When Texas political leaders project images of themselves, it’s always the same. They’re in cowboy hats, boots, and toting a firearm. It’s how we like to imagine ourselves: the rugged cowboy, squinting into the distance, masculinely thinking about something. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is none of that. Instead, Cruz is our political reality: a smarmy, […]
Category: Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Think Voting Isn’t Worth It? You’re Doing It Wrong
There’s an old trope in Texas politics that “Texas isn’t a red state, it’s a non-voting state.” And it’s more or less true — fewer than half of the Texans who are registered to vote cast a ballot in the 2022 gubernatorial election. In total, nearly 14 million Texans who were able to vote chose […]
Posted inPolitics
The Right Is Already Disrupting the Election. Let Us Help You Unpack the Chaos.
It’s old hat to say everything is bigger in Texas. True connoisseurs know that things in the Lone Star State are also often wilder and weirder than what you see on the evening news. Every two weeks, Steven Monacelli will explore the dystopic, desperate, and despicable realities of contemporary Texas and channel the sense of […]
Posted inOpinion
Reproductive Rights Are a Five-Alarm Fire. State Legislators Must Act.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold Texas’s draconian emergency abortion ban isn’t just a setback for reproductive freedoms in America — it’s a five-alarm fire. This November, voters across the country have the chance to fight back. Reproductive freedoms will be a make-or-break issue for many voters at the ballot box. A 2024 […]
Posted inCulture
Willie Hutch, OutKast and the Lore Behind UGK’s ‘Int’l Players Anthem’
Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every two weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 integral (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it […]
Posted inOpinion
Where Have You Gone, George W. Bush?
On Oct. 10, former President Barack Obama stepped back into the political fray. Former President Donald Trump had spent weeks dominating news cycles with lies about Haitian-born immigrants eating neighbors’ pets in Ohio, lies about Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris being a Marxist, and still more lies about the 2020 election being rigged against him. […]
Posted inTexana
Why Do Texans Hate California So Much?
When the dystopian thriller, “Civil War,” came out earlier this year, there were a lot of skeptics who didn’t buy the premise. Let me clarify. People weren’t dubious of the idea that the U.S. might be ripped apart (ok, ripped apart again) in a violent struggle. It was the fact that Texas and California were […]
Posted inOpinion
The Racist Trump Rally Comic Is Even Worse Than You Think
Guess people were right, Californians really are ruining Texas. Comedian and recent Austin transplant Tony Hinchcliffe’s stupid, racist attempt at “jokes” on Sunday at a rally for former President Trump may have freshly alienated some entirely new voters ahead of next week’s election. At the rally in Madison Square Garden in New York, Hinchcliffe opened […]
Posted inPolitics
‘I See You, and I Am With You.’ Texas Women Needed That Harris Rally.
In Texas, the past few years for women have been terrifying. Abortion bans became real. Exceptions turned out to be rare. Some have nearly died during miscarriages. If you don’t feel like you’ve been abandoned by our lawmakers, you might feel like the government is trying to kill you. The 2024 election cycle, meanwhile, has […]
Posted inOpinion
Texas Is the Center of American Politics This Week. Get Used to It.
It’s difficult to remember the last time both major party presidential candidates appeared in Texas so close to an election. There’s an old adage in politics, that campaigns have only three resources: time, money, and people. You can always find one more volunteer. You can always raise one more dollar. But you can never get […]