The Deepening Extremism in the GOP Lieutenant Governor Primary

[n2doc]

One of the afflictions of the politics beat is that conflict is coveted and covered, even when the story is about consensus. Reporters naturally gravitate (and try to create) disagreements among candidates and parties. “Fight! Fight! Fight” is the mantra. That’s not a bad instinct, but what happens when all the candidates agree on something—and that something is extreme?

We have a lieutenant governor’s race on the GOP side in which the four candidates agree on certain things that not so long ago were confined to the political fringe. They are even now not mainstream beliefs (defined roughly as beliefs held by a majority or large plurality of the public) but have become rapidly de rigueur in Republican primaries. To wit:

At a televised debate this week, all four candidates (David Dewhurst, Dan Patrick, Jerry Patterson and Todd Staples) agreed that abortions should be banned even in cases of rape or incest. It was not clear if any of them would make exceptions even for the life of the mother.

...

In other words, the likely next lieutenant governor of Texas has staked out the most extreme position possible on abortion. And notably, it’s not one shared by very many people, including Republicans. As Jim Henson and Joshua Blank with the Texas Tribune noted yesterday, “only 16 percent of Republicans (compared to 12 percent of Texans overall) said that abortion should never be permitted.”


more

http://www.texasobserver.org/deepening-extremism-lt-governor-primary/

[Thinkingabout]

1. I was somewhat disappointed when so many much time in the debate was spent on

the abortion issue. Here was four guys who thought their lot in life was to force births on women. I listened as they declared "always err on the side of life" but there was not a follow up question on providing health care, food, shelter and education to all babies born in Texas. I did not learn about other issues important to Texans and only back up a decision to never vote for any of the four. I was wondering if there will be a debate for our Democrat candidates for Lt governor so I can see how they stand on the issues.

The GOP wonders why we complain about the war on women and the things we hear coming out of their mouths is proof of their continuous war on women. They need to stay out of our bedrooms, stay out of our medical decision and stay out of who one may love.

[Gothmog]

2. I am predicting that Dan Patrick is going to be the GOP nominee

Patrick is truly crazy and so he is going to get the tea party vote. Dewhurst is too sane and mainstream to really appeal to the idiots who vote in the GOP primary.

Leticia is a strong candidate and could beat Dan Patrick