State of politics
Regarding “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, without evidence of disenfranchised voters, calls for new Harris County election,” (Feb. 7): I grew up in Chicago and was an obligatory Democrat. As I got older, even before I moved to Texas, I took on more conservative values and began to vote for Republicans as well as Democrats. I am still an independent voter, and I’m extremely disappointed in what has happened to the politicians in this country. They’ve forgotten that they were elected by the people to serve the people and not to be the exclusive pawns of their party.
The party line, at least in Texas, is now moving further right, further white and further stubborn. Our triumvirate of Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton have been some of the worst of those who must have their way. Abbott wants to take public school money and divert it to private schools, many of which also include religious education. Since the public schools and teachers are underfunded anyway, this solves nothing.
Patrick, based on no facts at all, wants to take public money and have a new election for Harris County (because it’s more Democratic?), without any real idea of how many voters, if any, may have not had an opportunity to vote. Does he just want to have won by a larger margin?
And don’t get me started on Paxton who loves to spend taxpayer money on lawsuits, many of them frivolous, while managing to delay his own legal problems ad infinitum.
I long for the day when at least some politicians were statesmen.
Len Kaplan, Houston