Saturday, November 08, 2008



What's the Matter with Texas? Readers Answer - 1

A round-up of reader views ...


You shouldn't be surprised that Harris County went Dem. Dallas County did in the previous election. It took Harris County longer because it's a much larger county, geographically. Hence, unlike Dallas, where the suburbs are mostly in Denton, Collin and Rockwall counties, many of the Houston suburbs
are still partly in Harris County. McCain won Galveston County by 20 points, took a slight edge in Fort Bend County (with its low income inner suburbs), won Brazoria County by 30 points, and won Montgomery County by 53 points. McCain's margin in Montgomery County was 83,000 votes while his deficit in Harris County was only 18,000 votes.

That said, consider that

1) The minority growth (largely Hispanic) in the big Texas cities has been huge, occupying former "white" neighborhoods as those people moved to the suburbs. Also, there's a substantial Asian population, mostly 2nd generation Vietnamese.

2) The low income whites that remain in the city are either old - the kind who will swallow any lie about Social Security - or young but not really "working class" ( which frankly, is hard to do in a booming state like Texas unless you're just lazy or you've chosen to be in the "fringe"
economy). Either way, they are not conservatives or even moderates.

3) Houston has had Democrat mayors for as long as I can remember. It was the inner urbs that kept the county-wide races in GOP hands. That trend has changed as people continue to move further out.

Statewide, Texas is pretty much a GOP 56-44 state, The Texas House has become a closer (76-74) proposition because migration patterns have caused some of the GOP urban districts to become Dem-leaning several years after the lines were drawn while the GOP suburban districts are overcrowded. This will shake out when new lines are drawn. On the plus side, the state is now
20-12 in GOP House seats, having defeated Nick Lampson for Tom DeLay's old seat.

**

As a resident of Harris County, here is my take on the election and why Dem’s were successful in Harris county:

There is still a hangover from Tom Delay, who frankly as the representative for a suburb of Houston, worked against the city in many areas. For example, the city attempted repeatedly to procur federal funding for rail and Delay consistently tried to deny these funds by inserting provisions into legislation that prohibited federal funding of rail for the city. Delay changed the rules midstream by being against rail unless it was approved by the voters, which it then was, and then he fought federal funding anyway. He worked in a ham-handed fashion to promote his district to the detriment of the greater region. He became one example of Republican misrule and a politician more interested in maintaining power than adhering to a consistent governing philosophy. ...

Houston is a multicultural melting pot, where caucasians are in the minority. The fight over immigration hurt the party in Harris county, given the preponderance of Hispanic immigrants residing in the city. This city is extremely welcoming to immigration and lacks the racial tensions so common in Chicago, Boston, New York etc. The immigration fight was seen as an attack on hard-working immigrant neighbors.

There has been an influx of new residents into the city over the last 10 years, many from other parts of the country. Its hard to find a native Houstonian, and with these new residents comes new political attitudes.

Finally, there is a big difference between Texas Democrats and California or New York Democrats (Sheila Jackson notwithstanding). The Democrats elected in harris county would likely not have made the primary cut in California, Massachusetts or New York. These Democrats would be called Moderate Republicans in Connecticutt or New York.

**

I live in a very Republican, upscale suburb northwest of Houston. I voted midday, just before lunch, and I was, literally, the only person there. I got into a friendly debate on the way to my car with a liberarian doing some electioneering who seemed upset I voted Republican, after telling him my ideology was libertarian, just not my party affiliation, and for the entire twenty or thirty minutes I spent talking to him, maybe one or two people voted. I knew right then it wasn't likely to be a good day for the G.O.P.

I doubt there are many more reliably Republican areas of the country than where I live, and there seemed to be zero enthusiasm for this election, even though anti-Obama sentiment seemed to run high.

**

We may be about as deep south geographically as you can get, but we're certainly not going to be the GOP's Alamo, if you catch my drift. You can get deeper south politically in the wilds of West PA, Tennessee or Arkansas, but not here.

I think most Texans have a strong libertarian streak that's been overshadowed often by our bible belt. Many of the Democrats I know down here vote that way because the Republican party left them (hell me too) long ago when all they started caring about was abortion and gay marriage. I talk to far more fiscally conservative and socially liberal/libertarian/whogivesashit down here than the latter, and we tend to go Obama. So it doesn't surprise me that we're veering a little blue. The bright side for conservatives is that a blue dog from here is nowhere near your Pelosi's, so you can rest easy on that I suppose.

You might also consider that Harris County's smack dab in the middle of Houston. Our cities are all getting bluer and catching up to your usually blue Travis County, which is Austin.

But good luck to the current Republican party if this trend continues.


11/08 09:41 PM


http://frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q= ... IwNmI3Mjk=