Is Fort Bend County Judge Office in Play?

I’ve been wondering for some time why I am seeing so many campaign signs to re-elect Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert. It’s one of the loudest signs I have ever seen. So much color that they must cost a pretty penny to make.

The common wisdom is that Fort Bend County is a safe Republican county. Only 4 county-wide offices are occupied by Democrats. So I thought that maybe it was due to that recent Chronicle article that gave a loud voice to U of H demographer Richard Murray’s opinion that Fort Bend County is about to tip from Republican- to Democratic-majority voters.

But now, seeing the article in the Chronicle’s Fort Bend blog, UltimateFortBend, I see that there is a new wrinkle in the County Judge race.

A write-in candidate.

A bat-guano crazy Teabagger “Constitutional Republican” write-in candidate.

Her name is, or actually was, Chris Meeks. That is her maiden name. Her married name is so unusual that running as a write-in candidate with a name like Christine Zubizarreta, as whe claims on her campaign website, would be a disadvantage “because a 'write in' needs an easy, short name.”

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, my favorite write-in candidate from 2006, would have been surprised to hear that since the county elections office credited her with the votes of those who simply wrote in “SSG.” And she also got credited with the vote of the person who wrote in “Dracula c**t” (rhymes with bunt).

But I think this is simply par for the course, here. This candidate for county judge is a slice – or two – short of a loaf.

I even think I saw her once at a Republican love fest. I think it was her. She had some really interesting ideas about the world economy. The kind of ideas you hear from callers who call into all night radio talk shows.

What is interesting is that in the Chron article she is reported to have said that “she's been asked to drop out of the race for fear she may split Republican votes.”

Oh yeah.

What could be finer than to have the Teabagger Republicans, now referred to herein as Regressive Republicans split the Republican vote? With so many Democratic straight ticket voters out there, a loss of even 2% of the vote could spell a victory for Democratic challenger Rodrigo Carreon. And Chris Meeks, or Christine Zubizarreta, has refused to drop out, saying that she “will drop out if Judge Hebert puts in writing that he'll no longer collect property taxes.”

Yep, you heard it. Meeks is running on a single issue: eliminating property taxes. It even says that on her campaign signs (most of which are illegally posted on the public right-of -ways).

A red meat issue like that is bound to attract the “something-for-nothing” Teabagger crowd.

I shiver in anticipation.

Regression Comes of Age in the Republican Party

I like to consider myself a Progressive Liberal. That is, someone with core beliefs that the best thing we can do as a people is see to the weakest of us, and raise them up. That the best thing we can do as a people is to make health, wealth and happiness available to the greatest number. That the best thing we can do as a people is to guarantee that everyone gets a fair share and a square deal with opportunity for all.

That’s what lies at the core of a Progressive. More or less.

The Republicans, or shall we say now, the conservatives don’t have a progressive branch unless you consider moderate Republicans the progressive branch of that party. But now, I definitely think that a new branch of the Republican Party has formed this year. A branch that is so anti-progressive that the only word to describe it is “Regressive.”

Regressive Conservativism has come of age in the Republican Party.

I became convinced of that this week. Earlier, when conservatives were railing about the 14th Amendment, a matter of settled law for 140 plus years, I thought it was just theatrics. Then when the Bush doctrine of privatizing Medicare and allowing Social Security to play in the stock market (heck, why not go whole hog and let them play the ponies? A hit on an exacta, now that’s a great return on your investment) I thought they were just trying to impress Wall Street. When the lunatic fringe suggested that the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency needed to be abolished, I thought that they were just catering to the Teabaggers. But then when people railed about refusing to turn in their census forms because . . . well just because . . . I thought it was just another way to tell that Black President they weren’t going to play ball if he continued to insist on pitching.

But I have been in denial, haven’t I? These people are serious. This week, the new flavor is abolishing the minimum wage.

Just now, when the economy needs to get more money into the hands of people, so they’ll spend it, people are now talking of putting less money into the hands of people, and actually think that’s a good idea.

This is just craziness.

All of these ideas, very regressive ideas, are part and parcel of the new Regressive Wing of the Republican Party.

And I bet they’re not done. In undoing a century and a half of progress, the Regressives can have a lot on their plate. Areas for future consideration:

• Abolish votes for women.
• Abolish the 40 hour work week.
• Overturn Child Labor Laws. Make the spoiled brats work in the mines. It was good enough for my grandfather after all.
• Abolish the USDA. It should be up to the meat packing industry to police itself, and salmonella.
• Overturn Roe v. Wade. Make getting an abortion a capital offense.
• Reinstitute prayer in public schools.
• And last but certainly not least, abolish the two-party system. One is enough and it’s just too expensive to allow a dissenting party to run a campaign. As a matter of fact, why not regress all the way to 1776 and bring back the British Monarchy?

God save the Queen!