Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
March 25, 2021
By Bill McCann
For years elected officials in Texas have sought to attract businesses by hyping the state’s embarrassment of riches: energy resources, workforce, quality universities, etc. But recently Texas has been embarrassed, not by its riches, but by inept Republican politicians, whose main qualification appears to be having an R after their name.
There’s a growing list of humiliating examples, from the near-collapse of the Texas power grid and the state’s inconsistent response to the COVID-19 epidemic to the legal woes of the state’s indicted attorney general. By far the biggest hit to the state’s reputation has been the massive blackouts caused by subfreezing temperatures that swept Texas in mid-February.
In a state that considers itself America’s energy capital, the embarrassing blackouts affected more than 4 million people and led to water disruptions for more than 14 million people. At least 57 people died. Direct and indirect costs could total $90 billion in losses, according to one expert, who said probably 90% of the losses could have been avoided with preventive measures.
There’s considerable blame to go around. Republicans have owned state government for more than two decades. They led the deregulation of the Texas electricity market and have supported a hands-off attitude in regulating energy providers. But the buck stops with Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints the members of the Public Utility Commission, which regulates the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid manager.
Meanwhile, tweets from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton deriding California during blackouts in that state during a heat wave last summer came back to bite them in the butt last month. Cruz, who drew deserved ridicule nationally when he fled to Cancun during the Texas deep freeze, tweeted in August: “California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity.”
Patrick, who last year drew derision when he said senior citizens should be willing to sacrifice themselves for the economy over COVID-19, tweeted: “This is what happens when the Democrats are left in charge.”
Paxton, who drew widespread criticism for filing a foolhardy lawsuit in December to try to overturn the presidential election, tweeted: “California’s politicians did this, not the heat.”
News outlets rehashed the Cruz, Patrick and Paxton tweets and critics mockingly reposted them on social media during the Texas blackouts.
Abbott’s muddled leadership over COVID-19 also has been disconcerting. Abbott botched the state’s COVID-19 response by reopening Texas to business too soon last spring and again this month, failing to provide adequate virus testing early on, and more recently failing to get vaccines into Texans’ arms quickly enough.
The Austin American-Statesman last week reported that Texas ranked near the bottom in percentage of residents getting at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, despite Abbott calling the state’s vaccine rollout a “national model.” Abbott recently drew criticism from health experts nationally when he prematurely ended a mask mandate, apparently without consulting three of his own health advisers. Reported COVID-19 deaths in Texas have nearly reached 47,000, according to state health data.
In other shameful behavior, Reps. Louie Gohmert, R- Tyler, Michael Cloud, R-Victoria, and Lance Gooden, R-Terrell, were among 12 House Republican yahoos who voted against a resolution giving congressional gold medals to police officers who protected members of Congress and staff from rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Apparently some of them objected to rioters being called “insurrectionists” in the resolution. Maybe they would have preferred the description “overly excited tourists.”
Finally, at a congressional hearing last week on violence against Asian Americans, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Hays County, appeared to support lynching – with its obvious racial implications – as a form of justice. Beyond embarrassing.
