{"id":13101,"date":"2023-08-05T16:16:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T16:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13101"},"modified":"2023-08-05T16:16:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T16:16:34","slug":"texas-republicans-just-dont-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13101","title":{"rendered":"Texas Republicans just don\u2019t get it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Jennifer Rubin<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Another\nmass shooting in Texas. Once more, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is, oh, so concerned and sad<\/a>, as new laws go into effect\nweakening gun regulation. (\u201cI am heartbroken by the crying of the people of the\nstate of Texas. I am tired of the dying of the people of the state of Texas.\nToo many Texans are in mourning, too many Texans have lost their lives.\u201d) Sen.\nTed Cruz (R-Tex.) sent out the standard \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d statement\n(\u201clifting up in prayer all the victims, their families, and the entire\nMidland-Odessa community\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And apparently recognizing that contrary the GOP talking point that it is never the right time to have the gun debate, state representative Republican Matt Schaefer posted on Facebook the kind of statement that the vast majority of Americans would find infuriating: \u201cAs an elected official with a vote in Austin, let me tell you what I am NOT going to do. I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent.\u201d Overwhelmingly, percentages of Americans disagree and favor measures such as background checks, red-flag laws and assault weapons bans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican Party of Texas faces a challenge in 2020 that the gun debate only aggravates. An increase in Hispanic voters combined with population growth in major urban centers and suburbia, which now trends blue in Texas and across the United States, could well put Texas in play in the 2020 presidential race and in down-ballot races. Compelling Democratic presidential and Senate candidates certainly could compete with white, male gun-absolutist Republican incumbents, President Trump and Sen. John Cornyn (R).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texas blue-wave[ nightmare gained momentum with three Republican retirements in competitive congressional districts. Democrats now are looking for pickups in the Texas\u2019s 22nd (Rep. Pete Olson is departing), 23rd (Rep. Will Hurd is leaving) and 24th (Kenny Marchant is retiring as well).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans\u2019\ncollapse in the Texas suburbs \u2014 which is a major factor in making the state\ncompetitive \u2014 will only accelerate with its defiant attitude on any gun-safety\nmeasure. (Of suburban voters in the recent Quinnipiac national poll, I recently noted<\/a>, \u201cAmong those voters, 96 percent\nfavor background checks, 62 percent favor an assault weapons ban, 82 percent\nfavor red flag laws, and 85 percent support gun licensing.\u201d) Republicans\u2019\nintransigence in the face of the state\u2019s second mass shooting in less than a\nmonth will only make matters worse for a party struggling to avoid alienating a\nkey component of winning Republican coalitions in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nnot just guns. Texas Republicans have and other serious problems, such as the\nparty\u2019s inhumane treatment of migrant children and families. In July 2018<\/a>, a poll on family separation found,\n\u201cOverall, 28 percent of Texas voters support the practice \u2014 16 percent strongly\nso \u2014 while 57 percent oppose it \u2014 44 percent strongly so.\u201d Here the party\u2019s\nproblem with women voters is stark:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall, 64 percent of women voters oppose the separation practice, and 50 percent of the men agree with them. Among Democrats, there\u2019s some accord, with 86 percent of women and 78 percent of men opposing family separations.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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On the Republican side, however, the differences are stark \u2014 and help explain why so many Republican politicians have shifted their positions since the separations became widely known. While 56 percent of Republican men favor splitting parents and children at illegal entry points on the border and 30 percent oppose it, a plurality of Republican women are against the practice: 37 percent favor it and 42 percent oppose it.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou wanted a way to put off female suburban voters, you couldn\u2019t be more\neffective than to take an unyielding, indignant stance in opposition to gun\nsafety and to embrace snatching children from their parents and keeping them in\nsqualid conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t\nTexas Republicans talk to women? Perhaps not as much as they should. Consider\nthe composition of the Republican Party in Texas \u2014 a male governor, lieutenant\ngovernor and state attorney general; two male U.S. senators and with the\nexception of a single<\/em> member of the House (Kay Granger) all Republican\nrepresentatives. Texas suburban women, already distressed by the party\u2019s rigid\ngun and mean-spirited immigration policy, look around and see virtually no\nwomen in senior Republican ranks. They might just get the idea the GOP doesn\u2019t\nrepresent them or their values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve argued, Democrats would be smart to run a woman at the top of the ticket in 2020 with strong suburban appeal. Even in places such as Texas, a woman championing humane immigration policies and reasonable gun safety might be pushing on an empty door in the suburbs. Women are already fleeing the GOP \u2014 and the Republican Party\u2019s reaction to gun safety is only going to increase the exodus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Rubin writes opinions for The Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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