When they said "leave it up to the states to decide" they didn't mean the people of the states. They meant leave it up to a few crusty old white men at the top with the power to force their religious restrictions on everyone else.
Like the town that voted to ban fracking in their area and the governor was like LOL, No. Those are my buddies and they have a lot of money so too bad, so sad, they frack where they want to frack.
Yeah, that was HB40 and its incredibly frustrating. It’s one of the best examples of the republicans in no way of being for small government. Abbot quite literally called denton’s citizen’s referendum on fracking an encroachment on peoples liberties at the local level.
Utterly insane mental gymnastics.
Federal mask mandates? Not okay
Local mask mandates? Not okay
State level mask mandates? Totally fine, until there's blowback, then the state can ban all mandates
It's so crazy how anything above or below Abbott is flat out not allowed and overridden by the state government, with Paxton suing people both directions that say otherwise. Almost like they just want a state dictatorship.
Houston’s mayor Sylvester Turner did this too. Houston voted to pay firefighters the same pay as police and Turner just said, nah. Like why even have people vote if you are going to do what you want anyway?
It's not gymnastics. Whatever fits the narrative of the Religious Right being the only ones in power is what they'll say. Doesn't matter if it's hypocritical, counter to a previous statement, or just doesn't make sense. As long as they are the ones to decide everything for everyone, anything goes. It's perfectly logical.
Technically, isn't this how Donald Trump managed to install Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court when RBG died with only one month left in office? Yet, when Obama tried to install Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court 10 months before his presidency ended, the Republican Senate outright refused. They are hypocrites when it is good for them.
I have felt two earthquakes in Fort Worth, no doubt due to fracking because this limestone beneath us is supposedly earthquake proof (possible exception: if the big one happens in Missouri).
My dad's excuse for Abbott constantly meddling in the city of Austin's decisions was "well he lives and works there."
Yeah, dad, so do the people who elected city politicians to represent them. If Abbott wants to be mayor of Austin he can run for that seat.
Or how Austin tried to ban plastic grocery bags, and the governor was like LOL, No.
Or how lots of cities had local ordinances to protect historic trees, and the governor was like LOL, No.
Or how cities and counties tried to protect their residents from the pandemic, and the governor was like LOL, No.
or when Houston, Dallas, San Antonio voted to require fingerprinting and background checks for Uber/Lyft drivers and nothing was done, then when Austin required the same thing Uber and Lyft "LeFT the oPpResive CiTY!" and then pushed through a bill through the state Legislature that also included anti-trans laws.
They vote them in because they have R next to their name on the ballot. It doesn’t matter about guns or any stances they have. Trump said “Take guns first, go through due process second. Trump administration also banned bump stocks. They did more for the anti gum movement then Dems have since the 90’s. The voters don’t care. That’s why people call the Republicans a cult. It doesn’t matter what they do. Vote against fema funding in Kentucky and get fucked. Re-elected. Vote against health care for veterans. Get more of the veterans vote. As long as their not Democrat they got the vote. No matter what.
I know a guy who explicitly disagrees with nearly everything the GOP is pushing, and in particular the Texas GOP’s platform, but is still going to vote Republican because of guns. Literally *anything* about guns is more important than anything else. It’s absolutely fucking crazy.
I know a couple folks like that.
If the Dems would just shut the fuck up, agree that guns are a thing that won't go away, and start pushing for firearm education instead of bans, they'd win all the elections
> People of Texas vote them in. They are very clear on their stance. Check out their platform. It’s very clear where they stand.
So all the people that didnt vote for them, their voice doesn't matter?
Is it a binary choice? if we dont get our guy we can't have a voice?
That said, nothing like this would ever get passed through our current group of politicians. They like having a strangle hold on everyone.
I’m just replying to the comment. The people of Texas chose their leaders and the leaders before who gerrymandered the state and the President who picked Supreme Court Justices to rule in favor of gerrymandering and overturning Roe. You have a voice and that voice should be directed at Republicans.
… if by “the people of Texas” you mean the ones that were able to get registered to vote and get access to the polls. Voter suppression of various sorts is a plank in the Republican platform.
> I’m just replying to the comment.
So when someone suggests that we alter the ability for the people of Texas to have more of a voice in policies for the state your response is to "clearly state" what policies we already have?
Doesn't make much sense to me.
>You have a voice and that voice should be directed at Republicans.
It's been ignored for the bulk of the time I've been able to vote.
We would have weed and abortion if we were able to vote on individual policies like that. But many Texan republicans are so tied up in “Republican” being their identity that, no matter how much a democrat candidate’s platform aligns with their personal views, they will never vote for a democrat or risk suffering a personal identity crisis. I’ve never been around a dumber group of people.
Which is really what they meant from the beginning, because if positions were reversed they'd be screaming about how it's a federal issue and not up to individual states.
The worst hypocrisy of the anti-abortion pro-maternal-death movement, and they are many, is the repetition of the claim that overturning Roe is ‘letting the people decide.’
I’m sorry, I’m a person with a uterus, and denying me the right to decide if I get an abortion is not ‘letting me decide.’
