Puppeteers, puppets

Regarding “Austin’s the new Kremlin! A cartoon guide to vouchers and puppet masters Wilks and Dunn. (Opinion),” (Oct. 2): When may we expect a cartoon guide to George Soros, puppeteer of the last three Democratic presidential candidates and numerous liberal causes?

Surely his hold over Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden due to millions donated through super PACs would be cartoon-worthy, not to mention his founding of the Open Society Foundations and his quiet overhaul of the U.S. justice system.

C’mon editorial staff, play fair. We’ve had cartoon guides for the Ken Paxton trial and for Greg Abbott’s school vouchers. Isn’t it time to shine a light on the other side of the aisle?

J. Purtill, Richmond

The political cartoon is superb. It captures the apparent “Austin-for-hire” that was demonstrated during the Paxton impeachment.

What helps make this possible are the citizens who think Texas politics are just a sport, and they elect to be fans no matter what the team does.

I have a relative who drove a bus in Chicago. One day she had a passenger who wanted to talk politics, and my relative tried to ignore her, since a driver needs to concentrate on driving. Finally my relative said to the passenger, “Well, who will you vote for in this election?”

The passenger replied she would vote for a certain candidate since he was Republican and, since the passenger was Republican, she had to vote for that candidate. No thought for what the candidate stood for, only that they were on the same “sports team.”

David Norman, Katy

I was hoping the Chronicle would publish another cartoon guide by Nick Anderson after his fantastic “Paxton primer” on Sept. 3. The primer is a creative and unvarnished refresher course on why Paxton was rightfully impeached by the Texas House.

Thanks go to the Houston Chronicle and ReformAustin.org for collaborating on the cartoon guide project. I was thrilled to discover Anderson’s new “Austin’s the new Kremlin!” creation.

Dunn and Wilks are pushing their vision of white Christian nationalism at their church pulpits and at our state house. School vouchers are the centerpiece of their agenda. They want to starve public schools by siphoning off tax dollars into vouchers that parents can use for private school tuition and for homeschooling. As they weaken public schools, their agenda also includes getting conservative Christians elected to public school boards to control what other children learn. Dunn and Wilks back Paxton, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican state legislators who will do their bidding.

The Chronicle has been stellar in covering the grip that Dunn and Wilks have on Republican lawmakers. Chris Tomlinson connected the dots between Republican state senators who receive donations from Dunn and Wilks in his June 4 column, “Oil tycoons bankroll Paxton defenders.” The Chronicle’s haunting editorial, “Storm’s brewing after acquittal” referenced Patrick receiving $3 million from Defend Texas Liberty, backed by Paxton beneficiary Tim Dunn. Four days after Paxton was acquitted in the Texas Senate, the headline in the Chronicle was “Abbott vows special session on vouchers.” In this article by Edward McKinley, Abbott is cited threatening lawmakers with primary challengers if they don’t get on board.

The Texas Republican Party’s fundamentalist wing can only be stopped by voters. No doubt this is a hard fight with gerrymandering. But the elections for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general are statewide. Religious bigots and those willing to bend to their will should not be running Texas.

Linda Phenix, Houston

Thank you for the full-page cartoon guide. Mr. Anderson has summed up the voucher predicament the legislators have found themselves in for the last decade. His presentation is so simple and direct that perhaps even the legislators can understand it.

Most Texans across all county lines know that their neighborhood public schools are the foundation of their communities, and of our nation. These free schools take our very diverse children and turn them into productive citizens in the most successful democracy in world history.

Most Texans know that it is a bad idea to send public tax dollars to unregulated private and religious schools. Most know that we don’t need to create a welfare system for private school entrepreneurs, especially when we are in the bottom 10 states in state funding for education and we haven’t raised teacher pay to even the national average.

What a shame that the governor and his lieutenant have yoked themselves to the wealthy oligarchs who want our tax dollars to fund their own theocracies. What a shame that Texas does such a poor job of setting ethical standards for politicians that it allows extremists to bully their way into control.

I nominate Nick Anderson for the Pulitzer Prize!

Nancy Lomax, Houston