Texas Democrats United and Ready After Successful Convention

[TexasTowelie]

I didn’t pay very much attention to the Texas Democratic Party Convention in Dallas this past week. But from what I did see it appeared the convention went very well. Via Kuff, Convention Coverage.

I’m not up in Dallas, though several of my blogging colleagues are. So far the reports I’ve heard are positive – lots of energy and excitement. One person even compared it to 2008, which is music to the ear. Obviously, the folks who take the time to go to a party convention aren’t the ones that need to be inspired to go vote, but they are the ones that will be doing a lot of the work to inspire others, so the more enthusiastic they are, the better.

As I said on Friday, the best thing you can do is work to help get the message out and get the voters to the polls. The next best thing you can do is pitch in financially. Democrats have done phenomenally well in grassroots small-dollar fundraising of late, which is both great and necessary since the other guys have a lot more megalomaniac billionaires on their side.

One of the most expected, and glaring, differences between Democrats and the GOP to come out of the convention was the differences in the party platforms. Huge differences on the issues of immigration, LGBT rights, and women’s issues($). It summarizes some of the other differences very well.

Whatever else, the two documents offer a clear sense of where each party’s head is at and the stark ideological differences between what is now a very liberal Democratic Party and a very conservative Republican Party in Texas.

The Democrats call for investing more in education. The Republicans call for “reducing taxpayer funding to all levels of education institutions.”

Republicans want to repeal Obamacare. Democrats want to keep it and go beyond it to “Medicare for all.”

Republicans want to reverse Roe v. Wade and enact a constitutional amendment protecting the rights of the unborn. Democrats say the decision about an abortion should be left to a woman, her family, her physician, her conscience and her God without political interference.

Republicans want to privatize Social Security. Democrats don’t.

Republicans want to repeal the Voting Rights Act. Democrats want to restore the act’s section that required Texas to get federal approval before making changes in voting laws.

Republicans want to end in-state tuition for what they called “illegal immigrants.” Democrats want to keep it, and e beneficiaries “Texas undocumented students.”

More at http://eyeonwilliamson.org/?p=13860 .

[PDittie]

1. You're missing several of

the best posts, TT.

http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2014/06/tdp14-wrap-up.html

http://texpate.com/2014/06/30/convention-recap/

http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2014/06/state-democratic-convention-wraps-up-in.html

[TexasTowelie]

2. Thank you for posting those links.

I lean towards posting information from organizations rather than personal blogs because they tend to stand up towards tighter scrutiny than threads from individual bloggers. I make an exception for the Williamson County online blog since I have an affinity to that area since I lived there for a few years and Williamson County is large enough that there are stories occurring on a frequent basis that aren't reported in Austin media.

Since some bloggers like PDiddie and Joe Deshotel are members of DU, I usually opt out and let them post their own blogs on DU. I saw mention of the Texpatriate blog previously, but have not included them in the blogs that I bookmarked and I probably should since they are representative of younger bloggers. I don't believe that I've heard about the jobsanger blog before.

I don't have any intention of excluding anyone, but I currently have 14 blogs, 31 newspapers and 11 TV stations bookmarked on my Web browser so I believe that I provide a fairly decent amount of perspective as to what is occurring in Texas. However, I know that I will miss some other links on occasion. I'll note that I didn't post anything in the Texas Group yesterday because I was so irritated by the SCOTUS decisions that I didn't want the veins to pop in my forehead. I also was a bit aggravated since my cell phone service was disrupted for about three days and I could not get a link up signal to any cell phone towers--the good news is that the phone is operating normally again and it was fixed before I decided to order a new phone. It was one of those days that I needed to step back from politics and focus on my mental well-being.

I'll probably be taking it slow tomorrow since I'm going to check on getting enrolled in the indigent care program in Wharton county. The price of insulin has increased by about 40% within the last 18 months and I also saw a similar increase for one of the prescriptions that I'm taking so it has put me in a depressed mood. It seems like now that I'm unemployed, it is the time that I need help and everything is working against me. I'm still applying for jobs in case SSDI does not come through, but I only hear back from about 10% of the people that I contact.

[derby378]

3. There were some noticeable glitches...

Two Senatorial districts were given such lousy seats on the convention floor that they couldn't even see the speakers. Worse yet, both of these districts were in the Dallas area. It seems Pavlovian to watch a whole bunch of delegates waving signs at a TV screen that has Leticia Van de Putte's face on it, but that's exactly what I saw on Friday night.

I wish I could have set foot in the Hispanic caucus, but apparently that was a bit of a donnybrook.