Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
March 24, 2022
By Bill McCann
When I was growing up, my mom’s favorite afternoon TV show was Art Linkletter’s “House Party,” especially a segment called Kids Say the Darndest Things. Over the years, Linkletter interviewed thousands of school children, whose often brutally honest responses were thoughtful, charming and funny. I wish more of our politicians today were that forthcoming. Instead, we continue to get politicians saying and doing some of the dumbest things, particularly Texas Republicans.
Among those scoring high on the stupid-statement scale is indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who recently sent a fundraising email saying, “We’ve got one more chance to turn this state around, but only if YOU can support us.” As journalist Evan Smith appropriately responded on Twitter, “the state needs to be turned around? who’s been running it?”
Yes, the state does need turning around. Its electric grid has faltered thanks largely to poor state oversight. It’s in the bottom half of the 50 states in education, health care, crime and corrections, and environmental protection. Extremists like Paxton are to blame. Paxton has been attorney general since 2015. Republicans have been running Texas for nearly 30 years.
Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who suffers from occasional foot-in-mouth disease, developed it again recently after President Joe Biden announced plans to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court to increase the court’s diversity. Grandstander Cruz reacted angrily, calling it “offensive” and “racial discrimination,” alleging that focusing on a Black woman might exclude more qualified people. Biden subsequently nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson whom the American Bar Association rated as “well qualified.”
Cruz, the hypocrite that he is, didn’t object when former President Donald Trump said he was going to nominate a woman to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September 2020. In fact, Cruz championed Trump’s nominee, hardline conservative Amy Coney Barrett, who also was rated well qualified by the ABA but was clearly not the most qualified person available.
Not to be outdone, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recently took his culture war against critical race theory to a new low. Critical race theory is a school of thought that racism is embedded in our legal systems and policies. In a direct attack on academic freedom, Patrick threatened to introduce legislation to revoke tenure of public university and college professors who teach critical race theory – rather, his warped interpretation of it.
Critics immediately responded that such a radical move against the First Amendment rights of educators could undermine efforts by Texas public universities to retain and attract top-notch professors and students.
Also, in an apparent effort to score political points with public school teachers, Gov. Greg Abbott recently told the Texas Education Agency to create a task force to find out why Texas has a teacher shortage. The answer is obvious. Abbott needs to look in the mirror.
Poll after poll has shown teachers are leaving because they are overworked, underappreciated and underpaid. It’s what happens when you have a wealthy state whose leaders skimp on public school funding, while sticking teachers with bigger classes and more responsibilities, then blaming teachers when kids don’t progress quickly enough. The pandemic – and Abbott’s weak response to protecting students and teachers – only made it worse.
But the dumb-bunny award has to go to Republican Texas State Rep. Steve Toth, a Montgomery County businessman and former pastor, who said last week the U.S. is “at a point where we should go into northern Mexico and occupy it” to “keep us safe” from human trafficking and drugs. Toth made the statement on the far-right One America News Network as part of an ongoing false, extremist scare tactic that Biden has “opened” our border with Mexico. To suggest we invade an ally and trading partner is unbelievable. I doubt Art Linkletter’s kids ever said anything that dumb.
McCann is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. He is a retired journalist and may be reached at [email protected].
