# Pitting the Republican Party of Texas **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 27, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436 "2012-06-27T06:54:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/21 "2012-06-27T14:45:04Z")
> [@](#): > > We oppose government distortion of the free market through subsidies and bailouts Lemme guess, they call farm subsidies “tax relief”? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/22 "2012-06-27T14:59:40Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > So apart from #2 and #11 on the list - the superstition based BS - what exactly is so bad about all the other things? Is it the fact that they will cut out federal interference with local education? Or is it just the fact that Republicans are proposing them? You’re OK with “oppos[ing] the teaching of … critical thinking skills?” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/23 "2012-06-27T15:06:38Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > (e.g., as **Maus Magill** noted, pretending to reject the concept of “subsidies” when Republican industrialists lobby as hard as they can for them). To be fair, Texas is the least subsidized of all Red states. I believe it may be the only one that gives more to the federal government in taxes than it gets back.\* They don’t recieve nearly as much ag subsidies compared to the corn belt, for instance. ETA plus they have a younger population than a lot of other Red states and do not have as large a welfare roll as some Deep South states. \*As opposed to such teat-suckling, welfare-dependent states as New York and California who would actually be running budget surpluses if not for their subsidizing of the federal government! ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/24 "2012-06-27T15:14:30Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > You’re OK with “oppos[ing] the teaching of … critical thinking skills?” I read it as railing against ‘new’ forms and philosophies of teaching. Some experimental (or did they go beyond experimental) approaches to math, for example, prioritized processes over results. Without wading into whether that was an actual problem or which pedagogy is more effective, it’s unlikely that the TxGOP is against ‘critical thinking’ in the conventional sense. Cloth is kind of right, though, that most of the things on the list are simple political platitudes that don’t rise to the height of intense malignancy we’ve come to expect from Texas and the GOP. It’s also why I think the Iowa platform would beat the pants off Texas in a stupidfest. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/25 "2012-06-27T15:16:16Z")
Sometimes I wish that conservatives could suffer the consequences of the policies they propose. I’d love to see the reaction to a sales tax high enough to make up for the lack of tax on capital gains. They might as well have a platform that says: “We want to raise taxes on people with low income and lower it on rich people”. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/26 "2012-06-27T15:27:41Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Having an educated population, with parents having the freedom of choice for the education of their children. Given the profound ignorance of many parents, the two parts of this statement seem mutually contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/27 "2012-06-27T15:29:57Z")
> [@](#): > > We call for the removal of Kevin Jennings, now head of the United States Office of Safe Schools (Safe School Czar). America’s schools would be safer without him. Aw, man. He was GREAT on Jeopardy! ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/28 "2012-06-27T15:33:46Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > I read it as railing against ‘new’ forms and philosophies of teaching. Some experimental (or did they go beyond experimental) approaches to math, for example, prioritized processes over results. Without wading into whether that was an actual problem or which pedagogy is more effective, it’s unlikely that the TxGOP is against ‘critical thinking’ in the conventional sense. I don’t know that, > [@](#): > > which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority. This sounds like they are worried that if the school is teaching students to think for themselves they will start noticing things like the fact that gay marriage won’t destroy the nation, and that the bible isn’t inerrant. This is also interesting when compared to their strongly favoring teaching challenging prevailing view points when it comes to science and evolution. Basically keep an open mind that he scientific consensus might be wrong but close that mind up fast when it comes to challenging your parent’s beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/29 "2012-06-27T15:38:12Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > This part must come as a shock to the oil companies and farmers. Oh no, [farmers](http://www.chron.com/default/article/Rice-growers-fear-aid-is-drying-up-3640737.php) live in their own little bubble when it comes to this. > [@](#): > > “Most farmers are very conservative people,” said Linda Raun, whose husband L.G. is a third-generation rice farmer in Wharton County, southwest of Houston. > > “We want to do our part in balancing the federal budget. But if you want to continue to have the most affordable, safest food in the world, we need a safety net or folks cannot continue to farm.” When it’s conservative farmers, they’re not “subsidies” but a “safety net”. I can’t help but laugh at the complete and total disconnect with reality. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/30 "2012-06-27T15:55:46Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I read an article once (Sorry can’t remember where) about the similarities of Republican doctrines and the dontrines of extreme Muslims. After reading that article I wondered why republicans don’t hail extreme Muslims as the greatest thing ever. Not since Osama announced his belief in global warming. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/31 "2012-06-27T16:06:41Z")
Change is coming, even to Texas. With agonizing slowness, to be sure, but it is coming. As a recovering Texan, I wholeheartedly support my progressive pals and gals in the Lone Stark Staring State. From _waaaay_ up here. If only I could get me some real damn Bar-B-Q. ’ Nuff sed. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/32 "2012-06-27T16:18:02Z")
