• wjrii@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        At this point the only way to realistically get that squeeze is to create more districts that are “very safe” versus “locked in,” and at least some Republicans will push back to save their own skin. Texas won’t need to go blue for this to backfire or at least be of minimal impact.

        This is as close as I get to optimism about state politics though.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Texas won’t need to go blue for this to backfire

          The GOP has a lot of techniques to drive down voter participation and soften up democratic opposition. Rewriting the districts just lets them define the terms of engagement.

          This is as close as I get to optimism about state politics though.

          Until we get a Wisconsin-style full-state flip and some replacements at the state level, or a Federal DOJ willing to drop the hammer on all the little parasites skittering around the state, there’s very little the state-level Dem Party can do to resist this kind of malfeasance.

          Abbott’s been consolidating more and more power in Austin as the various municipal and county level seats have flipped to Democrat. With Trump at his back, the state is increasingly feeling like a single-party dictatorship.

          • BigFig@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            Don’t forget the Lt governor has more power than the governor, and the railroad commission right next to him.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              20 hours ago

              Don’t forget the Lt governor has more power than the governor

              That stopped being true decades ago, when Perry was granted a bunch of appointment power under the Republican legislature.

              The Lt. Gov set the agenda in the State Senate, which made the position a bottleneck in the legislative process. But Senate Republicans are in total lockstep. The real legislative power rested with the House calendars committee for a few sessions, as the legislature was only in session for a few months every few years and the House could kill a bill by timing it out.

              But of late, Abbott has excercised his ability to call “emergency” sessions liberally. And since he can get the agenda in these sessions, he can bully the House Reps into compliance by dragging them back over and over again until they concede.

    • charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works
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      23 hours ago

      I get the feeling Texas will just vote in another person of equal shitty-ness. Not sure they even need to rig the elections like they always do

        • charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works
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          13 hours ago

          I had to look him up and before I read who he is, I thought to myself “oh, he’s that scumbag criminal, isn’t he” and sure enough, he’s is that scumbag criminal. I guess people just have a different take on a what a criminal is in places like Texas and Florida to name a few.

    • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      All it’s going to take is Dem voters to actually fucking show up. Harris and Biden both received more votes in Texas then did Abbott in his elections. We only had 45% turnout in 2022.