Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2017 i The Texas Observer

¡Viva Beto! If Beto O’Rourke runs a campaign like this and wins (“Beto Testing,” October issue), it could also change the nature of what it means to be a candidate and compete in elections. I think we’ve been locked into this sort of Cold War-style campaigning where everyone tries to raise as much money as possible and drive up turnout in every friendly city and county, but what if someone just threw that out the window and engaged people where people are never engaged? If O’Rourke wins, he might just give Democrats a winning blueprint. Hell, if he even comes close in a state like Texas, then he might have redefined what a “winning campaign” is. Harry Clennon LOS ANGELES Fan of the Fringe I HAVE BEEN READING THE OBSERVER…

“I believe that in a representative democracy, those who serve in public office should do so for a time, not for a lifetime. And so I want you to know that my family and I have decided that I will not run for re-election next year.” — Speaker of the House Joe Straus announcing his retirement on Facebook, October 25. “This is really an earth-shattering event for politics. It’s tough to overstate the relevance of this for Texas politics. The political center of the state collapsed today.” —Rice University political scientist Mark Jones to the Texas Tribune, October 25. “Straus claims he is leaving on his ‘own terms’ but his closest allies in the Texas House have been fleeing like rats abandoning a sinking ship.” —Blog post by far-right dark-money…

HILL COUNTY // A hunter in the woods was surprised to realize he was standing in the middle of a giant marijuana farm. “The area includ[ed] temporary living quarters for workers, a kitchen area and gathering areas to conduct the work of harvesting the marijuana,” wrote the Hill County Sheriff’s Office on its Facebook page. Officers worked for three days to remove about 10,000 plants, which were valued at $8 million. DALLAS // In the most Dallas-y of Dallas news, local Girl Scouts are now earning a Neiman Marcus badge alongside first aid, swimming and cookie selling. “What must the scouts do? Study the precious metal construction of David Yurman Cable bracelets?” scoffed D Magazine. To its credit, the badge wasn’t all about shopping: Scouts earned it by submitting artwork…

AT THE MARY P. LUCIO HEALTH CENTER ONE JULY afternoon, Esmeralda Treto gets the news she is hoping for: Treto, a 34-year-old mother of two, is pregnant with her third child. But for medical staff at the Brownsville clinic, Treto’s visit is also a chance to give the expectant mother a test for the Zika virus and educate her about the disease. On this day, the staff has its hands full. “We have another one!” a nurse shouts from the next room, as she shuttles a second pregnant woman into the room to join us. The place is bustling with patients, many of whom rarely see nurses or doctors. For public health workers on the front lines of the fight against Zika in Brownsville, where at least two babies were…

JUST BEFORE SUNSET ON A FRIDAY IN October, Richmond’s historic downtown is lively. Four women sit around a patio table at Joseph’s Coffee and Cigars, sipping lattes and pushing a stroller back and forth to calm a fussy baby. Guitar feedback seeps out from the open door of the Lone Star Saloon as a band warms up for their set, and a well-dressed young couple — he’s in cowboy boots and faded jeans, she’s got heels and a burgundy dress — poses for engagement photos in front of a red brick wall. It’s an idyllic small-town scene, down to the neatly kept lawns and families strolling the sidewalk. But drive less than a half mile away, turn left off Alternate Highway 90 onto Riveredge Drive, and things start to look…

TITLE/ORGANIZATION Executive Director, U.S. Pastor Council THE CAUSE Holding elected officials to a “Biblical” standard NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS Repealing the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance; making the Texas Legislature a “bathroom bill” circus ALLIES Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Texas Values, Pastor Robert Jeffress MONEY QUOTE “This isn’t about discrimination, this is about political correctness being shoved down our throats by corporate fat cats.” HOUSTON MADE INTERNA- tional news in 2009 when it became the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor. Six years later, Houston voters made a stunning about-face by repealing a city ordinance shielding LGBT people from discrimination. Behind that electoral backlash was Dave Welch, a sturdy, serious-looking man. He is the executive director of the U.S. Pastor Council, a group that’s adept at mobilizing churches to participate…

One of the results of decades of one-party rule, as is the case in Texas, is a dulling of intellectual capacities, like a royal family that’s suffering from too much intermarriage. IT KEEPS HAPPENING: AFTER A CAREER COMFORT- ably ensconced in a partisan echo chamber, some Texas wingnut gets called up to Washington, D.C., only to make a fool of themselves on the national stage. Take, for example, Kathleen Hartnett White, a mushy-headed climate denier. During the Rick Perry years, Hartnett White did a tour of duty as the head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, where she never met a coal plant or refinery that wasn’t overregulated. Later, she landed at the corporate-funded Texas Public Policy Foundation as some kind of resident energy expert with a preposterously highfalutin…

The essayists blessedly refrain from asking that most tiresome of questions — Is it feminist? — and instead enthusiastically take their subjects on their own terms. HYSTERICAL! WOMEN IN AMERICAN COMEDY Edited by Linda Mizejewski and Victoria Sturtevant UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS 484 PAGES; $34.95 MY REWARD, EARLIER THIS YEAR, FOR CONVINCING myself it would be worthwhile to find some stage time at a stand-up comedy open mic in San Francisco, was a beer that came courtesy of a sympathetic bartender. Or maybe it was more akin to an apology — the bartender’s way of making my proximity to a schwasted local bro who’d spent the night heckling performers and harassing me more tolerable. This kind of dive bar show, replicated in countless dingy watering holes in countless cities on…

In October, State Representative Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, seized on sexual assault allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to call for the end of the Texas Film Commission. “Given the apparent culture of sexual exploitation of women in Hollywood, it is now even more clear that we should not be wasting taxpayer money on this industry,” he said. Supporters of the commission argue that its incentives to filmmakers have returned $5.55 for every dollar spent and created 143,000 Texas jobs as part of 1,800 creative projects. Which of the following films does not include scenes shot in Texas? a. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape b. Cast Away c. The Searchers d. Bonnie and Clyde…

It is good to be nice, and civility in a vacuum is a fine attribute. But it’s also worth noting whosubscribes to the stylistic critique most strongly — people with relatively less at stake. EVERYONE WHO thinks there’s something amiss in the American political system falls into one of two camps — they either have a stylistic critique or a substantive one. Stylists think the waywe do politics is corrupting things from the top down, while the Substantivists believe structural problems are rotting politics from the bottom up. ¶ It’s a cross-ideological divide. Many conservative Never Trumpers agree with the president on most issues, but think he’s a pig. They share a stylistic critique with many liberals who seek communion with moderate Republicans. The problem, the Stylists believe, has to…