I find it somewhat amusing that the Texas Democrat Party platform is all whine-whine-whine about dem ebbul Republicans, while continuing to spout utopian, government cradle-to-grave subsidies. And yet no one here is complaining about that. [http://www.txdemocrats.org/2012/platform.pdf](http://www.txdemocrats.org/2012/platform.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/33 "2012-06-27T16:24:50Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I find it somewhat amusing that the Texas Democrat Party platform is all whine-whine-whine about dem ebbul Republicans, while continuing to spout utopian, government cradle-to-grave subsidies. Care to quote anything in the platform that says that? Or is this simply a drive-by? Texas Republicans are absolutely in favor of subsidies as well. They simply don’t want to call them subsidies or admit they like them for their own pet causes. Texas farmers have been recipients of very large subsidies over the years. And military bases in Texas have enjoyed quite a bit of funding over the years, too. Good luck getting anything more than a token Texas Republican office holder to say that Texas farmers should suck it up for the sake of reducing government. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/34 "2012-06-27T16:34:34Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I hardly know where to start with this. I picked up a link to a to the [Republican Party of Texas political platform](http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2012-Platform-Final.pdf) (PDF). Reading it I was so bowled over I thought surely someone must have made a really good fake. Nope, as it turns out you can pick this [right off their own site](http://convention.texasgop.org/). > I know not everyone in Texas is in agreement with this but seeing this I am inclined to let Texas secede (or force them to if necessary) and go their own way. > > There’s lots of space in the rest of the country for the good folks in Texas. The rest can shove off. > > Good riddance. Without searching this thread, I will just put in a plug for Iowa’s GOP being equally crazy. > **[Iowa GOP Proposed Platform | PDF | Abortion | Energy Development](https://www.scribd.com/document/94367949/Iowa-GOP-Proposed-Platform)** > > Republican party of iowa platform committee report: "all men are created equal" "as Republicans, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign" "where two planks might seem contradictory, the platform should be... They haven’t given up on birtherism: > [@](#): > > We insist that a candidate prove that he or she meets all requirements for that office prior to being placed in nomination, including proof of United States citizenship. It also has this nugget from their Statement of Principles: “The husband and wife are the ultimate authority, not the government.” - So if a husband and wife decide to hold up a single person they automatically are in the right? Sad to say, it’s not just the deep south and West Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/35 "2012-06-27T16:43:39Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > So they’re opposed to the death penalty, now? Not at all. Electricity is natural. Running electricity through a chair and a body is also natural, resulting in a natural death. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/36 "2012-06-27T16:46:04Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > You’re OK with “oppos[ing] the teaching of … critical thinking skills?” Well, he’s managed to get my without them for about 60 years. What’s good enough for one Texan is good enough for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/37 "2012-06-27T16:48:54Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I find it somewhat amusing that the Texas Democrat Party platform is all whine-whine-whine about dem ebbul Republicans, while continuing to spout utopian, government cradle-to-grave subsidies. Nothing “utopian” about that, it’s something that works in many countries. Looking around the world, it works better for all than anything else yet tried. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/38 "2012-06-27T16:53:10Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > We call for the reintroduction and ratification of the original 13th Amendment, not the 13th Amendment in today’s Constitution. **(what?)** They mean the [Titles of Nobility Amendment.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titles_of_Nobility_Amendment) Sometimes contards invoke it to say lawyers, who use the title of “Esquire,” should be ineligible for public office. There is even [a meme](http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/original-13th-amendment-removed-unlawfully-from-us-constitution/) that this amendment really was ratified but that news was somehow “suppressed” or the amendment was “unlawfully removed”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/39 "2012-06-27T17:00:23Z")
They want to “10. Honoring all of those that serve and protect our freedom.”? Really? Does that include fully funding programs for the medical/mental/addiction care of veterans? Please, pretty-pretty please with sugar on it? ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436/40 "2012-06-27T17:08:13Z")
Some years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention & the Texas Republican Party got into bed with each other. The loathsome result has been running wild in Texas for some time & has begun affecting other states. Some call the movement Dominionism; this is from [Reverend Doctor Bruce Prescott](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/04/1013545/-Deep-Background-on-Dominionism)–a Baptist minister, but not SBC: > [@](#): > > In February 1990 I received an unsolicited video in the mail. The video came from a Dr. Stephen Hotze and was entitled “Restoring America: How You Can Impact Civil Government.” Filmed at a church in my neighborhood, I recognized the actors as the pastor and congregants of an Independent Fundamental Baptist church (the Jerry Falwell kind). The video was a guide on how to 1) take over a Republican Party precinct meeting, 2) elect “Christian” delegates to the GOP District meeting, and 3) put planks supporting the theocratic agenda of Christian Reconstructionism into the party platform. > > After reciting the standard mythology about America being a Christian nation, about the influence of Christianity on the reconstruction of the South after the civil war, and about the threat of modern secularism, here is what Hotze said on the video: > > > [@](#): > > > > Biblically, the legitimate role of civil government is to provide justice based upon the absolute standards of God’s law, to restrain wickedness, to punish evil doers, and to protect the life, liberty and property of law abiding citizens… There’s much more to read–at that link & elsewhere. Most urban Texans are Democrats, but the others still outnumber us. (Most of the New Texas Republicans were Democrats before LBJ pushed through Civil Rights & the Republicans decided to jettison that Party of Lincoln crap.) We do have hope for the future but it gets depressing. Check out [The Texas Observer](http://www.texasobserver.org/) & [The Texas Freedom Network](http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TFN_homepage) for alternatives. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-republican-party-of-texas/626436.md?page=3)