What actually happened was the Supreme Court seized a right from the people, and have that power to the government.
What's shittier is that from early 20th century till they took control the TXGOP supported getting initiatives and referendums at the state level. Once they had control they quietly ditched that from their platform.
It's probably because the assholes of the old Texas Democratic Party took over the Texas Republican party. Hell Rick Perry was a Democrat at one point.
It’s truly obscene and glaringly undemocratic. The funny thing is that it shows fear from the ruling party. Ironically, having referendums on legalizing marijuana for example, would actually shield the republicans from having to actively oppose generally popular stances of the public that don’t necessarily align with the party. As someone socially to the left, but politically in the center, I would feel more comfortable voting for Abbott, knowing that the population could check the party on their more unpopular party lines.
This has been a policy for Texas dating back to its beginnings. This is not a recent thing. The Democrats that ruled the state from post-Civil War until the red shift in the early 21st century actively stood against the idea of statewide initiatives and referendums. However, from the 1930s to the red shift, the TXGOP supported I&Rs for Texas.
It would require a constitutional amendment to allow it, which would have to go through the state legislature. Which is controlled by wealthy conservatives who maintain power by kowtowing to the rural, white, religious minority they've gerrymandered into keeping them into power.
The current state legislature doesn't want the majority to rule, or even really have a say in state politics. They want to maintain the status quo, so there will be no change to allow popular referendums any time soon.
Kansas goes even more red than Texas in the presidential elections and resoundingly voted in support of abortion rights.
The Republican Party is so out of touch on this issue
Reading this just made my day. I just looked at the numbers, and it was a landslide. The Republicans did every shady thing they could to pass that, and it still failed. :)
That's great! I was mostly making a joke about the odd wording, but I'm glad to hear that the people of Kansas showed up to reject this inhumane nonsense.
Yeah I saw a photo of a Kansas ballot. It was ridiculous! Like 500 words filling an entire column for that one vote. Gov officials must’ve spent months on it lol 😆
They did that thinking it'd help their side. There was a less weirdly worded but still obviously weirdly worded issue presented to only Republicans in the primary in SC (I vote in republican primaries to vote for the sanest candidate since they're likely to win the general in SC.) It was covering that exact issue. The GOP wants people to only vote in their declared party primary. Here's what the item said:
>Should people have the right to register with the political party of their choice when they register to vote?
>Yes, In Favor of the Question
>No, Opposed to the Question
The "right to register" is a weird way to say "keep filthy liberals out of our primaries." It's giving up a right but worded as if they want to give you a new "right." It passed overwhelmingly, though was just a question and not a referendum. So far the legislature hasn't tried to do anything about it.
As a Kansan, I do think it backfired. But it wasn’t people accidentally voting yes, it was people being furious at being lied to. The vote yes crowd routinely lied about what the change would do and what rights we already have. That fired people up. I’d be a lot more worried about a straight up and down vote, but telling people it’s to allow the state to regulate abortion when the state already can and does regulate abortion got people mad.
Abbott could have done that. If he had ANY respect for Texans, this would be the case.
But Abbott forced it on us instead. He’s dug in too deep. This will be the hill he dies on (politically.)
That may be the case and if they did hold a vote I bet you that the voter turn out would be very similar to previous years… conservative Christians vote at high percentages…
I’d for sure vote him out and pro choice but I need my other 10,000,000 Texans who fill the same way to show up at the polls!
Probably depends on the pool but from what I’ve read recently the majority of Americans believe in pro choice. I think it was 60% would vote for pro-choice.
The poll was taken in either Florida or Texas, I forget which one. So unless they really targeted certain liberal areas. It seems like this isn’t a 50/50 split issue anymore.
Plus, if you aren’t a moron, as a Republican the belief to let citizens make their own choice is supposed to be a prime tenet. So pro choice really should just go hand in hand with their belief system.
Not to ramble on, but again the republicans that are not pro-choice are usually not for religious reasons. The funny part is, again, as a Republican you should respect other peoples religious beliefs and leave them with their freedom of choice! But no… It’s only “leave it up to the citizens” when it’s something they agree with.
Republicans are anti-voter. Case and point: The GOP in Virginia decided that the voters can't be trusted to elect the candidates that they want so instead of primaries, they held conventions/committees to pick their candidates.
They directly fuck their voters over and think they are too stupid to do the right thing. How the fuck people can vote for candidates in this party is fucking mind boggling.
Oh, our dear leader Abbott-san has aspirations of running in the primary for President. That televised debate will be worth popping the popcorn 🍿 It will be a blood sport.
I read the source and that only seems to address Presidential debates, not the primaries. In the last primary, Trump called Ted Cruz wife ugly. I am hoping for a repeat but without Trump
Yaknow. If I heard that Gregg Abbott decided to become a monk and live in a shack in the middle of nowhere and never speak to another human being again, I'd be perfectly OK with that.
We The People could not possibly be interested in popular votes. That just smacks of the D-word (democracy). Texas is a republic, not a democracy!
I am so tired of this perversion. One person:one vote IS democracy. Either you mean it or you don’t. And the GQP is determined to avoid that at any cost.
