CT Blue

I was well and truly shocked by this:

Texas’s Speaker of the House warned representatives in the Texas State House on Thursday night not to use the word “racism” when debating the Republicans’ voter suppression bill..

Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, started debate on the bill by saying “the chair would appreciate members not using the word ‘racism’ this afternoon,” according to the Houston Chronicle. He insisted that it was a matter of respect.

It appears that some people are hinting that the Texas Republicans are racist, just because their voter suppression bill is racist!

Now, if you’re not a right thinking individual, you are probably thinking: But they are racist.

If you are thinking that, it just shows how little you understand about Republicans. It’s not that they are personally racist. It’s just that they can’t win unless they exploit racism. Now, back in the olden days, a certain Republican advised the nation to watch what they did, and not what the said, because even back then they were saying some stuff that, while pretty tame by today’s standards, was nonetheless a fairly loud dog whistle. (But, to give Nixon his due, his civil rights record looks great compared to today’s R’s, though that’s still not saying much.) Well, things have changed a bit, because nowadays, as the Texas Republicans are saying, we should pay no attention to what they do or what they say. Just because they talk like racists and they act like racists doesn’t mean they are racists. It just means they can’t find any other way of getting the Foxaholics to vote against their own interests and put them into office so they can serve the interests of the rich while screwing everyone else. If that means screwing people of color even more than they screw white people, well, that’s just an unfortunate by-product of the only electoral strategy that works for them. After all, they’ve tried their best to demonize other groups, like gays, trans folks, and immigrants, but while going after those folks may work for a while, the effect tends to fizzle out, like it did with gays. In this country, racism has staying power, so how can you blame the definitely not-racist Texas Republicans for talking and acting like racists? How else can they win?

And, as I’m sure the Texas Republicans would point out, it’s not like they ever call Democrats nasty names. Sure, they may call everyone in the Democratic Party except Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema a “socialist”, and they may do all they can to make that a dirty word, but they would tell you themselves that being called a socialist is nowhere near as bad as being called a racist, even if you aren’t a socialist and even if you are a racist. It hurts their feelings.

It pains me to report that Texas Democrats don’t seem to care whether they hurt the Republican’s feelings or not. This is hardly what we’ve come to expect from Democrats, who normally are all too willing to see things from the Republican’s point of view. These people should really have a little sit-down with Joe Manchin:

Democrats expressed frustration and anger over Phelan’s attempted ban on discussing racism in the chamber. “Wow. The Speaker just asked us to not use the word ‘racism’ during debate today,” wrote Democratic Rep. Erin Zwiener on Twitter. “SB 1 will harm the freedom to vote for all Texans, but it will disproportionately impact people of color. That’s racist, no matter how you dress it up. Period.”

“One Republican has already filed an amendment to put the ‘Souls to the Polls’ provision that would limit black churches voting on Sunday morning back in the bill. It’s racist,” Zwiener continued. “Coddling R legislators who are uncomfortable about how this bill hurts people of color is not our job.”

How are Texas legislators going to come up with a bipartisan plan to suppress the vote if Democrats keep calling Republicans racists?