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Are we about to have a "Texas Spring"

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by underoverup, Jun 27, 2013.

  1. underoverup

    underoverup Member

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    I think these two articles hit on some major problems coming for the republican majority in TX in the next few years.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-27/did-the-supreme-court-just-turn-texas-blue-.html

    Did the Supreme Court Just Turn Texas Blue?

    Tuesday was a busy day for Texas Republicans. After the Supreme Court invalidated a key part of the Voting Rights Act that specifically covered Texas, state Attorney General Greg Abbott promised that his state, newly freed from federal oversight, would "immediately" implement its previously blocked voter ID law.

    The law's a zinger: It requires voters to display proper identification, such as a concealed-weapons permit, while disallowing the use of student ID's from state universities. By the state's own data, Hispanics are markedly less likely to possess the required identification. And some citizens seeking proper ID may have to pay for a copy of a birth certificate in order to obtain it.

    The maps in question were adopted with "discriminatory purpose," according to a federal district court panel, whose ruling, it seems, was just rendered moot by the Supreme Court. Three facts explain how the panel reached that conclusion. Population growth over the past decade gave Texas four new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Almost all of that growth resulted from Hispanic and black population increases. Yet once state Republicans finished drawing their election maps, the number of Texas districts in which racial minorities are a majority actually declined.

    Texas, like California and New Mexico, is already a minority-majority state, with non-Hispanic whites accounting for less than 45 percent of state population. Demographics are changing fast. According to demographer William Frey at the Brookings Institution, only 31.1 percent of Texans under the age of 5 are non-Hispanic white.

    The demographic wave exposes a peculiar bind Republicans face in redistricting. Democratic majorities use redistricting to maximize their political power. But because the Democratic Party is a multiracial coalition, the redistricting process is partisan without necessarily being racial. For Republicans, partisan is racial. In a diverse state such as Texas, when Republicans aim at Democrats, they inevitably hit minorities. And each hit risks deepening the alienation that many minorities already feel from the Republican Party.

    Republicans seem perversely eager to bring it on. After spending the morning gearing up to annoy blacks and Hispanics, Texas Republicans inspired a fiery filibuster by Democratic state legislator Wendy Davis that stretched into the night. By trying to regulate abortion rights out of existence, Texas Republicans made a national hero of Davis, who is already talking of running for governor. Altogether, quite a day.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...uster-a-texas-spring-20130627,0,6885101.story

    Wendy Davis' abortion law filibuster may be a 'Texas Spring'

    The silver lining for advocates of abortion rights, said Burke, is that Davis’ filibuster seems to have awakened a sense of outrage in a group that has often seemed complacent as states have steadily chipped away at reproductive choice, requiring ultrasounds, waiting periods, parental consent and other measures designed ultimately to make abortions too difficult to obtain.

    Without a doubt, social media have played a part in that awakening.

    On Tuesday, it helped ratchet up the intensity in the Texas Legislature. On Twitter, Davis supporters commented with the hashtag #StandWithWendy. A live stream allowed some 200,000 viewers to tune into the final dramatic moments of Davis’ filibuster as about 400 protesters in the visitors’ balcony chanted so loudly that legislators were unable to act on the bill before the session’s midnight deadline.

    “I think it was the Texas Spring,” said Burke, alluding to the popular uprisings that swept the Arab world starting in 2010. “I think the ground shifted in Texas last night.”

    “But it’s not just about abortion,” she added. “In Texas, this right-wing extremism has dominated our politics, and finally those in the middle, and those who are left-leaning, have found their voice. They really finally realized there were more of them than they thought there were.”
     
  2. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    It's optimistic (I had already seen this), and in the long run, Texas is in for some serious political change, but when you have a city like Austin represented by 5 different districts, one stretching to the Woodlands, and one somewhere down near Mexico, just as an example, it isn't going to be easy. And the SC just took away the best tool we had for straightening the absurd mess out. It used to be that the major cities in Texas had their own districts. Sort of an unwritten law during redistricting. The GOP loons in the Lege, with the ardent assistance of Tom DeLay, tossed all that out the window, screwing the citizens of Texas in the process.
     
