It’s ironic that Texas Republicans are so committed to abolishing abortion.
Abortion is their primary modus operandi.
Abortion is basically their chief reason for being.
Every election season, Republicans try to abort voting rights, especially for Texans of a different complexion. And for as much weeping and gnashing of teeth that Republicans do about late-term abortion, they would gleefully abort the results of the last presidential election. An inordinate number of Texas Republicans tried on Jan. 6. They can’t help themselves.
While the United States of America was established by the descendants of immigrants, the Republic of Texas was largely founded by actual immigrants. The only two native Texans who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence were Jose Francisco Ruiz and Jose Antonio Navarro, so besides the original founders without Spanish surnames, Republicans are fierce opponents of immigration and naturalization. Republicans would abort immigration altogether if they could, but in recent years, they’ve had to settle for separating immigrant children from their parents and placing them in cages along our border. It’s sad, but at least the victims are brown.
Texas Republicans aren’t real keen on persons of color in general — immigrant or no — unless they’re carrying a football, which brings to mind another white conservative conundrum. It’s difficult for Texas Republicans to think highly of themselves and their forebears if the facts about Texas independence and the countless atrocities committed against persons of color are widely propagated. Truth-telling, therefore, must be aborted. It’s a constant priority. But — to their tremendous benefit — the only thing more powerful than white fragility in Texas these days is conservative white political agility.
When Texas Republicans aren’t obsessing over ways to disenfranchise persons of color, they go after women. Texas Republicans have a perpetual Viagra-charged hard-on for aborting women’s reproductive rights and also fight against fair pay for Texas women. It’s no wonder there are fewer and fewer Republican babies around.
And there’s the real rub.
White women have the most abortions. If women of color were the largest demographic utilizing birth control or terminating their pregnancies, Texas Republicans would make birth control and abortion kits available at every Whataburger drive-thru in the state.
I’m not trying to be funny. There’s no reason to mince words. Their record is clear.
Texas Republicans initially aborted the insurance exchange clause of Obamacare to poison the proverbial well. It denied millions of folks affordable health care and, ultimately, killed Texans just to score political points. More recently, Texas Republicans aborted the right to protest Big Oil and regularly abort clean air and water measures, poisoning millions of Texans, destroying animal habitats, and restricting access to precious natural resources. And Texas Republicans are currently working to abort reasonable gun control efforts, abort real reforms of the Texas power grid (which killed dozens of Texans during the ice storm in February), and abort the homeless (instead of mitigating the conditions that create them).
Oh, and they get away with all this because Republicans aborted the FCC Fairness Doctrine back in 1987, ushering in a media environment where a propaganda machine like Fox News can brainwash conservative voters, convincing them to self-abort theretofore long-standing notions of honesty, conscience, and human decency.
In a word, Texas Republicans are more of a miscarriage than an abortion — of justice, of intellect, of forethought, and of reasonable governance, but abortion is the means by which they simultaneously make Texas a laughingstock and a menace. — E.R. Bills
Award-winning Texas writer E.R. Bills is the author of Texas Oblivion: Mysterious Disappearances, Escapes and Cover-Ups (History Press 2021), The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas (History Press 2013), and The San Marcos 10: An Antiwar Protest in Texas (History Press 2019).
This editorial reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the Fort Worth Weekly. The Weekly welcomes all manner of political submissions. They will be edited for clarity and factuality. Please email Editor Anthony Mariani at anthony@fwweekly.com.
Great article.
This article is a crock and full of ‘questionable’ information….Dems can’t help themselves.
This is an op-ed piece l, correct? Not thread of factual news writing and even less journalistic integrity went into creating this drivel.
Hi Michael. Yes, the piece is clearly labeled as an op-ed. To wit: This editorial reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the Fort Worth Weekly. The Weekly welcomes all manner of political submissions. They will be edited for clarity and factuality. Please email Editor Anthony Mariani at anthony@fwweekly.com.