I’m typically not a political activists. I can count on one hand the times I have dressed myself in political gear, adorned my cars with political bumper stickers, or put campaign signs in my front yard. I’m outing myself here as one who has sat on the political sidelines and perhaps shirked my duties to democracy. But, before you trash my patriotism let me say that I served in the United States Navy for over twenty years. Oh, and I vote…does that count?
So why this political blog? I moved back to Texas a couple months before the general elections of 2008 after being away for many years. I wasn’t in touch with Texas politics and really wasn’t all that interested. While I was away, I changed political parties from Republican to Democrat. More on that later. The Senate campaign got my attention for some reason. I guess it was the good-old-boy television commercials of Senator Cornyn. Somehow, they seemed so George Bush. There was so much blue denim and so many country fence lines. It wasn’t until after the election that I found out that Big Bad John was a former Supreme Court Justice and life long attorney. My reaction was that I had been duped by Senator Cornyn’s ‘country boy enjoy a good brew’ persona. Fair enough I guess, because I could have research the candidate a little and found out the truth. In my mind, it really didn’t matter as I was voting the Democratic ticket. I was then and still remain disgusted with the corporate governance entertained my both parties, but particularly the big-oil-war-mongering-Republicans. Then I saw the Big Bad John Cornyn video.
I was immediately struck with the patronizing religious tone of the video clearly designed to appeal to the religious right and hard working Texas folk who, in the end, threw their votes away from their best self interest by re-electing for Senator John Cornyn. Senator Cornyn is not a peoples representative. His agenda has little to do with improving the lives of a majority of Texans, but everything to do with improving the bottom line of big oil, big defense, big pharma, and big health care.
So here I am. This blog is my yard sign, bumper sticker, and political tee for the 2014 Senatorial election. I have no grandiose ideas that it will have much more impact, but I’m doing my tiny bit because Texas deserves better.