  3. Summer Song Giver

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    It requires voters to display proper identification okay what's the problem?
    such as a concealed-weapons permit which required the holder displaying proper id in order to obtain
    while disallowing the use of student ID's from state universities can a non citizen be a student? Well okay then..
    By the state's own data, Hispanics are markedly less likely to possess the required identificationproper citizens should be able to obtain proper id shouldn't they.
    And some citizens seeking proper ID may have to pay for a copy of a birth certificate in order to obtain it. so get a birth certificate then what's the problem?

    Someone tell me if I'm missing something.
     
    1 person likes this.
  4. False

    False Member

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    It's going to be awhile before the floodgates open. I believe that the actions that Texan Republicans have been taking with relation to voting rights have been all short term gain without an eye toward long term stability. Eventually the state will turn blue and then it will be a rush as the lines are re drawn in a way that absolutely punishes the excesses of the state Republican party. It will result in the effective disenfranchisement of many Republican voters and they will have no one to blame but themselves, but it won't make it right. Both parties need to do better to ensure that district lines are not and will not be drawn based on political considerations. We need to inculcate a culture that sees political gerrymandering as wrong instead of as the natural spoils of war.
     
  5. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    A nice thought, but not something that has a chance of happening in Texas until after the Republican Party pays the price for it's action to date. You can count on that, whether you think it right, or not. One rule of politics is "what goes around, comes around."
     
  6. MiddleMan

    MiddleMan Contributing Member

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    As a Hispanic, I agree with having an ID to vote. To diminish voter fraud.
     
  7. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    There is no voter fraud worth mentioning in Texas.
     
  8. Harrisment

    Harrisment Member

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    What voter fraud?
     
  9. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

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  10. RedRedemption

    RedRedemption Contributing Member

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    Voter fraud is a fraud used to scare people into being more accepting of voter ID laws, which if anything is an additional burden on taxpayers (more bureaucracy somehow) and it DOESNT ****ING WORK.
     
  11. Bogey

    Bogey Contributing Member

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    I'm not worried about voter fraud that much. Just seems logical that you ask for id when voting. I'm surprised there is even a question about it.
     
  12. ryan_98

    ryan_98 Contributing Member
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    1) pay for a birth certificate in order to 2) obtain a photo id in order to 3) vote.

    this might be what you missed.

    if i recall correctly there was an amendment to the bill that covered the expense of getting a photo id, i don't remember seeing anything stating that it covered getting a birth certificate. it's effectively a tax, and unconstitutional.

    also, this is looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. voter fraud has not been an issue in texas, and this is money and time that the legislature and attorney general could have put to better use... like future power and water plans.
     
  13. RedRedemption

    RedRedemption Contributing Member

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    Yes, you should have an ID.
    But the underlying purpose of all these laws is to restrain voting and suppress minorities/poor/rural voters.
     
  14. Bogey

    Bogey Contributing Member

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    So minorities/poor/rural voters don't have id?
     
  15. BetterThanI

    BetterThanI Contributing Member

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    [​IMG]
     
  16. ryan_98

    ryan_98 Contributing Member
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    http://d2o6nd3dubbyr6.cloudfront.net/media/documents/2011-2775_ltr.pdf
     
  17. Bogey

    Bogey Contributing Member

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    But why don't they have id?
     
  18. BetterThanI

    BetterThanI Contributing Member

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    That's not for you or I to judge. There are a million reasons a person could not have ID that have nothing to do with their status as a citizen. Unless you're willing to give 'em away for free, making people pay for IDs to vote is unconstitutional.
     
  19. Major

    Major Member

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    Are you a believer in poll taxes? Poor people should face a higher burden to vote than wealthier ones? In many cases, it takes a full day trip to get the necessary ID because of the location of DPS offices. Why should someone living week-to-week have to take a day off of work to get an ID to exercise their right to vote when the requirement is completely unnecessary and solves a problem that doesn't exist?

    Even if you don't think there's anything unethical about, it makes for stupid government.

    Lots of people don't have IDs. If you live in a rural area, you can pretty much live a normal life without one. There is nothing that requires anyone to have one..
     
  20. bucket

    bucket Member

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    A range of socioeconomic and demographic reasons that are beside the point. As a citizen, there's no legal requirement to have such an ID.

    Voter fraud of this kind doesn't really happen, anyway. These laws were put in place solely to make it more difficult for poor people and hispanics to vote. If it weren't photo ID, Republicans would just come up with some other hurdle to put up in front of minorities and the poor.
     

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