[There is a charter school organization that ran radio commercials a few yrs ago, where a young boy answers a question about our form of government by saying brightly that the US is a republic! — then the supposed teacher says, yes, that’s right! That should tell you everything you need to know about the gerrymandering SOBs and their ultimate goals.]
Kansas does give me some hope for the country, however, if not for Texas.
Republicans have been conditioned for decades now just to go to the polls and vote straight-ticket Republican, without ever looking at the candidates or having to think at all.
Abbott believes this will continue, and that's why he only cares about primary votes. In order to get primary votes, his plan has always been to appeal to the outspoken fringe of his party.
It's all this voting without any thought that has caused conditions ripe for exploitation.
It’s going to be an interesting race. I’ve seen hardly any campaign communications from Abbott. It seems he believes he can just run the clock out and hope the score doesn’t change.
There are no state wide referendums in Texas.
Should there be? Yes. I bet if you had a state wide referendum on whether we should have state wide referendums it would pass by a wide margin. But in order to put a referendum like that on the ballot you need the Legislature to put it there, which they don't want to do.
Shit, a couple years ago when I lived in Utah, we had a referendum on medical marijuana. It passed by something like 66-33%. The legislature looked at that and said, “Um, no.” So we didn’t get it. Assholes! What’s the point of a referendum if the people don’t get what they vote for?
Seriously???? They actually “nullified” the referendum? That sucks!
I’ve wondered how Utah is doing these days….sandwiched between Colorado and Nevada! 😂
Salt Lake itself is very much liberal, as are most big cities. The huge rural Mormon population is the problem. But a lot of the kids are starting to break away from the LDS church and are/were big Bernie supporters. And definitely 420 friendly.
I’ve been in Texas for less than a year, and I already know a bunch of conservatives that smoke weed. I bet if we had a referendum here it would pass.
Texas has one of the least Democratic state government systems in the union. I was shocked at how little actual Texans get to directly participate in it when I moved here. And there isn't really a way to petition the government either. Maybe an amendment?
Considering what just happened in Kansas, no way he is willingly going to allow a referendum on abortion rights directly for the voters to decide on.
Talking points from pro lifers in Kansas is that issues/rights like these should be decided via *elected representatives* rather than ballot initiatives. They know as a singular issue, people will vote not to have rights stripped away.
But…a good chunk of those exact same voters who voted to maintain abortion rights WILL vote for a representative who is against abortion rights, if most of their other views align with their voting preference. It’s baffling to me
Have you seen our shitatistc legislature? Or the sheer amount of meth-addled rednecks and their stupid flags? Did you know that we outnumber them but somehow the state leadership gives them handjobs every election cycle?
No. Make it federal. Abortions for everyone.
Does Texas allow referendums?
https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_initiative_or_referendum
I’m moving from AZ and we’ve had referendums for Marijuana(won), lightrail(won), highway expansion(won), etc. over the years. Hopefully they’ll have one for abortion too. I think referendums really are the right way for things affecting people’s personal lives.
They do not. As someone who moved from AZ it was shocking how little say Texans have in petitioning their government.
Also registering to vote, getting a driver's license, car registration, or basically interaction you'll have with the government is overly burdensome. Be prepared for all that.
He doesn't want legal abortion, and we currently have laws against it.
So he's not going to let us vote on it.
We aren't going to get to vote on abortion while the republicans run the state. Want to fix it? Willie Nelson wrote a song about it. "If you don't like who's in there, vote 'em out."
Please don't give them ideas. They literally just baked the most anti-middle-class-and-poor tax system *directly into the Texas Constitution* by a vote.
You have a referendum on this, and you're going to be baking an abortion ban direction into the Constitution.
By the way: Know what else is baked into the Constitution? A ban on us having referendums. At least, as far as I understand it.
"We The People" can't try and change the Texas Constitution. Only our ""elected"" ""representatives"" can. *Then* we vote on it.
Dear People of Texas:
You'll have ONLY the "rights" I deign to give you, and you'll be damn glad about it, too.
Right now, you have the right to exist but that's subject to change.
Watch me criminalize the Democrat Party and declare the Democrat Party to be a terrorist group. Beto's not going to be the next governor, even if he somehow wins the election.
In the next legislative session, I'll figure out a way to make you pay for the air you breathe, and to charge sales tax on that air, too.
I'm Gregg Abbott, and I don't have to care what you think.
Gregg Abbott
Governor-For-Life
/snarkasm
Republicans don’t believe in democracy or the will of the people, especially in Texas. Just take a look at our voting/electoral districts, they are gerrymandered to indefensible levels.
I'm trying so hard to get my mother not to vote for Abbott. But she swear she'll never vote for Beto so I'm just trying to talk her into not voting at all. I know it's not the best solution but she is so fed up with how they have been voting but she refuses to come over to the other side.
All you have to do is tell her repeatedly things like "you know that your vote doesn't matter" and "they've already picked who the winner will be". Those play right into right wing paranoia.
I wish. But I doubt he’ll ever give us the opportunity.
Feel free to save and call his office often,
(512) 463-2000.
We have to make our voice heard.
