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| No longer Virginia Jew 5159--now apparently I'm Texas Heathn 6247 |
After spending most of June & July teaching economics at Piedmont Virginia Community College, I drove back to upstate New York where with the help of a good friend (Ed!), I packed most of Jasmine's & my earthly belongings out of another good friend's barn (Stephen!) and into a POD, which went hence to Texas ahead of (although ultimately behind) us. Jasmine & I met up in South Jersey, where we left VJW 5158 at the old homestead, and then sallied forth across a number of states with a gill-filled CRV (and a cat burrowing his way through boxes, tote-bags, and other paraphernalia) first to Wisconsin, and ultimately here to Lubbock, Texas.
Our last stop before hitting our new home was Amarillo, where we enjoyed the Big Texan Steak Ranch, though I held myself to an 18 ouncer, and we got this swell bumper sticker, which joins Bernie on the back of the ol' CRV.
Now that I'm here, attached as a Visiting Instructor to the Texas Tech Political Science Department, I've got some interesting professional obligations. One is to help write the online course content for the university's version of what the Texas Legislature calls "GOVT 2306 Texas Government (Texas constitution & topics)". All Texas college students must take this course, which should involve the following "Learning Outcomes":
- Explain the origin and development of the Texas constitution.
- Describe state and local political systems and their relationship with the federal government.
- Describe separation of powers and checks and balances in both theory and practice in Texas.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of Texas government.
- Evaluate the role of public opinion, interest groups, and political parties in Texas.
- Analyze the state and local election process.
- Identify the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
- Analyze issues, policies and political culture of Texas.
I'm very excited for the endeavor, and hoping to fit in some politics, too, while I'm in the area--although it's been challenging so far to find much in the way of electoral activity to devote myself to.
Since the incumbent Republican congressman here is retiring, I thought perhaps it might be an momentous juncture in West Texas politics, as these are generally opportune moments for a challenger, especially a Democrat, in a presidential election year! Apparently, though, it was not opportune enough of a moment, in the eyes of Democrats, to bother to put forward a candidate to run against former George W. Bush staffer & Texas Tech alum & former vice-chancellor Jodey Arrington. At least, back in December of 2015, when the deadline for declaring candidacies passed, it didn't seem very opportune. Thus, the Texas 19th is one of seven (out of 25) Republican-controlled districts where Democrats apparently went gentle into that good (?) night, without even "some dude" to present a token barrier to continued right-wing Congressional dominance.
But wait! The Democratic party is hardly the only party of the left purports to stand against the conservative agenda! The Green party apparently has a candidate in the race (at least according to Ballotpedia), although when I tried to find his web-site, the closest I got was a facebook page from 2014, and no response to my queries through it.
My next thought was to get involved in the Lubbock County Democratic Party, as a I had such a wonderful (if brief) experience with the open and diverse Albemarle County Democratic Party in Virginia during my all-too-short time as a resident there. Alas, the Lubbock Democrats' online presence amounts to something called a "parse error: syntax error" and some other machine-speak--though a cached version of the site does yield a phone number. I called and left a message with the Chair about a week and a half ago . . . no response yet.
We'll see what can be unearthed in terms of electoral activity here in Lubbock in the coming months, but I'm starting to get the sense that if Texan political culture ever does embrace competition at the ballot-box, it's not General Election day. It may only be found in the primaries, where more than a half-century ago, it was only the Democratic primary that mattered, while today it may be only the Republican primary (and its run-off, which we missed by three months).
More updates coming soon!
But wait! The Democratic party is hardly the only party of the left purports to stand against the conservative agenda! The Green party apparently has a candidate in the race (at least according to Ballotpedia), although when I tried to find his web-site, the closest I got was a facebook page from 2014, and no response to my queries through it.
My next thought was to get involved in the Lubbock County Democratic Party, as a I had such a wonderful (if brief) experience with the open and diverse Albemarle County Democratic Party in Virginia during my all-too-short time as a resident there. Alas, the Lubbock Democrats' online presence amounts to something called a "parse error: syntax error" and some other machine-speak--though a cached version of the site does yield a phone number. I called and left a message with the Chair about a week and a half ago . . . no response yet.
We'll see what can be unearthed in terms of electoral activity here in Lubbock in the coming months, but I'm starting to get the sense that if Texan political culture ever does embrace competition at the ballot-box, it's not General Election day. It may only be found in the primaries, where more than a half-century ago, it was only the Democratic primary that mattered, while today it may be only the Republican primary (and its run-off, which we missed by three months).
More updates coming soon!
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