this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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The majority of my friends leaving Austin have done so because of state politics. It's hard to feel safe when you're queer in Texas.
That’s exactly what those politics are there to do. Texas is not as deeply red as its reputation. Might suggest, and it has been experiencing an influx of people. They are afraid of losing the balance of power in the voters. They are actively trying to get blue voters to leave / not come. And they think gay voters will be liberals, plus hating gays makes their base feel good. This is the what and why of what’s happening. As a somewhat older LGBT person, I know what it’s like not to feel safe because that used to be virtually everywhere.
In terms of political strategy it's remarkably short sighted. By preserving their supermajority in Texas and Florida, Republicans assure that they will win both states in the electoral college... Which is the base case. There's no net improvement.
But to accomplish that, they've pissed off people who now have strong incentive to vote against Republicans and driven them away to other states -- including swing states. Diehard Republicans from other states are increasingly moving to Texas and Florida however, which further reduces their voter base in swing states. A voter base that is getting smaller by the day due to aging vs their opponent's base that's getting larger by the day, and a base that had preventable deaths from COVID had they not believed in conspiracy theories.
They're just shooting themselves in the foot to own tech workers and turn them against Republicans. This is one reason why I think Republicans couldn't win in 2022, and only managed to barely take the House and lose a Senate seat. The factors are piling up against them, to the point that they have a mixed election result, when the economy was rough and inflation was high and Democrats had a trifecta.
Fingers crossed, I think the crows are finally coming home to roost.
it's also really stupid considering the liberal cites are literally what MAKES Texas. There's mass amounts of population in rural areas that just flat don't vote. If everyone voted in TX it's be blue as fuck.
Either way when the cities themselves lose all the workers that high paying jobs need the cities start to fall and the revenue for the state will follow.
Literal idiots that just think the oilfield will go on forever and nothing else will matter
Yeah I was in Houston for a couple of years, it isn't a red state, it's a non voting state. Republicans have convinced some people that Democrats are as bad as them so it isn't worth voting.
Plus, gerrymandering. I was in Crenshaw's district and dear God it was a creative shape.
No, actually the people in charge are rich enough that they don’t need those tech workers, or really anyone.
They’re pretty close to grabbing the brass ring, which is full government control through political violence. That will be the practical end of the democratic republic.
Liberals just don’t understand the end game here and they need to wake the fuck up.
People need to be aware of how close we are to the edge, I agree. I'm hopeful and hoping that the ballot box will be enough. It will weaken the Democratic Republic even further if a solution is taken outside of its framework.
That doesn't mean of course that if it fails we shrug and say oh well. Weakened democracy is undesirable, but that's still vastly preferable to letting fascism win.
Again, agreed overall though.
The governor and other state level politicians in Texas (in private) could not give a half fuck about federal election consequences. All they care about is state elections that keep them in power and milk those sweet benefits.
Yup. I know three separate people who basically got the fuck out the moment the abortion bill was passed.