Taking Back the Texas Legends
Unsolicited advice for the Texas Democratic Party: Remember and Weaponize the Alamo
With the way things have gone for nigh on 30 years for Texas Democrats, it is understandable that few of Ted Cruz’s foes think his titanically arrogant and utterly tone-deaf decision to flee the wastelands of frigid Texas for the balmier climes of Cancun will have any long-term consequences. After all, Americans have short memories, and his reelection campaign is still three years down the road. So the received wisdom from despairing Dems goes, all will be forgotten by then, and even if the Dems crafted and ran a mutated combo out of only the most charismatic DNA of Beyonce, LBJ, Selena, Earl Campbell, and Willie Nelson, Loathsome Ted would still win because (R).
Maybe so, maybe no. I see some signs that perhaps foes of Geekball Rule of Texas have had enough of his ilk.
Already the anti-Ted campaign is leading where I'd like to see it go: to the soul of what it means to be Texan. Song parodies of Yellow Rose and Deep in the Heart have already been made.
And there is this meme, also keeping the Spirit of 1836 alive.
These are all examples of folk protest, rising like steam from the thawing Texas ice. These are not paid political ads. And these could be the way forward for the Texas Democratic party in future elections.
Texas Dems, probably on outside advice of Yankee DNC types, have ceded all the legends to the GOP. The GOP already claims as it sole property patriotic virtue on the national front (Nazi pun intended) and now their Texas counterparts would have us all believe that even Sam Houston would be a Republican today.
Poppycock. We need strategists who can reconnect with voters on the level of Texas myth: the Alamo, San Jacinto, the Rangers who fought Comanches. Neither Gus McRae nor Woodrow Call would so much as spit on Ted Cruz.
The Dems need to seize hold of the legends. Whack the GOP across the face with a horse pistol and show them the picture behind the bar, back when Big Dick Energy Democratic Men like LBJ and Big Dick Energy women like Ann Richards ran this state. Not clammy crustaceans like Cruz and preening Yankee nancy boys like Danny Goeb.
Let’s take Texas back from these carpetbaggers, get it back to the spirit of the Open Beaches and Civil Rights acts, back to the spirit of Governor Will Hogg backing down the rail barons. Let’s find us a native Huey Long who’ll pay more than lip service to the love of the common people of his native state.
And to do so, let’s enlist the likes of Bowie and Travis, Houston and Crockett, LBJ and Anne Richards, Barbara Jordan and Juan Seguin and let’s paint Ted Cruz as the cowardly and even more incompetent and opportunistic Santa Anna that he is.
Here’s to the sunny slopes of long ago, and the new true blue Texas tomorrow.
I seem to remember Lonesome Dove premiering during a previous cold snap. Everyone stayed in but we had power to watch the epic unfold over several nights. It made quite an impression on Houstonians...
Remind the Secessionists what Sam Houston thought about he subject.
Well, maybe the silver lining to the power/water disaster is that it will help turn Texas blue again. Voters do have short memories but it's kinda hard to forget nearly freezing to death, battling broken water pipes and being unable to flush toilets due to lack of water.