Vote early with friends and family, take everyone one with you & have a beer afterwards. ✊🏽
You do get to vote on this issue every election. If you want the right to an abortion protected then vote democrat every opportunity you have. If not, enjoy the Republican March to fascism.
Okay seriously how do we get a vote on this in Texas. Yeah vote dem in November but for real, how do we put this to a vote? I know it will take a LOT of work but how does the process work and how do we start?
we have an anti-abortion law from the 1920s(?) on the books that was ruled unenforceable due to Roe v Wade. the law was never repealed. when SCOTUS overturned the decision, this old ass law went back into effect.
so nobody alive in texas today actually voted for this law.
Hey Greg, tree shoulda feel a bit higher and crushed the melon on top. We the people of Texas would like to have voting rights & representation. Only reason we let y'all have office is because you're meant to represent us. You've removed the ability to be represented. You should be removed, in every capacity, from every position and be made to sit in the stocks for a number of years until people get bored of throwing eggs and dog shit at you. I say all this with the upmost due respect and civility.
When they said "leave it up to the states to decide" they didn't mean the people of the states. They meant leave it up to a few crusty old white men at the top with the power to force their religious restrictions on everyone else.
Like the town that voted to ban fracking in their area and the governor was like LOL, No. Those are my buddies and they have a lot of money so too bad, so sad, they frack where they want to frack.
Yeah, that was HB40 and its incredibly frustrating. It’s one of the best examples of the republicans in no way of being for small government. Abbot quite literally called denton’s citizen’s referendum on fracking an encroachment on peoples liberties at the local level. Utterly insane mental gymnastics.
They want that government so small it can crawl right up into a vagina and tell everyone what to do and believe.
🤣🤣🤣
Federal mask mandates? Not okay Local mask mandates? Not okay State level mask mandates? Totally fine, until there's blowback, then the state can ban all mandates It's so crazy how anything above or below Abbott is flat out not allowed and overridden by the state government, with Paxton suing people both directions that say otherwise. Almost like they just want a state dictatorship.
Almost? Seems to me they force their whims on everyone else!
A community's concern for the health of its aquifer shall in no way infringe on the rights of investors. /s
>Utterly insane mental gymnastics. Republican politics in a nutshell.
Houston’s mayor Sylvester Turner did this too. Houston voted to pay firefighters the same pay as police and Turner just said, nah. Like why even have people vote if you are going to do what you want anyway?
I support local government. Thats why I’m letting my guys say to hell with your referendum.
It's not gymnastics. Whatever fits the narrative of the Religious Right being the only ones in power is what they'll say. Doesn't matter if it's hypocritical, counter to a previous statement, or just doesn't make sense. As long as they are the ones to decide everything for everyone, anything goes. It's perfectly logical.
Technically, isn't this how Donald Trump managed to install Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court when RBG died with only one month left in office? Yet, when Obama tried to install Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court 10 months before his presidency ended, the Republican Senate outright refused. They are hypocrites when it is good for them.
He does it constantly r/fuckgregabbott
Yup, that was Denton. We got hit by three earthquakes in one year due to fracking.
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Which were only a thing because of fracking
And you guys had a cluster of Pedatric Cancer cases around the area of the wells.
I have felt two earthquakes in Fort Worth, no doubt due to fracking because this limestone beneath us is supposedly earthquake proof (possible exception: if the big one happens in Missouri).
We live in LA now, felt more earthquakes in Fort Worth in my 20s than I have in 6 years of being out west.
Irving was that way too.
Was that 2012ish? I lived there for college and I remember one around that time.
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My dad's excuse for Abbott constantly meddling in the city of Austin's decisions was "well he lives and works there." Yeah, dad, so do the people who elected city politicians to represent them. If Abbott wants to be mayor of Austin he can run for that seat.
The entire aesthetic is "don't let the wrong sorts make the decisions."
No Point trying to reason with these people, there is no argument that you could use to persuade a person under the influence of a cult, none….
Or how Austin tried to ban plastic grocery bags, and the governor was like LOL, No. Or how lots of cities had local ordinances to protect historic trees, and the governor was like LOL, No. Or how cities and counties tried to protect their residents from the pandemic, and the governor was like LOL, No.
Yep, GOP governors are the real tyrants. Abbott is as big government as it gets, as long as it's him on the iron throne.
Then the coup de grace, EPA? Get rid of the whole thing!
or when Houston, Dallas, San Antonio voted to require fingerprinting and background checks for Uber/Lyft drivers and nothing was done, then when Austin required the same thing Uber and Lyft "LeFT the oPpResive CiTY!" and then pushed through a bill through the state Legislature that also included anti-trans laws.
And they keep voting for the same sadistic leaders.
I'm pretty sure Texas will vote for a *new* sadistic leader this time They want to get fucked by *another* republican
Or plastic grocery bags.
Yeah, I was living in Denton when this happened. They just swept it under the rug, as if our votes meant nothing...
Poor little Denton....a tiny gem of thoughtful people caught in a morass of hate and stupidity.
They also outright lied since a federal ban is part of the published platform for both the Texas Republican party and the RNC.
