Opinion:Living in Texas right now feels like an exercise in survival

[applegrove]

Opinion: Living in Texas right now feels like an exercise in survival

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/05/living-texas-right-now-feels-like-an-exercise-survival/

Opinion by Karen Attiah, Global Opinions editor, the Washington Post

March 5, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. EST

"SNIP.....

DALLAS — As spring makes inroads down here in North Texas, the impending reopening of the state feels ominously like a death trap.

At a Mexican restaurant in Lubbock this week, Gov. Greg Abbott (R)proclaimed that he would issue an executive order to open Texas up “100 percent” starting next week — including, as he told a cheering crowd, ending a statewide mask mandate. “People and businesses don’t need the state telling them how to operate,” he said.

It was ironic that Abbott made his announcement on Texas Independence Day. For many of us Texans, what we desperately need is to be free from a GOP leadership that has put our safety last at every turn since the pandemic began. Abbott’s decision to lift occupancy limits on businesses and other restrictions is reckless and premature. If you are unvaccinated in Texas — as most of us still are — the message is clear: You’re on your own.

Then again, none of this is surprising. The Texas GOP’s necropolitics have been on full display during this pandemic year. Last March, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that grandparents in Texas should be willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the state’s economy. When Abbott reopened the state in May, the move quickly resulted in a spike of cases, and he was forced to backtrack.

......SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. New word for me: necropolitics.

"SNIP.....

Necropolitics is the use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die. Achille Mbembe, author of On the Postcolony, was the first scholar to explore the term in depth in his 2003 article, and later, his 2019 book of the same name.

.....SNIP"

Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necropolitics

[sop]

3. That was new one for me as well. Fitting description of modern-day Republicanism.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Telling you Grandma must die for your sake is as necro as politics gets.

[Botany]

2. Bring on Spring Break 2021

I keep wondering does Abbot and the GOP want getting the virus under control to fail? Just a few more month
that is all that is needed.

[luv2fly]

6. Let it fail, blame Dems

And the gullible sheep will believe them and vote the Repubs responsible for all this back in. Facts don't matter.

[Paladin]

5. God help our poor state if Dan Patrick ever becomes Governor.

He'll make Greg Abbott, Rick Perry and Dubya look almost acceptable, by comparison. I say again: almost.

[marble falls]

7. And he'll be walking this latest grand re-opening back in two or three weeks.

[area51]

8. I hope so.

Abbott wants to distract from the ERCOT/Texas energy debacle.

[malthaussen]

9. Well, good, it'll give them Texans the opportunity to show how manly they are.

A finer example of the government being isolated from the people could not be found. The subtext is pretty clear, too: the people of Texas exist only to enable their betters in government to flourish.

-- Mal

[Martin68]

10. It depends on where you are living in Texas and how much money you have.