And so are we…getting it good and hard, as my man Mencken preached it so long ago.
This is just a quick addendum to my recent posts on the connection between the Republican party’s passion for denying millions of Americans access to health insurance coverage.
As everyone not resident at Bag End knows, the self-anointed leader of those who think that providing health care for millions is the gateway to the dictatorship of the usurper is “Tailgunner” Ted Cruz, R-TX.
That made me wonder — how many of his own constituents is the freshman Senator trying to roger?
The Texas Medical Association has the goods:
One quarter of the Texas population is uninsured (compared with a US proportion of 15.7% as of 2009). 17% of Texan kids are without insurance, compared to 10% nationwide. One third of Lone Star adults 19-64 lack insurance; the national total is 22%…and so it goes.
Don’t lose sight of what all this means. Folks are dying now in Ted Cruz’s Texas when they shouldn’t — and he’s aiming to make sure that moral outrage continues.
Texans and, alas, the rest of us are stuck with Senator Cruz for another four years and change. Let’s make sure we do whatever we can to see that his BFFs in the House pay the price much sooner than that for conspiring before the fact in the deaths of American citizens. And let’s help our countrymen and women in the great state of Texas rid themselves of this noxious pest at the first opportunity.
Image: William Hogarth, An Election Entertainment, 1754
David Koch
Ted Cruz?
Ted Cruz?
Oh you mean Rafael Cruz (R-Canada)
lamh36
Speaking of Texas…Ok, I may just have to move back to Texas so I can vote for Senator Wendy R. Davis if she’s truly running for Governor of Texas! GO WENDY GO!!
http://feministing.com/2013/10/03/watch-live-wendy-davis-to-announce-run-for-texas-governor/
feebog
Well said Tom, and we need to keep saying it. Denying your constituents access to affordable health care = murder. I know a lot of conservatives will cry foul; I welcome the debate. Posting this to my facebook page now.
NotMax
Playing the martyr.
LittlePig
I’d say let ’em pile up the dead in the Senator’s office, but that would be uncivil.
beltane
@NotMax: I’m surprised he didn’t compare his speech to the stations of the cross.
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax:
[gack sputter wheeze]
“Apology accepted, Senator Cruz.”
schrodinger's cat
What are the state by state averages for the uninsured?
BGinCHI
14th Amendment remedies!
NotMax
@Villago Delenda Est
Not even enough class to apologize face to face.
JPL
Just a reminder, if you live in a district with a moderate Republican, make a phone call to his/her offices.
Violet
@lamh36: I’m so excited about this! Go Wendy!
scav
What a grand election painting — made me think of Dickens. So, a few more illustrations here for distraction. He’s kissing ’em all!
Botsplainer
@Villago Delenda Est:
“Prostetnic Senator Cruz, we beg of you. Please don’t read us your Vogon poetry…”
Elizabelle
Jimmy Kimmel segment: Do you prefer the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare?
Four minutes and funny, and better at debunking myths than oh so serious “both sides do it” prime time media.
Low information voters walk among us.
Felanius Kootea
@lamh36: I just got the email from her campaign saying that she is definitely running for governor of Texas. Really excited – hope she wins!
The Other Chuck
@LittlePig: Not to mention desecrating the dead by dumping them in such a cesspit.
RoonieRoo
Maybe this is what it takes for people to stop just screaming for Texas to secede, or let it burn or whatever in their way to dismiss what is happening down here and actually help the progressives in Texas for a change. This blog and others are always fast to put up ActBlue links or whatever else to support progressives in other states but the common refrain for Texas is “Let them suffer!” The DNC has been doing this too in that they invest almost nothing in Texas towards trying to get any progressives elected.
The good Democrats exist down here but they exist with almost no financial support from the DNC and other outside progressive groups. I say that progressives who continue to ignore and just point and laugh at Texas are now reaping what THEY sowed.
balconesfault
Meh … Cruz is just grandstanding.
Rick Perry already has been doing yeoman’s work to keep people uninsured:
a) turning down Federal Dollars for Medicaid expansion
b) refusing to set up a Texas exchange
c) establishing additional “training” requirements for Obamacare navigators in the state
Cruz is just a blowhard (the House would be doing what they’re doing whether Cruz existed or not …). Perry is the wrecking ball.
Alison
@lamh36: Seriously. Fuck Ted Cruz. It’s gonna be Wendy Davis’ Texas soon :)
I know it’ll be a battle and she’s obviously the underdog, but if everyone gets behind her we can make it happen. We did it for Elizabeth Warren, we need to do it for Davis too, and for Texas.
beer time somewhere
I wonder how much free health care that pissant Cruz (or his parents) got while in Canada?
Fucker
WereBear
Going for the world record in whatever-the-heck he’s so good at…
Suffern ACE
@NotMax: hah! We can roll out veterans in our nonsense battle, too.
The Other Bob
@beer time somewhere:
His birth was likely covered.
