Texas

TexasTowelie

(112,125 posts) Thu Jun 4, 2015, 03:37 AM Jun 2015

Texas' New Brand: Nutsoville

By Carol Morgan

In the world of business and marketing, the concept of “brand” is more important than ever in the jargon-heavy existence of corporate-culture-speak. Simply put, a brand is the defined personality of a product, service, company, organization, individual or even, a state in America. It’s as much about what you do as what you claim to be.

In the misty landscapes of the past, Texas’ brand was one of independent thinking, tough-minded resolve and love thy neighbor. We were a little rough around the edges, but we meant well and our intentions were noble. The turn of the millennia began the slow conversion of Texas’ heart and soul and the transformation was complete with the changing of Austin’s executive guard and the ultra-conservative 84th Legislature.

Texas now has a global reputation as Nutsoville. We are seen by others as irrational, illogical, and unreasonable, in sharp contrast to its former stalwart and reasonable brand. If you have any doubts about Texas as the land of insanity take a look at the comments here. A freedom is actually a restriction (depending on who you listen to) and a law creates a problem where there was none before. Nothing is what it seems and creating grand delusions is an essential part of a legislator’s job.

Robert Reich did an excellent job of describing the specifics of how Texas is the state of denial. One day our Governor added to the paranoia of Jade Helm, a melodramatic falsehood dreamed up by hate radio’s nut jobs, and the next day, he begged for federal aid for the Texas floods.

It was awkward, I’m sure.

I wish I had a dollar for every media report card, both humorous and serious, since the sine die and the altero die, altero die (love that dead language!) which tells all of us what we should think of the 84th Legislature. There’s not enough space to list the bad bills that passed and the good bills that should have passed, but didn’t. Or even the problems that were not addressed, such as payday lending, ethics, and anything related to educational—except to tear it down just a little more.

The campus carry issue was about the worst, but then the absurdity kicked in when Greg Abbott vowed to recruit Pulitzer Award professors to Texas’ universities. Seriously, Governor? Or that cringing moment when one university Chancellor said it could have been worse.

In Texas, it's become routine to be grateful for the crumbs leftover from the Legislative barbeque.

To hear the Texas Tea Party tell it, however, the 84th was not nearly conservative enough. I guess they were expecting Hitler? The torch-rifle-carrying mob in Tarrant County even sent a letter to express their dissatisfaction and warn the Legislature that they had better watch their back.

If there’s any consolation for this failing legislative session (or even gratitude), it’s for the hateful legislation that failed to pass, rather than the bills that did. So here’s to those legislators who acted as a line of defense to keep bad things from happening to good Texans. They may not have received the satisfaction of passing their personal bills, but they served their constituents.

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Carol Morgan is a career/college counselor, a freelance writer, and former Democratic candidate for the Texas House. She is the award-winning author of two books: Of Tapestry, Time and Tears and Liberal in Lubbock. Email Carol at [email protected] , follow her on Twitter and on Facebook or visit her writer’s blog at www.carolmorgan.org

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