Texas Templates of Imbalanced Power

Time for Both Parties to Re-Think

By Greg Moses

“Conservatism breeds every kind of prejudice. I am glad to see radicals raising hell”–Melvin B. Tolson

We’re thinking of Tolson today as we receive news that the State Affairs Committee has voted in favor of the bill to Constitutionalize Homophobia in Texas.

I remember a fine old character who served in the Texas lege during the early fifties. His tenure there was short because he tipped his hand toward civil rights. Or rather, as the story went, he gave voters evidence that he was not terribly reliable as an anti-civil rights dogfighter. Profane terms were in common currency to describe his sin and his character. So he lived out his days as a Justice of the Peace.

In the 6-1-2 committee vote to support a homophobic amendment to the state constitution, I see the same template of Texas politics at work. Texas voters still demand from their reps a sign that civil rights will not creep into the priorities of state. In Texas we demand to be taught lessons in civil rights, we never demand to teach them. This time voters will secure a Constitutional warrant.

While the lone hero in the vote is a Democrat, the uniqueness of the stand must be chalked up to personal integrity rather than party principle. Neither party AS a party has anything to congratulate itself about in this sad, sad, sad affair. History will show the early 21st Century in Texas is playing out as the early 20th, only with issues transposed. But the same visceral appetite is being fed. A vulnerable minority is being demeaned in order to assert some kind of willful moral authority among the majority. And history can march backward quite a distance sometimes.

The Texas Political Journal “Politico” sends a very similar warning in response to a Democrat “hit list” that is being circulated. There are four Democrats being targeted for primary challenges, with the explanation from party organizers that these four have been disloyal to the party by aligning with Republican leadership. They are called Craddick Democrats, Craddick-D’s, or CD’s for short, named for the Republican speaker of the house Tom Craddick.

Of the four targets, three are Hispanic and one is African American. Politico does not dispute that these reps have worked with Republican leadership. One of the targets, for example, gave fine arguments against the Bill to Constitutionalize Homophobia in Texas, but on the day of the committee vote, he did not show up. So this is the kind of political behavior we are talking about.

But Politico raises a question of fairness and suggests that in matters of political discipline the Democratic party is also showing signs of retaining an old template of East Texas power when it fails to single out any conservative white Democrats. Based on small samples of evidence in cyberspace it appears that Politico’s concerns have already been brushed aside, even by so-called progressive Democrats. Politico’s failure to be heard counts as evidence toward his claim that old-style opportunism still rules.

It is not an easy mess to untangle. Democrats already “disloyal” are being treated in ways that raise questions about the value of “loyalty” to such a party in the first place. Lots of people who have done wrong things are strictly punished, but strict punishment can also serve to remind us of all the cases of wrongdoing that get overlooked. This is the template of criminalization from top to bottom in Texas. Whether there is consciousness of these dynamics remains doubtful, even among self-styled progressives.

Another tangled knot involves the relationship between Civil Rights and civil rights. I capitalize Civil Rights when referring to post-Civil War amendments 13, 14, and 15 guaranteeing abolition, equal protection, and voting for African Americans. Texas historian David Williams argues that Civil Rights is nothing but the effort to fulfill these amendments.

In the ongoing effort to fulfill these amendments, some very valuable principles of civil rights have been developed and applied to other important problems such as lesbian/gay liberation. And so long as we continue to pursue Civil Rights, we will reap benefits for civil rights, too. But we can’t forget our Civil Rights principles of equal protection, even when we seek to discipline civil rights defectors. Scapegoating by any other name is still the same ugly thing.

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“Then too,” wrote Tolson, “if you are scared to be radical, you can cheer the man who has the guts to speak out for human rights. You can write him a letter of appreciation and tell him to burn it up.”

Or send her an email and tell her to delete it?

Quotes taken from African American Humanism, edited by Norm Allen, Jr. (Buffalo: Pantheon Books. 1991)