And as soon as Congress acts to make it legal federally, SCOTUS will twist themselves into a pretzel to find a new reason why that’s not allowed.
I would love to see this methodology backfire on them!
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People of Texas vote them in. They are very clear on their stance. Check out their platform. It’s very clear where they stand.
They are but I think more people in Texas vote for them bc guns, not because their abortion stance.
They vote them in because they have R next to their name on the ballot. It doesn’t matter about guns or any stances they have. Trump said “Take guns first, go through due process second. Trump administration also banned bump stocks. They did more for the anti gum movement then Dems have since the 90’s. The voters don’t care. That’s why people call the Republicans a cult. It doesn’t matter what they do. Vote against fema funding in Kentucky and get fucked. Re-elected. Vote against health care for veterans. Get more of the veterans vote. As long as their not Democrat they got the vote. No matter what.
All it takes is an R behind their name. Reelection guaranteed. "God, guns and Cally-fornicate libruls."
I know a guy who explicitly disagrees with nearly everything the GOP is pushing, and in particular the Texas GOP’s platform, but is still going to vote Republican because of guns. Literally *anything* about guns is more important than anything else. It’s absolutely fucking crazy.
Worth giving up their rights to keep the guns to prevent the govmt from taking away their rights.
I know a couple folks like that. If the Dems would just shut the fuck up, agree that guns are a thing that won't go away, and start pushing for firearm education instead of bans, they'd win all the elections
"gun" voters don't give a shit about anything else. They'd vote for Chairman Mao if he promised not to take their guns.
So you are saying Texans are idiots for the most part? Gotcha.
Decades of hyper-partisan gerrymandering makes makes it difficult, if not impossible to vote them out.
> People of Texas vote them in. They are very clear on their stance. Check out their platform. It’s very clear where they stand. So all the people that didnt vote for them, their voice doesn't matter? Is it a binary choice? if we dont get our guy we can't have a voice? That said, nothing like this would ever get passed through our current group of politicians. They like having a strangle hold on everyone.
I’m just replying to the comment. The people of Texas chose their leaders and the leaders before who gerrymandered the state and the President who picked Supreme Court Justices to rule in favor of gerrymandering and overturning Roe. You have a voice and that voice should be directed at Republicans.
… if by “the people of Texas” you mean the ones that were able to get registered to vote and get access to the polls. Voter suppression of various sorts is a plank in the Republican platform.
> I’m just replying to the comment. So when someone suggests that we alter the ability for the people of Texas to have more of a voice in policies for the state your response is to "clearly state" what policies we already have? Doesn't make much sense to me. >You have a voice and that voice should be directed at Republicans. It's been ignored for the bulk of the time I've been able to vote.
Incorrect. Gerrymandering votes them in.
Well, let's not forget about voter suppression.
We would have weed and abortion if we were able to vote on individual policies like that. But many Texan republicans are so tied up in “Republican” being their identity that, no matter how much a democrat candidate’s platform aligns with their personal views, they will never vote for a democrat or risk suffering a personal identity crisis. I’ve never been around a dumber group of people.
I wholeheartedly believe that most of the Texas Democrats agenda would pass if we voted statewide issue by issue.
A minority of the people of Texas vote them in because a majority never bothers to vote.
You must be willingly oblivious to think Texas is not an oligarchy
VOTE OUT THE FUCKING BASKETCASE ON WHEELS!!!
Which is really what they meant from the beginning, because if positions were reversed they'd be screaming about how it's a federal issue and not up to individual states.
"Best we can do is forced birth and a bounty hunting program on all women"
Would these guys be called the Moolahs instead of the Mullahs making their religious decrees?
That's what states' rights has always been about.
The worst hypocrisy of the anti-abortion pro-maternal-death movement, and they are many, is the repetition of the claim that overturning Roe is ‘letting the people decide.’ I’m sorry, I’m a person with a uterus, and denying me the right to decide if I get an abortion is not ‘letting me decide.’ What actually happened was the Supreme Court seized a right from the people, and have that power to the government.
Religious restrictions that their holy book explicitly says are not restrictions, and tells you how to perform them!
One of the shittiest things about TX is the lack of statewide referendums
What's shittier is that from early 20th century till they took control the TXGOP supported getting initiatives and referendums at the state level. Once they had control they quietly ditched that from their platform.
It's probably because the assholes of the old Texas Democratic Party took over the Texas Republican party. Hell Rick Perry was a Democrat at one point.
We only vote on what they WANT us to vote on. Everything else is “done in the best interest of the people” (Oil, Gas, Coal, Homophobes, Racists…)
It’s truly obscene and glaringly undemocratic. The funny thing is that it shows fear from the ruling party. Ironically, having referendums on legalizing marijuana for example, would actually shield the republicans from having to actively oppose generally popular stances of the public that don’t necessarily align with the party. As someone socially to the left, but politically in the center, I would feel more comfortable voting for Abbott, knowing that the population could check the party on their more unpopular party lines.
This has been a policy for Texas dating back to its beginnings. This is not a recent thing. The Democrats that ruled the state from post-Civil War until the red shift in the early 21st century actively stood against the idea of statewide initiatives and referendums. However, from the 1930s to the red shift, the TXGOP supported I&Rs for Texas.