RoonieRoo
@Alison: We can really hope. Our one hope is the financial chair of the DNC, Henry Muñoz. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel and Wendy Davis’s roll to the national news helps make it harder for the DNC to ignore us. But, I really think that other progressive groups have to get involved in the state if we have even a hope of a chance.
gbear
I don’t know, Michele Bachmann can work herself into an impressive froth when railing about the impending total and complete loss of all of our freedoms to Obamacare. The big difference is that NOBODY listens to her anymore except for the craziest of the crazies.
gbear
@schrodinger’s cat:
Just this morning the NYT put up a map of ‘Where The Poor and Uninsured Live’.
Baud
@balconesfault:
Can’t help but wonder if Perry’s decision not to expand Medicaid will be the issue that puts Wendy over the top in Texas.
That would be sweet.
Citizen_X
Went to the hospital today–in Texas–to meet my surgeon. Waiting room was filled with wingnut magazines, addressed to him. Ugh. Not a good idea to start political arguments with the guy who’s going to cut you open, though.
But! Saw a cool sticker in the parking lot on the way out: “OBAMACARE: signed, sealed, and DELIVERING.” So some of the medical people down here are keeping the faith.
Trollhattan
@gbear:
Does anybody know whether the Egyptians ever figured out why she there, was lecturing them on dee-mock-rissy last month, with Goober and Kodos? I figure that killed any future relationship between the US and Egypt for, oh, the next dozen years.
Trollhattan
@Trollhattan:
Ugh, feature edit now need not have.
Chuck Butcher
@Citizen_X:
My sympathies…
Violet
NPR just did a segment on how Fox News and conservative media have been “very aggressive about creating a narrative for their own audience”. good on them for calling out the echo chamber.
joel hanes
@RoonieRoo:
The DNC has been doing this too in that they invest almost nothing in Texas towards trying to get any progressives elected.
Nationwide, the DNC quietly does what it can to prevent progressives from getting elected.
Progressives tend to be difficult for Steve Israel and Steney Hoyer and DWS and their cronies to
bribeinfluence, and sometimes vote their conscience instead of voting in lockstep with the leadership. This occasionally embarasses the corporations that have purchased much of the national Democratic Party cadre.Act Blue has a Texas page
For those of you who actually live in the Lonestar State, Juanita Jean herownself is aiding and abetting the Democratic insurrection, and can probably put you in touch with a local activist who would be grateful for your help.
Googling “Juanita Jean” will almost certainly lead you to her.
Good luck.
SiubhanDuinne
I guess everything really is bigger in Texas. Including embarrassing statistics.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36: I think she is. I hope she is, I’ve sent her a bit of money.
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
Internets, yours, won.
danielx
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s true, and that most definitely includes the size and variety of wingnut douche rockets.
Josie
The key to turning Texas around is getting the Latino vote registered and out to vote. Two good places to put any extra money would be Battleground Texas – http://www.battlegroundtexas.com – and Wendy Davis, who is a breath of fresh air for Texas – http://www.wendydavistexas.com. It would be worth the effort for progressives to make headway in the state before the next presidential election, and it would be fantastic for women and children to have Wendy as our next governor.
gbear
@Trollhattan:
I don’t know… I’d think that Egyptians would have a lot more respect for Obama after finding out what he has to deal with on a daily basis.
Roger Moore
@feebog:
Opinions differ, so we must report the controversy.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
Also, go look for unicorns, because they’re about as common.
Felonius Monk
Here’s an interesting little factoid:
Sly
@balconesfault:
Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity:
And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,
True ornaments to know a holy man.
Grumpy Code Monkey
While it would be undeniably cool for Wendy Davis to be Governor of TX (it won’t happen, but it would be cool), that’s not the battle that matters. What matters is flipping the goddamned Lege. Flipping the Lege means districts can be redrawn to something less egregious, voter suppression laws can be repealed, legislation that actually helps people can be brought forth, funding for vital services can be restored, etc. That means more than just getting out the vote; it means finding and funding candidates for House and Senate races and getting people to vote for them as well.
There’s an unfortunate tendency to focus on the Big Chair. In Texas, that’s especially futile, since the Executive is constitutionally weak; in terms of defined power, the Speaker of the House is probably the most powerful individual in the state, not the Gov.
Also, remember that Davis isn’t going to be running against Perry; she’ll be running against Greg Abbot, who hasn’t destroyed his brain cells to the same degree that Goodhair has. Abbot has support among the non-rabid Republicans in this state. To say it will be an uphill battle is like saying the Boston Marathon is a moderately strenuous jog.
I would love it if she won. I won’t hold my breath. I think fighting for the Lege is more important, and that must be the primary focus for Texas Democrats going into the next two elections.
Joy
There’s a special place in hell for people like Ted Cruz.
Dbwhite
Really we’ll put, Tom. I share the same sense of moral outrage, especially when I read about the 26 states that are denying federally funded care for the working poor. I’m thankful I live in a state run by same people, Maryland, and look forward to no longer being uninsured when I get covered through the state exchange here in January.
Don SinFalta
Here’s hoping the continuing craziness pushes enough people our way. My lifelong (but now ex-)Republican Dad told me he was going to vote for Ted Cruz in the primary because his opponent David Dewhurst was such a piece of work. Once I explained to him how that would be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire and exposed him to some of Cruz’ record, he voted against him twice, in the primary and general. He now never tires of telling me how happy he is that he doesn’t feel responsible for that asshole being in the Senate.
Maybe there’s hope for us here in Texas after all.