Government Education vs. Actual Participation

            Texas Government is a required class in all Texas colleges.  Yet people still don’t seem to care about the government in Texas.  In the 2012 presidential election, ~58% of the registered voters voted, while in the 2010 Gubernatorial election, only 38% of the registered Texan voters showed up to vote.  These numbers are even smaller for Primaries and Constitutional elections. 

            Why do people register and then not vote? Even in the 2012 election which was the best case scenario, 42% of people registered to vote didn’t show up to the polls.  You would think people who registered would go vote, otherwise why even bother registering.  I could understand people just not being able to get to the polls in time, car problems, and sickness, but I don’t think there would be quite that big of a percentage of them. 

            Texas is supposed to be a patriotic self loving state that is proud of its heritage.  Yet the elections directly affecting that state are the lowest turnouts.  Even for the Presidential election, which was the larger of the two turnouts, Texas was still 45^th in the nation for voter turnout(Not sure the actual numbers here, reported numbers seem to vary.)  This might have to do with the fact that you don’t even have to be registered to run for Senator and House member.  Constituents might wonder why they should vote when the people they’re voting for don’t have to vote.  The state is also large enough and similarly minded enough that there might be some of the “Someone else will do it” syndrome (or this might be my hopeful Liberal side hoping that enough conservatives will do this to get elected out of office.)  If I know Neighbor Bob and Neighbor George are both voting for Freddy Wilson and I would vote for Freddy Wilson, then I may not feel the need to go and vote.  That is a common problem in cities with reporting things like broken red lights, and Texas has a large enough population for it to be a possible reason for people to not support the great United State of Texas. 

Numbers pulled from the Secretary of State website: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/70-92.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/12/the-states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-turnout-in-2012-in-2-charts/ (All the numbers that I’m finding for the 2012 election are different from the SoS numbers: http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2012G.html )

A response to a classmate

This is a response to Mr. Barrada's post "Income Tax? Whatever." I agree with this, it would be nice to have some more money to go towards things like improving roads and a better public education system.  Also if it would encourage Californians not to move here, that would be good.  However, I doubt even if the Texas government did impose the horrible, dreaded income tax, the money would be used to fund either of those.  The public school system is one of the worst in the nation, and the GOP doesn’t seem to have any intention at fixing it by raising the budget.

 

Is there a need to have a Democratic Primary in Texas?

Is there a need to have a Democratic Primary in Texas? 

Every Democrat knew that Wendy Davis was going to be elected as the candidate for governor.  Why then do they need to take the Primaries to the people? I think it would just be easier to have internal elections within the democratic party, instead of having to count all the votes of the people throughout the state, just count the votes of the people that are Democrats in the Government.  They don’t have to open it to the public, or they could just open it to the people who showed up.  Who really cares about the democratic primaries in Texas?  They might as well just have one candidate for each slot.  The party is fractured enough and still lacking enough of its power, campaigning against itself doesn’t help, only fractures it more.  It seems like it would help the party to have that level of support for one another.  It can not have another split like it did in the 70s, especially when it is not in power. 

On the other hand, it gives the people the illusion of power.  They might feel better about the process because they had some input.  However they didn’t really have that much effect, especially in the Democratic primary in Texas.  There aren’t many candidates likely to get elected, and if they support one another, they might actually be able to get elected to office.  The party doesn’t need to be fractured even more by people arguing and running against each other.  

Burnt Orange Report: Texas Women and Unequal Pay

This article from the Burnt Orange Report called "Greg Abbott Surrogate and Director of Red State Women: Texas Women Too "Busy" For Equal Pay," is written well and makes a good argument and appeals to the audience that would read it.  It is informative, and it provides quotes, outside resources, and original sources to help support it.  It also allows you to watch the video that the author disagrees with in the article, so that she can directly quote it and refute it.  What it does not seem to do well is provide links to “After Greg Abbott evaded answering a question about whether he would veto an equal pay bill as Governor.”  It did not provide a link to where Greg Abbott said this.  This article appeals to the audience who would be reading this blog.  It is a Liberal Progressive blog started by UT students, so it is likely that those who would be reading it would be Progressive Liberal college students.  The Burnt Orange Report is a reputable source, so the author is decently credible.  I also agree with this article.  I think that it makes a good point about unequal wages for women in Texas.  I think that Wendy Davis should be attacking Greg Abbott for what the article says he said.  I do wish that it provided a link to what he said though.  

Burka Blog

I think this article from the Burka Blog from Texas Monthly is a well written article about how George P. Bush, running for Land Commissioner is throwing it away by running a bad campaign.  Newspapers were assuming he would be elected to office in this upcoming election, but due to his “dilly dallying” and not talking to the press, hopes for him getting elected are looking grim.  People seem to be surprised that isn’t really doing very well.  In fact, the Austin American Statesman has endorsed his candidate because of his active campaigning.  The Nephew of former president George W. Bush doesn’t seem to have anything except the Bush name.  What little campaigning he has done, he only had a short speech and didn’t let the media ask questions.  This is a good article because it states an opinion, and gives a quote about the article.  It is well written and I think proves its point well.  It brings up a question for me.  Does George P. Bush actually want to be a politician, or is he only doing it because it’s the “family business” as it were.  I think maybe he doesn’t want to be a politician. 

The Fall of the Texas Republican Party?

This Texas Monthly article called Primary Lessons talks about how, especially among the Republican party, there is no discussion on advancing the state.  It says that the Republican party has splintered and the primaries are causing a civil war between the two factions.  According to the article, Abbott has chosen to run far to the right side of the political spectrum, keeping a similar political agenda as Perry has had for the last 14 years. “The concern for Abbott ought to be that the state party is verging on intellectual bankruptcy, desirous only of turning on those politicians who might actually want to do something.”  I foresee a fall of the Texas Republican party because we have had 14 years of the Rick Perry administration and none of the current Republican candidates seem to want to do anything different.  I do not see them developing plans to change things that are social concerns, like school systems, public infrastructure, and public welfare.