Thanks to all of us, we’ve survived the latest round of elections in the state, and based on that, we will have a new senator representing our desires in Washington, D.C.
Or, at least that’s the theory.
We have an opportunity here to exercise the authority we have with an official that hasn’t yet been acclimatized to the festering swamp that is our nation’s capital.
Yes, I realize that the candidates we have to choose from aren’t ideal: Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate, has the patina of a man who has been in the minor leagues of politics and is heading down the same path as the rest of the Upper Chamber. He has some baggage from his time as Texas Attorney General, having been impeached, but not convicted, of malfeasance in office, and has taken flak over his treatment of his political allies.
On the Democrat side, political newcomer James Talarico has the air of a man who will follow the whims of his liberal overlords, which seems completely out of sync with the majority of Texas, except maybe the denizens of Austin, Houston and Dallas.
These, of course, are my opinions based on my research. Please do your own investigation and make your own conclusions.
The other side of this is the complete, and some would say long overdue, rebuke of long-serving politicians Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Al Green. Voters felt Cornyn was too much one of the in crowd and lost the faith of Texans; Green, who was battling another sitting representative after Texas redistricted this year, lost his re-election bid to a younger Christian Menefee. My feeling is that his over-the-top antics on the House floor and dislike of cryptocurrency was his undoing.
For many years, I have said that voting is currently the one sure way to get a message across to the establishment body politic that they’ve lost the plot. This year’s election in Texas certainly made that point clear and should be a bellwether for the rest of the country.
Hopefully, though, we haven’t just changed faces, but hearts as well.
I’ve said this was a unique opportunity for Texas in that we will have a new fellow in the Senate, but it will mean we must be more vigilant and more active in the process of government. Just because we voted doesn’t mean we’re done letting our desires be known.
Whoever gets the final nod, we must continue to keep the pressure on and continue to let our currently elected legislators — at every level — know what is expected of them.
Our Constitution claims to have created a government of, for and by the people, which means all of us people, not just 535 yahoos sitting pretty in the halls of Congress (or the 181 fellers in Austin).
So good on you for exercising your rights. Let’s keep it up.
Next stop: November general election.
Tony Farkas is editor of the Trinity County News-Standard and the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
