Gov. Abbott should stop campaigning against public safety reforms and address the spread of COVID-19
Texas has become the first state to reach 1,000,000 positive COVID-19 cases but Gov. Greg Abbott’s chief focus is his campaign against public safety reforms.
For a brief period, it appeared as if Abbott was going to aggressively take on the spread of COVID-19 across the state but the conservative backlash against his executive orders and a series of protests organized by elected officials and leaders within his own party have him prioritizing his political future instead. And for this effort he has attempted to regain the support of his base by attacking a familiar foe — Austin City Council.
The narrative that Democrats and large cities want to “defund the police” is a false one, but it proved to be a winning talking point for Republicans trying to hold off a blue wave across Texas. In bolstering that narrative the governor announced he was sending 1,000 National Guard “troops” to 5 major cities to “ensure that cities are going to be safe” post-election.
Reality proved that there was no need for National Guard troops in cities because of the election results, but troops were needed and are active in helping morgues in El Paso deal with the rising number of dead from the coronavirus. The spike of cases and hospitalizations has been so bad in El Paso that some patients had to be airlifted to New Mexico. You might expect that with such dire circumstances that the governor might relent and at least allow local officials experiencing such acute spikes to impose stricter measures but you would be wrong. When state officials became aware that El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego ordered a two-week shutdown of nonessential services Texas’ attorney general filed a motion to stop the order from taking place and Governor Abbott called it an illegal act, so much for keeping cities safe.
Read more: https://texassignal.com/gov-abbott-should-stop-campaigning-against-public-safety-reforms-and-address-the-spread-of-covid-19/
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