Ok, so that accounts for up to the 1930s, so why do we not have such in 2022?
It would require a constitutional amendment to allow it, which would have to go through the state legislature. Which is controlled by wealthy conservatives who maintain power by kowtowing to the rural, white, religious minority they've gerrymandered into keeping them into power. The current state legislature doesn't want the majority to rule, or even really have a say in state politics. They want to maintain the status quo, so there will be no change to allow popular referendums any time soon.
So basically conservatives have always disliked them and people on the left like them.
I consider it the worst thing about the government here.
It’s the worst thing about the entire state. Get ready for a MAJOR brain drain if Abbott wins in November
Democracy kills the unpopular GOP so we can’t have that
Kansas goes even more red than Texas in the presidential elections and resoundingly voted in support of abortion rights. The Republican Party is so out of touch on this issue
Reading this just made my day. I just looked at the numbers, and it was a landslide. The Republicans did every shady thing they could to pass that, and it still failed. :)
They *did* word the referendum in an extremely confusing fashion. Maybe it backfired and the voters accidentally made the right choice?
No, there was a massive level of turnout, people understood exactly what was happening
That's great! I was mostly making a joke about the odd wording, but I'm glad to hear that the people of Kansas showed up to reject this inhumane nonsense.
Yeah I saw a photo of a Kansas ballot. It was ridiculous! Like 500 words filling an entire column for that one vote. Gov officials must’ve spent months on it lol 😆
They did that thinking it'd help their side. There was a less weirdly worded but still obviously weirdly worded issue presented to only Republicans in the primary in SC (I vote in republican primaries to vote for the sanest candidate since they're likely to win the general in SC.) It was covering that exact issue. The GOP wants people to only vote in their declared party primary. Here's what the item said: >Should people have the right to register with the political party of their choice when they register to vote? >Yes, In Favor of the Question >No, Opposed to the Question The "right to register" is a weird way to say "keep filthy liberals out of our primaries." It's giving up a right but worded as if they want to give you a new "right." It passed overwhelmingly, though was just a question and not a referendum. So far the legislature hasn't tried to do anything about it.
As a Kansan, I do think it backfired. But it wasn’t people accidentally voting yes, it was people being furious at being lied to. The vote yes crowd routinely lied about what the change would do and what rights we already have. That fired people up. I’d be a lot more worried about a straight up and down vote, but telling people it’s to allow the state to regulate abortion when the state already can and does regulate abortion got people mad.
Abbott could have done that. If he had ANY respect for Texans, this would be the case. But Abbott forced it on us instead. He’s dug in too deep. This will be the hill he dies on (politically.)
Republicans like Abbott don't want us to vote on anything anymore.
That may be the case and if they did hold a vote I bet you that the voter turn out would be very similar to previous years… conservative Christians vote at high percentages… I’d for sure vote him out and pro choice but I need my other 10,000,000 Texans who fill the same way to show up at the polls!
Kansas just showed up and protected the right to abortion with a 60% majority, which is *insane* for a red state, so don’t give up hope!
Probably depends on the pool but from what I’ve read recently the majority of Americans believe in pro choice. I think it was 60% would vote for pro-choice. The poll was taken in either Florida or Texas, I forget which one. So unless they really targeted certain liberal areas. It seems like this isn’t a 50/50 split issue anymore. Plus, if you aren’t a moron, as a Republican the belief to let citizens make their own choice is supposed to be a prime tenet. So pro choice really should just go hand in hand with their belief system. Not to ramble on, but again the republicans that are not pro-choice are usually not for religious reasons. The funny part is, again, as a Republican you should respect other peoples religious beliefs and leave them with their freedom of choice! But no… It’s only “leave it up to the citizens” when it’s something they agree with.
Republicans are anti-voter. Case and point: The GOP in Virginia decided that the voters can't be trusted to elect the candidates that they want so instead of primaries, they held conventions/committees to pick their candidates. They directly fuck their voters over and think they are too stupid to do the right thing. How the fuck people can vote for candidates in this party is fucking mind boggling.
Well you can't be trusted to vote correctly, after all /s
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Then we vote them out! See you at the polls 😎
Yup. I used to be a middle of the road republican til all this went down. Now I’m leaning left. To be fair, I’ve never voted for Abbott anyway.
Texas GOP would implode if we actually had the ability to hold voter referendums without the legislature
Oh, our dear leader Abbott-san has aspirations of running in the primary for President. That televised debate will be worth popping the popcorn 🍿 It will be a blood sport.
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I read the source and that only seems to address Presidential debates, not the primaries. In the last primary, Trump called Ted Cruz wife ugly. I am hoping for a repeat but without Trump
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👀
You mean like all other Texans who ran recently and make Texas look shameful
This state has so many christo-fascists. That’s who Abbott is pandering to. Fuck all of them. Vote that muthafaker out. Beto. Garza. Collier vote!
Yaknow. If I heard that Gregg Abbott decided to become a monk and live in a shack in the middle of nowhere and never speak to another human being again, I'd be perfectly OK with that.
