The Battle for the Heart and Soul of Texas

For the first time since 1976 when then incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford spectacularly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, Texas may go Democrat in the upcoming US Presidential election.

Six weeks ago Republican candidate Donald Trump had a 9% lead over Hillary Clinton; now the latest University of Houston poll shows him just 3% to the good, which is within the standard margin of error. By contrast, at this stage of the respective 2008 and 2012 campaigns, John McCain and Mitt Romney had 12 and 16-point leads over their Democrat rivals.

The shift in support is not as surprising as it might sound. Hispanics, who make up 45% of Texas’ population, have registered in substantial numbers this time around, assuring increased support for Clinton, who must have ‘high-fived’ Bill when Trump started mouthing off about the Great Wall of Mexico.

Trump’s record-setting unpopularity also encompasses those who would’ve happily stuck their ‘X’ next to the likes of Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush. The normally right-leaning Houston Chronicle has endorsed Clinton, and – even more damningly – The Dallas Morning News is supporting a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1940 when the paper called it right by backing Franklin D. Roosevelt for a third-term. “He plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best,” read the Morning News editorial. “His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control. Donald Trump is not qualified to serve as president and does not deserve your vote.”

Cancelling his subscription, one angry reader branded editor Mike Wilson “a fucking traitorous piece of shit. Hilary’s responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths and the invasion of third world jihadists. A-hole.” Within 24 hours of the Dallas Morning News pro-Clinton op-ed appearing, the Democrats had a TV ad trumpeting its content on air in Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Momentum was building...

DISSENTING EVANGELICAL VOICES
Explaining Clinton’s increased chance of winning Texas is easy; explaining why Trump is still the favourite is a bit harder. The answer probably lies with conservative, evangelical Christian voters. Although 10 points lower than Mitt Romney last time out, Trump still looks set to get around 67% of the white evangelical vote.

During the nominee campaign, Republican hopeful Dr. Ben Carson described the Democratic-Republican divide in terms of good and evil.“One of the things I’ve learned about Hillary Clinton is that one of her heroes is Saul Alinsky,” Carson told the Republican National Convention. “He wrote a book called Rules For Radicals. On the dedication page it acknowledges ‘Lucifer, the original radical who gained his own kingdom’. Are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?”

It’s easy to scoff at the retired neurosurgeon’s accusation that Hillary is in league with Satan, but having initially polled impressively in the Republican primary, he’s gone on to become one of Trump’s most trusted campaigners.

Carson pales in comparison, though, to Alex Jones, the fire and brimstone presenter of a radio show that airs coast to coast on 160 stations. “She is an abject demon from Hell that as soon as she gets into power is going to try to destroy the planet,” the Dallas man said of Hillary last month, before turning his attentions to Obama.

“There are dozens of videos and photos of him having flies land on him, indoors, at all times of year, and he’ll be next to hundreds of people and no one has flies on them. I’ve been told by high-up folks, ‘Obama and Hillary both smell like sulphur’. She’s a frickin’ demon and she stinks and so does Obama. They smell like hell.”

And, yes, he was being serious. Last week’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the state’s so called ‘pro-life’ abortion law is another curve-ball that could help Trump. Whilst welcoming the decision, senior Texas Democrats are worried that it will galvanise his popularity among evangelicals.

“In the absence of more conservative justices, rulings are going the other way,” said Franklin Graham, the CEO of the Bill Graham Evangelistic Association. “This is another example of how critical the positions of Supreme Court Justices are to our country. Remember, the next president we elect will appoint one justice immediately, and then be able to possibly appoint up to five more during his or her term. Those appointments are of paramount importance to the future of this country. We need judges who will consider God’s laws and His Word - He is the ultimate Judge for each one of us and for the nation.

“The Republican presumptive nominee Donald J. Trump has already released a list of those he would choose from, so that America can carefully review that and see where they stand on important issues. But we haven’t seen a list from the Democratic presumptive nominee. Secretary Hillary Clinton – where’s your list?”

