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The Annoyed Man wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 10:18 am Someone on Twitter pointed out to me the other day that Bonnen was a Strauss protégé, so no one should be surprised at his actions.

My conclusion is that the GOP in Texas is following the national GOP into self-immolation. Democrats want power, and know how to use it. Republicans want power, but either don’t know how to use it, or are afraid of doing so. That kind of self-restraint is suicidal when the other side has no such restraint.

One of the reps last night made that some point

A comment by another poster suggested that he would never vote for a Democrat. While "never" is a term that I try to use sparingly (because circumstances may change radically), I have to agree with that, too. The unfortunate part is that there are many Conservatives who feel the same way and stay home since they have "nevered" themselves into a corner of not being able to vote for anyone. I think that is the gravest risk out of what just happened in this legislative session. it underscores the apathy that many feel because nothing seems to change. I've been very active this year in supporting and opposing specific bills, traveling to Austin periodically and calling my own reps as well as the members of committees who were handling those bills. I know that we made some (a little) difference on some of those bills but didn't move the needle at all on others. The group that I was with last night had many others who were as active or more so that I've been and are greatly disappointed in the results. When you put that much time and effort into it in such numbers and still have nothing to show for it, I can easily understand (but don't agree with) those who say that their vote is a waste of time. I attended a number of hearings, too. It takes a lot of will power to keep going back after you hear what happens in some of those.

I attended a meeting last night which featured, as speakers, three member of the Texas Legislature - 2 House members and a senator. I would judge them all to be men of integrity and applaud their courage for coming before what I will characterize as somewhat hostile but restrained audience. They were all given unlimited opportunities to make opening and closing remarks but fielded questions from the audience as a panel. There were large differences of opinion among them on most of the key legislative efforts from this session, both those that passed and those that did not.

The recurring theme of the evening was a focus on redistricting and it was stated that the desire of this session was to make sure that there was a Republican majority in both Houses when that happened.

My interpretation was that there was "concern" (I would have called it cowardice) in the aftermath of the Cruz/Beto results among the Texas leadership, not just Bonnen. The panel was asked the specific question "Does Bonnen have a plan for keeping Texas Red?" The answer was "yes" but not even a hint of the aspects of such a plan were shared. The information provided was unconvincing to me.

The previous month, a spokesman for the Republican party provided remarks that 1 million NEW Republican voters will be needed to counter the gains of the Democrats for 2020. I have to scratch my head wonder exactly how anyone is supposed to attract one single new voter when the Republican platform on which the leadership for this session ran was so wildly abandoned. "Don't vote for Democrats" doesn't seem to be a winning theme, at least to me.

To be fair, we were told that there was significant educational reform in the $5B that was given school funding. It remains to be seen if the failure to stop union payroll funding - much of which bankrolls Democratic political efforts and the failure to address voter fraud can be overcome. Bonnen was clearly behind the efforts to scuttle fixes for both of those problems. Appeasement never works IMHO.