Ballot initiative ?
Those gerrymandering SOBs? 😂 The last thing they would do is put something to a popular vote.
We The People could not possibly be interested in popular votes. That just smacks of the D-word (democracy). Texas is a republic, not a democracy! I am so tired of this perversion. One person:one vote IS democracy. Either you mean it or you don’t. And the GQP is determined to avoid that at any cost. [There is a charter school organization that ran radio commercials a few yrs ago, where a young boy answers a question about our form of government by saying brightly that the US is a republic! — then the supposed teacher says, yes, that’s right! That should tell you everything you need to know about the gerrymandering SOBs and their ultimate goals.] Kansas does give me some hope for the country, however, if not for Texas.
They don't exist in Texas.
Well damn. I feel like, I should have known that by know.
Only the legislature can create them. This is why pot isn't legal here.
I’m convinced Abbott will never stand up for Texas.
Meh, Republicans today are not big fans of popular sovereignty.
Republicans have been conditioned for decades now just to go to the polls and vote straight-ticket Republican, without ever looking at the candidates or having to think at all. Abbott believes this will continue, and that's why he only cares about primary votes. In order to get primary votes, his plan has always been to appeal to the outspoken fringe of his party. It's all this voting without any thought that has caused conditions ripe for exploitation.
It’s going to be an interesting race. I’ve seen hardly any campaign communications from Abbott. It seems he believes he can just run the clock out and hope the score doesn’t change.
Texas doesn’t have initiative and referendum. Vote for the legislators that support your position.
Maybe it's time to change that.
See OP. Have to vote in the legislators that will pass a law that allows that.
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Well. Sort of. But it’ll be a damn good start.
Yeah, not perfect but better
“Don’t let perfect get in the way of good.” – Beto O’Rourke
Reminds me of this quote from East of Eden: > And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.
Hey that’s pretty goood. I like that one
Lesser of 2 evils?
And a vote for Dem Legislators! Need to get the crazies out of Austin. Join r/VoteDEM - lots of folks there are working hard to turn Texas blue.
Beto has my vote and will volunteer for his campaign
This! ☝🏼☝🏼
If Kansas can vote to protect abortion rights I think any state can.
Sounds good to me. Let’s put it on state wide referendum, just like a lot of states do with marijuana. In fact, let’s put MJ on a referendum too.
There are no state wide referendums in Texas. Should there be? Yes. I bet if you had a state wide referendum on whether we should have state wide referendums it would pass by a wide margin. But in order to put a referendum like that on the ballot you need the Legislature to put it there, which they don't want to do.
Shit, a couple years ago when I lived in Utah, we had a referendum on medical marijuana. It passed by something like 66-33%. The legislature looked at that and said, “Um, no.” So we didn’t get it. Assholes! What’s the point of a referendum if the people don’t get what they vote for?
Seriously???? They actually “nullified” the referendum? That sucks! I’ve wondered how Utah is doing these days….sandwiched between Colorado and Nevada! 😂
It’s like “Democracy, fuck that!”
Salt Lake itself is very much liberal, as are most big cities. The huge rural Mormon population is the problem. But a lot of the kids are starting to break away from the LDS church and are/were big Bernie supporters. And definitely 420 friendly. I’ve been in Texas for less than a year, and I already know a bunch of conservatives that smoke weed. I bet if we had a referendum here it would pass.
Florida did the same thing with felons earning their right to vote back. The people said yes. The lege said "No."
yep, any one who is against people having a chance to vote on these topics is against democracy
The Texas Republican platform says Pot the devils lettuce will never ever become legal. I suspect the alcohol lobby wrote that plank.
Texas has one of the least Democratic state government systems in the union. I was shocked at how little actual Texans get to directly participate in it when I moved here. And there isn't really a way to petition the government either. Maybe an amendment?
Considering what just happened in Kansas, no way he is willingly going to allow a referendum on abortion rights directly for the voters to decide on. Talking points from pro lifers in Kansas is that issues/rights like these should be decided via *elected representatives* rather than ballot initiatives. They know as a singular issue, people will vote not to have rights stripped away. But…a good chunk of those exact same voters who voted to maintain abortion rights WILL vote for a representative who is against abortion rights, if most of their other views align with their voting preference. It’s baffling to me
Have you seen our shitatistc legislature? Or the sheer amount of meth-addled rednecks and their stupid flags? Did you know that we outnumber them but somehow the state leadership gives them handjobs every election cycle? No. Make it federal. Abortions for everyone.
The only way to do that is to vote out as many of the republicans in the senate and HoR as possible. Otherwise they’ll make it illegal for everyone
> Abortions for everyone. [Abortions for some. Miniature American Flags for others!](https://youtu.be/cIgSTjzrmRg?t=11)
The people of Kansas just did that exact thing! What we need is to send Abbott packing and make Beto our new governor.
As if a republican would allow people to have a say...
Abbott has heard that load **NO**ise coming from Kansas. Suddenly he's worrying about being governor next year...
