The Incredibly Disturbing Texas GOP Agenda Is a Vision for a Theocratic Dystopia

CURRENT AFFAIRS

By Nathan J. Robinson, Editor-in-Chief, July 2022

A note from Choose Democracy Now’s Dale Anderson:

TEXAS GOP 2022 PLATFORM – One thing we’ve learned about today’s radical Republican party is we must take their threats seriously and not discount them as simply hyperbolic pre-election campaigning. The recently published 2022 Texas GOP platform (June 2022) claims Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. Its goals threaten our election process, our freedom of speech, our freedom from religion, and women’s rights. It calls for reversing the civil rights progress achieved by the LGBTQ community over the past 50 years. The platform proposes dismantling major functions of the federal government and defunding the United Nations. It criminalizes discussion of racism and discrimination in public schools and requires “violent” kids be reported to law enforcement.

In this article in CURRENT AFFAIRS, Nathan Robinson describes the Republican plan in detail and its potential consequences. A link to the full Texas GOP platform is provided below. For a deeper understanding of the tactics of the GOP autocratic assault on our state governments, see David Pepper’s book, “Laboratories of Autocracy: a report from behind the lines” published in 2021.

Article Excerpt

The Texas Republican Party held its convention in Houston recently, and they ratified a new party platform. The Texas Tribune reports that at the convention, “the themes ran dark, and activists spoke in apocalyptic, even cataclysmic, terms about the state of the country.”…

… The GOP’s utopia is a place where old people have no secure retirement income, and many will be tricked into investing their savings in dodgy crypto projects. Social Security would be privatized, which scammers will love. So poor old people will live without any support, but nobody will care, because this is the just outcome dictated by Personal Responsibility ethics. We will have a brutal dog-eat-dog society in which the weak are considered responsible for their own misfortune and given no support.

Click here to see the full article.

Click here to read the full GOP Platform Statement. (PDF)

Click here to learn more about the book “Laboratories of Autocracy” by David Pepper.

TEXAS GOP PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS

Repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1965 updated in 1973.
Repeal the 16th Constitutional Amendment (Federal Income Tax)
Repeal the 17th Amendment and allow state legislators to appoint U.S. Senators (rather than having them elected by the citizens)
Criminalize teaching about racism, discrimination, or diversity.
Protect the Electoral College system from reforms such as the National Popular Vote compact.
Abolish the federal departments of Education, the EPA, FDA, etc.
Abolish the Estate Tax.
Withdraw from and defund the United Nations.
Prohibit any federal incentives for clean energy usage.
Prohibit teaching sexual education or sexual health in K-12 public schools.
Allow prayer and bible studies in public school.
Call for mandatory reporting to law enforcement of school children that commit violent acts on school property.
Protect confederate monuments (and return those removed).
Remove power from state officials to respond to a pandemic.
Allow Texans to vote on succession from the Union.
Pass a constitutional amendment to make English the official language of the United States
Limit early voting to 3 days and prohibit mail-in ballots except for the disabled.
Require public universities to provide instruction on Western Civilization, American institutions, and free-market liberty principles.
Defund Planned Parenthood
Prohibit fetal tissue harvesting or stem cell research.

The Incredibly Disturbing Texas GOP Agenda Is a Vision for a Theocratic Dystopia

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