In honor of the Texas Democrats that Peter Morrison called "maggots." [View all]

[EmilyAnne]

(Title edited for the second time. First time because I was offensive. Second time because some kind soul just informed me that JIM Morrison died a while ago. Lol.)

Every single time some moron like Peter Morrison starts braying about wanting Texas to secede, there are those of us on the left who like to answer with the standard "good riddance."

But think about the fact that 41% of Texas voters went for Obama.

41%.

That is a higher percentage than Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, N. Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, S. Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, W. Virginia and Wyoming.

I am from Texas, though I now live in Pittsburgh.
My mother is the epitome of the right wing voter.
She is white, evangelical and lives in a conservative suburb of Houston.
Yet, in 2008 she cast her very first vote for a Democrat when she voted for Obama. Straight ticket, too!
She was turned off by the hate and the ignorance and, once her eyes were opened, her entire political ideology was flipped on it's head.
And it really wasn't that hard because, like so many people who vote Republican in Texas, her political ideology was basically, "Wait. I'm a Republican, right?"
During the weeks leading up to this election she phone banked for Obama, making calls to Florida because Texas is seen as a lost cause.

But I really wonder what would happen if the Democratic Party approached Texas as if were a possibility.
I also wonder what would happen if all the Texas liberals who don't even bother to vote because they think it doesn't matter actually voted.
Then consider the exponential increase in latino voters who don't like to be scapegoats.
I think (hope) we are just one or two elections away from turning Texas blue.

So, please, have sympathy for the Democrats of Texas.
It takes guts to be a liberal in a red state, especially in one with such virulent and vocal right wingers.