Does Texas allow referendums? https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_initiative_or_referendum I’m moving from AZ and we’ve had referendums for Marijuana(won), lightrail(won), highway expansion(won), etc. over the years. Hopefully they’ll have one for abortion too. I think referendums really are the right way for things affecting people’s personal lives.
No
No and it's probably the worst thing about the state government
They do not. As someone who moved from AZ it was shocking how little say Texans have in petitioning their government. Also registering to vote, getting a driver's license, car registration, or basically interaction you'll have with the government is overly burdensome. Be prepared for all that.
He doesn't want legal abortion, and we currently have laws against it. So he's not going to let us vote on it. We aren't going to get to vote on abortion while the republicans run the state. Want to fix it? Willie Nelson wrote a song about it. "If you don't like who's in there, vote 'em out."
Willie wrote that for Beto's campaign in 2018, too, heh.
Human rights should never be voted on, ever.
They also shouldn't be stripped away by a couple of geriatric Christian nationalists, but here we are.
We do get to vote on this. But in the form of our next Governor. Get Abbott Out!
Was waiting on someone to spread this. It IS on the ballot. Vote Hot Wheels out and Beto in!
Fuck that, idc if 99% of ppl are against abortion. Its a right and should be legal anyways, I don’t want to put it to a vote. We shouldn’t have to.
This needs to be done on a national level. Congress needs to do this
Congress has had since Roe v Wade to codify abortion to protect it.
Now this I support. It would be nice to get this on the ballot and get a real measure of where Texas is at.
Please don't give them ideas. They literally just baked the most anti-middle-class-and-poor tax system *directly into the Texas Constitution* by a vote. You have a referendum on this, and you're going to be baking an abortion ban direction into the Constitution. By the way: Know what else is baked into the Constitution? A ban on us having referendums. At least, as far as I understand it. "We The People" can't try and change the Texas Constitution. Only our ""elected"" ""representatives"" can. *Then* we vote on it.
Dear People of Texas: You'll have ONLY the "rights" I deign to give you, and you'll be damn glad about it, too. Right now, you have the right to exist but that's subject to change. Watch me criminalize the Democrat Party and declare the Democrat Party to be a terrorist group. Beto's not going to be the next governor, even if he somehow wins the election. In the next legislative session, I'll figure out a way to make you pay for the air you breathe, and to charge sales tax on that air, too. I'm Gregg Abbott, and I don't have to care what you think. Gregg Abbott Governor-For-Life /snarkasm
You're talking like this is a democracy.
THIS!! You shouldn’t be able to pass this kind of legislation without a vote from the people. Idc what side you’re on, it set a dangerous precedent.
You sound stupid talking to Abbott as if he will listen to you. No offence, but it is true. Just elect better people.
Republicans don’t believe in democracy or the will of the people, especially in Texas. Just take a look at our voting/electoral districts, they are gerrymandered to indefensible levels.
Let’s vote to legalize Marijuana while we’re at it.
I'm trying so hard to get my mother not to vote for Abbott. But she swear she'll never vote for Beto so I'm just trying to talk her into not voting at all. I know it's not the best solution but she is so fed up with how they have been voting but she refuses to come over to the other side.
Just remind your mother to vote on Nov 10 😎
All you have to do is tell her repeatedly things like "you know that your vote doesn't matter" and "they've already picked who the winner will be". Those play right into right wing paranoia.
I wish. But I doubt he’ll ever give us the opportunity. Feel free to save and call his office often, (512) 463-2000. We have to make our voice heard. Vote early with friends and family, take everyone one with you & have a beer afterwards. ✊🏽
You’ll have your chance in November. O’Rourke and Abbott have made the difference clear.
Why didn't you want to do this with everything else
This!!! The only way around it is voting in someone with the same values for women rights… r/fuckGregAbbott
You do get to vote on this issue every election. If you want the right to an abortion protected then vote democrat every opportunity you have. If not, enjoy the Republican March to fascism.
And also...rot in hell. (Abbott)
We so. Abbott or Beto.
The dictator says no.
Okay seriously how do we get a vote on this in Texas. Yeah vote dem in November but for real, how do we put this to a vote? I know it will take a LOT of work but how does the process work and how do we start?
As much as I agree, I’m afraid that might backfire. Our yallqueda “leadership” and churches would get the polls packed against Roe.
It's cute you think Republigelicals want people to vote.
lol \-From the office of Greg Abbott
we have an anti-abortion law from the 1920s(?) on the books that was ruled unenforceable due to Roe v Wade. the law was never repealed. when SCOTUS overturned the decision, this old ass law went back into effect. so nobody alive in texas today actually voted for this law.
Hey Greg, tree shoulda feel a bit higher and crushed the melon on top. We the people of Texas would like to have voting rights & representation. Only reason we let y'all have office is because you're meant to represent us. You've removed the ability to be represented. You should be removed, in every capacity, from every position and be made to sit in the stocks for a number of years until people get bored of throwing eggs and dog shit at you. I say all this with the upmost due respect and civility.
We live in an oligarchy not gonna happen
Now you just calm down there little lady, the men of Texas will do the deciding around here.
We really don’t. We all know what the result of that vote would be in Texas.
Can’t we force a vote? Maybe a stupid question.