves, the Texas Republican Party is the only state party to include a call for the US to pull out of the United Nations in their platform.

John Birch is alive and well and holed up somewhere in the mountains near Ft. Stockton. No one will EVER take him alive in west Texas.

It’s easy for progressives and national politicians to ignore Texas, especially since Bush got 61 percent of the state’s vote. But local activists who break down the numbers remain somewhat hopeful. In Dallas County, Bush won by just under 10,000 votes. “If a national Democrat came here and talked to the people, I’m sure Kerry would have won Dallas,” says activist Lynn Walters. “We also would have won more local races.”

Texas activists say support from national politicians and progressive activists living in liberal cities would give them more power and influence. “It’s pretty scary down here. We’re sitting in one of the most conservative Bible Belt areas in the country,” says Madeline Crozat-Williams, a Code Pink organizer in Houston. “We feel like we hear shreds of the conversation about where to go from here, but we’re struggling. We could use all the help we could get.”

Judging by the Democratic National Committee’s aversion to Texas, I might as well be living in Serbia. What many fail to realize, though, is that not so very long ago, Texas was a Democratic stronghold. Ann Richards, anyone?? LBJ?? Sam Rayburn?? Though Texas has historically been a fairly Conservative place, “Boll Weevil” Democrats generally carried the day in Texas until the Reagan Revolution rolled through these parts. Republican ascendancy is a fairly recent phenomena, and most political historians credit Ronald Reagan for turning the tables in Texas. There may be something to that theory, but a lack of truly qualified and charismatic Democratic candidates certainly hasn’t helped our cause.

The tables may turn in time. History being what it is, I suppose the time will come when Democrats will become more competitive. You have to worry about a party that cannot even muster the wherewithal to defeat a complete and total non-entity like Rick Perry, though.

In the meantime, I’ve learned to protect myself. That “Worst President Ever” bumper sticker? Nope; as much as I might like to, it’s not going on my brand new Mazda Tribute. It would be like putting a “PLEASE VANDALIZE ME!!” sign on the windshield. Why encourage the trolls?