{"id":43857,"date":"2020-08-03T22:08:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T22:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=43857"},"modified":"2020-08-03T22:08:27","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T22:08:27","slug":"wanting-two-parties-to-fight-it-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=43857","title":{"rendered":"Wanting two parties to fight it out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I want Texas to become a two-party state.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not enough to be dominated by a single political party. Not even the Democratic Party, which used to control everything in sight dating back to the period after the Civil War. They held onto power like a vise until the 1970s, when Republicans began picking off statewide elective offices and then started winning local races where Democrats once reigned supreme.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s all Republican all the time.<\/p>\n

Democrats keep yapping about the next election cycle when they\u2019ll turn the corner, when they\u2019ll start winning back some of those seats. It hasn\u2019t happened \u2026 yet!<\/p>\n

Is this the year? Is this when Texas Democrats can start regaining some of the clout they gave away when the party leadership veered too far to the left to suit many millions of Texans?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have to wait. And see. And hope<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Why is a two-party state preferable to a one-party juggernaut? This comes from my own point of view, given that I consider myself to be a moderate, center-left Democratic-leaning voter.<\/p>\n

Two viable political parties make them both more alert, more receptive to compromise, tacking more toward the middle. That has been the case in Texas, at least during my more than 36 years living here while reporting and commenting on Texas public policy.<\/p>\n

My definition of good government combines the best of both major parties. It also compels them to work with each other, not against<\/em> each other.<\/p>\n

We have in Texas a Donald Trump version of the Republican Party, which is to say that it doesn\u2019t hue to traditional GOP partisan principles. Low taxes? Government fiscal responsibility? Internationalism?<\/p>\n

The Texas GOP follows Trump down some version of the Yellow Brick Road to, well, nowhere in particular<\/em>. Meanwhile, Texas Democrats see this as their best opportunity to pick off a few GOP posts, playing to the anger and perhaps some disappointment among rank-and-file Texas Republicans. Take my word for it, there are a number of them out there wincing, grimacing and gnashing their teeth over the way Donald Trump has chosen to lead the nation.<\/p>\n

Might all of this pave the way for a return to competitive political environment? My hope springs eternal.<\/p>\n\n

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I want Texas to become a two-party state. It\u2019s not enough to be dominated by a single political party. Not even the Democratic Party, which used to control everything in sight dating back to the period after the Civil War. They held onto power like a vise until the 1970s, when Republicans began picking off … Continue reading Wanting two parties to fight it out<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[4603,4622],"class_list":["post-43857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-texas-democrats","tag-texas-gop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43858,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43857\/revisions\/43858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}