Conservatism Is The Crisis
135 dead and all they care about is power.
Conservatism is a doctrine of harm. Full stop.
I’m done pretending it’s just another opinion. I’m done entertaining it as a respectable ideology. It is a system built on control, cruelty, and the preservation of power for the few at the expense of the many. And in Texas, while families are still digging through the wreckage, while mothers bury their children, the GOP is busy redrawing the lines of power.
Not to save lives. Not to fix what broke. But to cement their rule.
Because they believe, openly, proudly, that conservatism deserves to reign, no matter how many of us have to suffer under it.
That’s not just implied. It’s not some backroom confession.
It’s what Republican Senator Phil King said yesterday. (30-second clip)
It’s the exact same thing Tarrant County Tim O’Hare judge said months ago. They don’t care if you live or drown, as long as their ideology stays in charge.
They’re gerrymandering with a manifesto. And the floodwaters haven’t even dried.
And the Republican Legislators have already reached a fever pitch on Twitter.
From the July 4th floods, 135 dead, including 37 children, and yet most Legislative Republicans don’t care. They’re focused on the same old red-meat bullshit they focus on every time they’re in Austin. The same things they were focused on in the regular session, last session, and the session before that.
37 dead children, and Legislative Republicans are tweeting about abortion bans, “the deep state,” and banning teacher associations from lobbying. Children drowned. Entire communities wiped out. None of them made flood relief a priority. Not one word about the dead. Just the same bloodless list of right-wing fantasy priorities.
These men are not grieving with Texas. And if you want to understand what conservatism as a governing doctrine really means, look at what they say in a moment of crisis.
Republicans want to steal the maps and steal our votes because they think their system of government is better.
It’s the Republican system of neglect that turned the July 4th flood into a catastrophe. It wasn’t just about the weather. This flood exposed a system that had been broken by ideological neglect and deliberate inaction. Here’s how conservative policies directly contributed to 135 deaths, including 37 children:
FEMA had lost 20% of its staff under the Trump administration, erasing preparedness training and leaving emergency systems under‑equipped.
House Bill 13, aimed at funding grants for sirens and local alerts, failed in the Legislature months before the flood.
Kerr County chose not to install sirens. Its leaders claimed the cost was too high, even after being repeatedly warned about flood risk.
At least one firefighter requested a CodeRED evacuation alert at 4:22 a.m., but local authorities delayed for six hours. The first community alert came nearly 90 minutes later; others didn’t arrive until late morning.
Rural zones with poor cell coverage weren’t reached at all, and campers at Camp Mystic weren’t allowed to have phones at all.
Billions in federal aid and a $27 billion Rainy Day Fund were left unspent, as GOP leaders failed to address known vulnerabilities.
The Texas Tribune and ProPublica report that years of legislative proposals to improve flood preparedness simply died in committee.
Local and state figures dismissed flood risk, even after experiencing historical flash flood events, removed camp properties from flood maps, and ignored wearable warnings.
At EVERY SINGLE LEVEL, Republican governance failed. Across the board, these were Conservative political decisions that cost 135 people their lives.
It was Republicans who ignored every alarm.
It was Republicans who vetoed every grant.
It was Republicans who silenced every siren.
These were all intentional Conservative policy choices. And now Phil King says they want to steal YOUR vote, because they think THIS is a better way to govern.
As Texas drowns, these same lawmakers are redrawing political boundaries. They declare conservatism is superior as they actively kill preparedness. They want more power, even as the bodies pile up.
That is the price of their doctrine of harm.
It’s intentional cruelty hidden in plain sight. And that’s precisely why we can’t let them win, in maps, in power, or in memory.
Today, Senators are back at the Capitol holding a hearing to ban THC.
Not regulate it. Ban it. I tried to tune in this morning, but as soon as I heard Senator Charles Perry talking about the “devil’s lettuce” and how it causes psychosis, I had to tune out. Because I can’t even articulate how much it infuriates me that some stuffed-shirt, stick-up-his-ass Republican from West Texas is going to tell millions of adults in Texas (most of whom have been getting high their entire life) what he thinks THC is going to do to them because the alcohol lobby shoved enough money in his pocket.
And now, after all that death, after the avoidable horror of July 4, what’s the priority for the Texas GOP?
Not grieving with the families.
Not rebuilding the systems that failed.
Not emergency relief. Not sirens. Not high ground. Not even acknowledgment.
Instead, they’re sitting in the Capitol holding a hearing to ban THC.
While they line their pockets with alcohol lobby money and keep the prison-industrial complex fed with bodies.
Because nothing says “compassionate conservatism” like stuffing more people in jail for using the same plant that treats PTSD, anxiety, pain, and grief, you know, the grief Texans are drowning in right now.
They’re not banning THC to protect you. They’re doing it to protect their donors.
Because for Republicans, policy is profit.
And profit always comes before people. Even dead children.
And here’s where I’m stuck.
Why isn’t this flood their top priority?
Why isn’t anything being done to prevent the next one?
Why are 37 dead children not enough to make them stop and say, “Something has to change?”
Thirty-seven tiny coffins.
Thirty-seven names that won’t grow up, won’t fall in love, won’t start families of their own.
Thirty-seven souls taken by a flood made deadlier by Republican decisions and now buried beneath a state government too busy banning weed and rigging elections to care.
That’s what conservatism has become.
It doesn’t grieve. It doesn’t reflect. It doesn’t rebuild.
It doubles down.
On cruelty. On control. On cash.
And it will keep doing it, again and again, until we fight like hell to stop it.
Tomorrow, they will hold a hearing on the floods, and local orgs will be there protesting Republicans’ response.
I’m also getting word that there will be rallies in Austin, Houston, and Arlington leading up to the field redistricting hearings later this week and next. Here are the RSVP links for those:
Austin 7/24 12:30 p.m.
Houston 7/26 9:30 a.m.
Arlington 7/28 3:30 p.m.
Additionally, tomorrow, July 23, at 7 p.m., the National Democratic Redistricting Committee will hold a special Texas virtual emergency briefing. Sign up for that here.
And while Republicans ban THC and redraw maps, Texans are the ones showing up.
Ordinary people. Mutual aid groups. Volunteers. The folks handing out blankets and food. Those who dragged their neighbors to safety while the state stayed silent.
Tomorrow, they’ll be at the Capitol. Not to beg. Not to plead. But to remind the Senate and House Committees what real leadership looks like.
Because it wasn’t the Governor who answered the cries for help.
It wasn’t Briscoe Cain or Phil King or Mayes Middleton.
It was street medics. Veterans. Community organizers. It was us.
Texans took care of each other when conservative government failed.
And now the people who failed us want more power.
They want to jail the grieving, silence the desperate, and lock the ballot box before we can hold them accountable.
But we remember. And we will not let them bury this with the bodies.
We will name every child. We will name every lie. And we will fight like hell, because our lives depend on it.
August 23: Last day of special session
November 4: Constitutional/TX18/SD09 Election
Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.
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because thru evolutionary processes the GOP has become the party of Sociopaths
Talarico profiled on the Briefing MSNBC right now