In justifying his support for Trump, Dallas TV pastor Robert Jeffress reflects: “It’s absolutely foolish to do anything that would allow Hillary Clinton to become the next President of the United States. At least Donald Trump has voiced a belief in a pro-life movement, he has at least talked about religious liberty. You don’t hear either things coming from the lips of Hillary Clinton.”

The subtext being, “Trump mightn’t be a good Christian, but he’ll do enough when he gets in to justify us supporting him.”

There are dissenting evangelical voices, too, with the former Director of the Texan Ministerial Alliance, Deborah Fikes, supporting Hillary. “Mr. Trump poses a real concern and misleads evangelicals on the feasibility of being able to get pro-life Supreme Court nominees past the Senate Judiciary Committee and a full Senate vote,” she proffers.

Along with the main campaign stories, Texan talk radio has got in a right old tizzy about Linda Bailey, a high-school librarian in Longview, who was suspended without pay for two days for placing cardboard cutouts of Hillary and Donald at the library entrance, which were adorned with respective speech bubbles saying, “This is the door to use. Only deplorables use the other door!” and “Sign in or you’ll be deported!” “To hear that Longview High School students were upset and to hear that some of them felt like they don’t belong here – like a certain race doesn’t belong here – is sickening,” local immigration attorney, Jose Sanchez, told the school board.

Also facing suspension are more than a dozen members of the San Antonio Police Department, all of them white, who were pictured in a Trump campaign video wearing, “Make America Great Again” caps – which turned out to be made in China.

In an open letter to the Republican Party, the City of San Antonio said: “Video of this calculated political maneuver is posted on your candidate’s Twitter account and is essentially a political ad. City policy prohibits the Officers from participating in this activity while acting in their capacity as city employees. The Officers will be appropriately disciplined.”

A fair degree of mud may have been slung during this year’s Irish General Election, but it was an intra-party love-in compared to the lumps Clinton and Trump have been tearing off each other.

Carly Simon not only gave permission for her 1972 hit, ‘You’re So Vain’, to be used in a pro-Clinton ‘The Dangerous Vanity and Narcissism of Donald Trump’ ad, but also re-recorded the “Your scarf, it was apricot” line to read: “Your face, it was apricot.”

“I think there’s pretty strong evidence that he’s a psychopath,” proclaims Glenn Beck, the conservative commentator who’s normally to the right of Genghis Khan but has nailed his colours to the Clinton mast, in the clip.

Scenting electoral blood, the Democrats are spending $1 million in Texas on an ad that shows Trump appearing to mock a disabled newspaper reporter at a campaign rally by wildly flailing his arms and shouting in a Quasimodo-style voice; and another large chunk of money on a collage of Klu Klux Klan leaders and other white supremacists saying that a Trump victory would be like having one of their own in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In a district where 70% of the population is Hispanic, Democrat Pete Gallego has been running spot ads in which Trump calls Mexicans “rapists” and “murderers”.

The GOP has retaliated with a ‘Crooked Hillary Lying Again’ ad, which does indeed find her being economical with the truth about her emailing habits, and another that proclaims, “Hillary Clinton doesn’t have the fortitude, strength or stamina to lead in our world,” as footage of her fainting at the 9/11 memorial rolls in the background. While Trump surely expected the Democrats to go at him all guns blazing, San Antonio Republican Senator Will Hurd’s comments will have wounded him. “I never endorsed Donald Trump,” Hurd said, “and I cannot in good conscience support or vote for a man who degrades women, insults minorities and has no clear path to keep our country safe. He should step aside for a true conservative to beat Hillary Clinton.”

Although deciding to stay-on as his Texas campaign chairman, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was moved to add: “There is absolutely no excuse to ever talk about women in such a crude and demeaning way.”

The soul of Texas is mercilessly exposed in the public drama of this most peculiar of Presidential elections. The only question remaining is: which way will the Lone Star State fall?