Don't Mess with Texas!!!
Texas Strong.
Don't Mess With Texas!
Texas Strong!
"You can take the girl out of Texas but you can't take Texas out of the girl." Like most folk sayings, that one holds a lot of truth. I grew up in West Texas. At 14 years old, I KNEW, without a doubt, that everything was Bigger and Better in Texas.
I knew that Texans were the friendliest people in the country, probably in the world. That everyone had a smile and really saw the people they crossed paths with. No one walked past anyone, friend or stranger, without nodding, saying good morning, checking their face and demeanor to determine if they needed help of any kind. Folks would bring bags of clothing, buy personal care items and cook food for children whose homes burnt down, even for families they never met!
I'm sitting here in the middle the night crying my eyes out over that last sentence. I was one of the children receiving that extra Texas love and kindness when my home went up in flames. I grew up knowing my neighbors, walking sick people's dogs without a thought that other people might not do the same thing.
I lived in Texas for the first half of my life. That was a really long time. I was born way back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. I've loved Texas all my life. I could keep making example after example of what the good-hearted people would do for other people whether they knew them or not.'
It was just that good in Texas. Texas grew great statesmen and women. Still does. My heart and appreciation goes out to the Texas House Democrats who just put their lives on hold and walked out on the wrong happening in Texas Government right now without any idea when they would be coming home.
I have been closely following Texas politics since the electric grid failed. I could not believe that one of our leaders, a man that ran for President, walked out on his neighbors when people were freezing in their homes. That was so unchristian, unTexan.
It was even more incredulous that the Texan governor did not jump in, focus on and make the people's need for solid trustworthy electric service the State's priority. In the past, that shit would've come way before giving the richest people in the State free private schooling for their children.
I have been reading Substack for about two years. I found Michelle H. Davis' publication about three months ago. It has been a marvelous resource of exactly what is going on in our Texas Capital. Anyone with an interest in Texas politics, please consider subscribing to:
Michelle spends up to twelve hours of a day several times a month (seems like several times a week lately) covering Texas Senate and House sessions, public meetings, town halls, press briefings, Governor and DA press releases AND anything else you could imagine related to Texas government and politics.
She also adds the extra effort every day (sometimes twice a day) to stop and write her observations she makes with her Texan eyes and heart (terrifying and/or promising) for all her neighbors, friends, other Texans AND all our countrymen (and women) all over the U.S.
Michelle is Texan Progressive Democrats' biggest supporter, publicizing the workings of our leadership, suggesting strategy both in her Substack but also in person, advocating for a return to how Texas took care of Itself in the past and organizing for the future, for the next election,
The phrase, Don't Mess with Texas, was coined for use (I believe) in advertisements fighting littering, keeping our beautiful wilderness areas and public streets clean. It means so much more than that. It means the Federal government better get their dirty hands out of Texas politics. It means the President is definitely overstepping his authority to tell Texas to redistrict.
Sadly, the current Texas leadership have forgotten that Texas takes care of Texans first and have fell under the spell of the MAGA movement. Our governor and the majority of our state Congress are now blindly following the path charted by a madman and actually designed by Christian Nationalists puppeteers.
It is just unimaginable that Texas isn't focused taking care of the families that have lost loved ones, the county that's ravaged by flood waters and the warning system that didn't work to save lives. That our State House and Senate are riding roughshod over our election processes to try to silence our citizens, to prevent us from fixing the Big Wrong that's happening in the country.
Notice I said "try." The Texas House Democrats make my heart swell with pride. Standing up for what is Right in the face of waves of pressure and punishment is truly the core of the Texas manner of thought, manner of living.
In the long run, the corrupt MAGA GOP minority that thinks they have a stranglehold on Texas, that loud-mouthed AG who thinks he controls the entire country's legal systems, and that suck-up Governor are all going to be seen to the door.
Because MAGA IS the minority in Texas. There's a lot of good Texans that have been discouraged in the past, have been fed the baloney that their votes don't count. If every Texan (Democrat and Real Republican) who remembers Texas is better than this, remembers Texas takes care of its own and Texas leads the country stands up and votes for the people to retake the government, it just won't matter where those district lines get contorted.
It won't matter that MAGA is going to force Greg Casar and Al Green to pull a Beobert and carpetbag their way of staying in Congress. It won't matter that they think 14 districts will be "lean Republican." Hell, it won't even matter that they believe four districts are so solid red, that they don't need to worry or really work for the people's approval.
They drew those maps on the voters' FROM THE 2024 voter election affiliations. Now we've always known MAGAts ain't too bright but the sheer weight of the number of registered Democrats that stayed home in 2024 is going to crush the midterms.
Texans are tired of being fed crap. We are pissed and we won't take it anymore. The electric grid, "school choice", flood prevention, not stopping school shootings, allowing federal government interference in Texas matters, turning a blind eye to political office misuse and downright thievery all is piling up on the books and Texans are going to demand a reckoning.
I know that. I believe that. I'm not there, but my heart and thoughts are. When Vote Forward starts their midterm letter writing campaign, I'm adopting Texas again but I'm planning to write many more letters with much more personal reasons, Texas-related reasons, for voting.
We CAN do this. We CAN fix this. Let’s do it for once and for all! Texas Strong.
Love, Ree