Over the weekend, the GOP-controlled Texas legislature approved a contentious anti-abortion bill that has inspired weeks of protest during two special legislative sessions. At the end of last month, state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) attempted to block the legislation with a dramatic 13-hour filibuster — but the Democratic minority was ultimately unable to prevent the measure from passing in a second special session. That doesn’t mean pro-choice legislators in the state have totally given up, however. As their Republican colleagues have taken advantage of the current special session to introduce a rush of anti-abortion bills, Democratic lawmakers have countered with a few proposals of their own. State Rep. Harold Dutton, Jr. (D) has introduced HB 45, which would prevent Texas from enforcing any of the abortion restrictions passed during this year’s special session until 60 days after Texas abolishes the death penalty.
During my 10-year sojourn in the Lone Star State, I came to appreciate Texas politics for its epic comedic potential. Politics here in Oregon is about as exciting as going down to the corner gas station and watching the owner fill the cigarette machine. Texas, in its own unique way, manages to tap veins of crazy, stupid, intolerant, and self-righteous…very often simultaneously. Much of what happens in Austin simply defies rational explanation, and the only way to gain any understanding of it is to ridicule and satirize it. I suppose that’s what happens when uninformed, Bible-thumping Conservative zealots are handed the reigns of power. It makes for moments simply begging to be parodied- like the sight of state troopers confiscating tampons at the entrance to the state capitol while pistol-packing Texas glided through the security checkpoints.
There’s a very real problem with the comedy gold mine that is Texas politics: it has real world impact. It’s easy to make fun of legislators so ill-informed they don’t even know what a rape kit is (I’m taking about you, Sen. Laubenberg), but SB5 poses significant threat to the rights and health of women- particularly among minorities and the poor. One of every four Texans has no health insurance. Texas is also poised to pass a Voter ID law that will have the practical effect of disenfranchising thousands of poor and minority voters. This from a state that just executed its 500th criminal, more than half of whom met their Maker during the reign of Gov. Pander McCrazy. Crazy makes for damned poor public policy, but in the Teapublican laboratory that is Texas, poor public policy is merely the cost of adhering to an intolerant and often contradictory theology/ideology.
How do you explain a state whose socially conservative Bible thumping zealots proclaim their pro-life bona fides by effectively banning abortion while at the same time staunchly supporting the death penalty? This is an illustration of the ability of Conservatives to entertain two diametrically opposed ideas without their brain pan exploding. “Pro-life” means that you value life- not “all life unless you’re a convicted murderer or have emerged from the womb.” How better to illustrate the obvious contradiction in their self-righteous “devotion” to life than by offering legislation linking abortion to the death penalty? Rep.Harold Dutton understands that his bill stands no chance of becoming law, but what he’s done is to hold the obvious contradiction up for public ridicule. Most rational people would be upset about perpetuation such a deadly contradiction; Texas Republicans embrace it.
I’ve tried repeatedly to understand an ideology that claims to support life while seeing no contradiction in applying the death penalty with reckless abandon. I finally had to give up the effort, because it turns out there’s simply no way to rationalize such a blindingly obvious contradiction. That sort of hypocrisy is the hallmark of the “Texas Miracle,” and it’s what provided the late Molly Ivins with several lifetimes worth of material.
The amazing thing is that most Texans are either OK or can be bothered with understand what their elected representatives are doing in their name…which only proves that Texans have exactly the quality of leadership they deserve.
