I have become far more discerning, I hope, about the qualities that make for accurate high caliber political journalism (as opposed to run of the mill propaganda and verbal bilge). I would like to share some of these with you now.
One of the best insight-laden commentary opinions on all of this that I saw in the past 10 months ran just 2 days ago in the New York Times, by Richard Parker, author of "Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America." This is followed by an amazing recount about a Pro-Life activist, Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, who put it all behind her and why she voted for Beto, followed by two short articles from The Hill about the San Antonio coach, Gregg Popovich, and why he voted for Beto, then a superb analysis of the sleeper election in Texas for Attorney General, with Justin Nelson, the Democrat, whom I hope will win decisively.
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This photo says it all, and there are more from this Austin rally, photographed just yesterday, in the group.
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Cruz Might Win the Senate, but the Democrats Are Winning Texas ~~~ Across the state, diverse liberal candidates are redefining its politics.
EL PASO -- "What does it mean," a man asked Representative Beto O'Rourke at the end of a televised town hall, "to be a Texan?" That question summed up the most-watched Senate race in America. It isn't merely a contest over political power, though a quarter-century-old Republican monopoly is on the line. It's an existential struggle over which Texas emerges, with national consequence.One version is being sold by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, the incumbent. A shibboleth of tall tales and 10-gallon hats, it's a story the Republicans have been telling for years to persuade new arrivals, refugees from the Rust Belt, that being Texan meant driving pickups and caring only about God, gays and guns.
Most Texans know this isn't true. But Republicans have made a bet that "their" Texas will turn out to vote in just enough numbers to win, as long as the party manages to whittle down the rest of the electorate through sleights of hand like voter ID laws and gerrymandering.
In that Texas, during Mr. Cruz's first Senate campaign in 2012, hardly anyone voted. He claimed that "millions of Texans" were "rising up" to support him. But in fact he won in a squeaker, edging out another Republican in a runoff by 150,000 votes -- a whopping 1 percent of registered voters. If margins were bass fishing he'd have had to throw his back. And back then, general elections against Democrats were an afterthought.
Defeated in his bid for the Republican nomination by Donald Trump, Mr. Cruz has run for re-election as a born-again good old boy. That's why this Canadian-born product of Princeton and Harvard Law opened his campaign at the Redneck Country Club. "Texas is tough," he told the crowd, adding that he would now be known as "Tough for Texas." It didn't stick. He wears fancy ostrich cowboy boots; started listening to country music only after the Sept. 11 attacks; complains about Willie Nelson, who has endorsed Mr. O'Rourke; and prefers Toby Keith -- who's from Oklahoma.
On the other hand, there is real Texas, today. When other Americans think of Texas they probably think of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, the cities where 75 percent of the state lives, though the triangle they form counts nearly 20 percent of its landmass. That's real Texas. So are the 20 or so suburban counties that surround these cities and swing elections. But these are far different from the rootin' tootin' Texas of the Cruz campaign.
Real Texas has the largest Muslim population in the country. Vietnamese is our third language; Chinese is our fourth. Missouri City, near Houston, may be one of the most ethnically and racially diverse spot in America. It's also one of the most densely populated. People are crammed in at nearly 2,600 per square mile -- over twice that of New Jersey. The surrounding county was bedrock Republican but flipped for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
This is not Ted Cruz's Texas. Neither is Mr. O'Rourke's hometown (and mine) of El Paso. It's a tattooed, blue-collar, Latino city of nearly one million. Mr. Cruz hardly comes here; his last visit he attracted just 2,000 people at a West Side high school -- on a Saturday. This Texas hasn't benefited from a quarter-century of unbroken Republican power. The biggest employer, the Army, ships people out just as quickly as it ships them in. A sprawling city of rail yards and refineries, El Paso has one of the highest illiteracy rates in America and some of its worst access to health care.
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