The Republican Party Runs On Lies, And Brian Harrison Proves It

How Brian Harrison’s lies follow the script of fascist propaganda.

Liars run Texas. From the governor’s mansion to the statehouse floor, deception is the currency of power, and dishonesty is a job requirement. But even in this cesspool of bad faith and propaganda, Representative Brian Harrison (R-HD10) stands out as the absolute worst, a man who never lets the truth get in the way of a good lie.

Harrison’s claim that the budget represents “out-of-control spending” is a deliberate lie meant to manipulate low-information voters and shift blame away from the real problem: Republicans have systematically underfunded every essential service in this state. Texas schools are collapsing, Medicaid backlogs are leaving people without healthcare, and public defenders are so overwhelmed that innocent people are rotting in jail—not because of overspending, but because of Republican-led starvation of public services.

This is a necessary takedown of Brian Harrison’s deception, his insatiable thirst for attention, and the fascist propaganda tactics he uses to manipulate the public while helping the wealthy strip Texas for parts. Let’s break it down.

Harrison is lying about the budget increase.

This tweet is textbook Brian Harrison propaganda. Deceptive, inflammatory, and utterly detached from reality.

Texas is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. The population has increased by more than 10 million people since 2000, and the state added over four million residents in just the last decade. More people means:

• More students in public schools

• More patients in hospitals and Medicaid programs

• More drivers on roads and bridges that need maintenance

• More crime cases for courts to process

• More demand for water, energy, and infrastructure

This population surge requires increased state spending to maintain essential services at the same level. Yet, despite this budget increase, many agencies remain woefully underfunded.

Billions of dollars are spent on Republican political stunts, not public services.

Much of this increased GR spending isn’t improving schools, healthcare, or infrastructure. Instead, billions have been siphoned into high-profile Republican gimmicks designed to appeal to right-wing voters, including:

• Operation Lone Star – Gov. Greg Abbott’s border enforcement program has cost taxpayers over $11 billion since 2021. This includes funding for the National Guard, razor-wire fencing, and maintaining a separate legal system to prosecute migrants.

• Migrant Busing – The state has spent hundreds of millions to bus migrants to cities like New York and Chicago as a political stunt despite Texas facing massive public service shortages at home.

• Alamo Restoration – The Legislature has allocated over $400 million to the Alamo, with another $150 million requested, far more than what’s being invested in some of the state’s most urgent social crises.

Complaining about budget increases while agencies barely function is disingenuous, at best. Texas isn’t spending too much. It’s failing to fund the services that matter. Schools are still underfunded. The Department of Family and Protective Services is overwhelmed. Medicaid and food assistance programs are in shambles. The legal systems in Texas are collapsing.

Instead of addressing these crises, Harrison is screaming about the total dollar amount going up without acknowledging that Texas’ needs have grown exponentially, and much of the new spending isn’t even going toward fixing broken public services.

Then Harrison has the audacity to blame Democrats.

Republicans in Austin spend money like Republicans. The way Republicans always have, pouring billions into corporate tax breaks, privatization schemes, and wasteful political stunts while starving public schools, healthcare, and infrastructure and then turning around and pretending to be fiscal conservatives when the budget numbers go up.

Harrison’s outrage about an increase in GR spending ignores why that number has increased and where the money is going. If he were serious about fiscal responsibility, he’d focus on the waste in Abbott’s border operations, corporate tax breaks, and political stunts, not that state agencies can barely function due to years of underfunding.

His argument is not only misleading. It’s a bad faith distraction from the real issue: Texas Republicans have deliberately gutted public services, and now they want to pretend they’re being responsible by complaining about the cost of running a barely functioning state.

Brian Harrison cut the video we made fun of him over. And he tried to paint himself as a victim of the establishment.

Remember last week when Harrison gave a grandstanding speech on the front mic, and his Republican peer Carl Tepper (R-HD84) called him “self-serving?”

It was hilarious. Here’s the full clip if you missed it:

Harrison cut all the embarrassing parts out and has been passing it off on social media as if he’s under attack from the “Republican Establishment.”

The responses are hilarious. They thank him for standing up and fighting, calling him a Conservatism hero, and feeding his ego.

Why is America so divided? Because of Republicans like Brian Harrison, who lies constantly, and the uninformed, who eat it up and believe him. Harrison is far from the only one; he’s just the most obnoxious in Austin, but you also have Congresspeople like Beth Van Duyne (TX24), who constantly lies and pats herself on the back for the lies she tells. Case in point:

Maybe this is just who the Republican Party is now. Trump normalized being a liar.

Do societies learn from history?

In 1933, the Nazis lied about a communist plot with the Reichstag Fire, using it as a pretext to seize emergency powers and crack down on opposition. History books were literally rewritten under Joseph Stalin. Francisco Franco’s regime systematically portrayed leftists, anarchists, and other dissenters as internal enemies to justify widespread repression.

A propaganda poster under fascist Spain:

Source

Lying is a tool of fascist propaganda.

Lies aren’t just a byproduct of fascism. They’re a core feature of how it operates. Fascist movements rely on manufactured enemies, revisionist history, and a constant flood of disinformation to maintain power. Truth is not just inconvenient to fascists. It is an existential threat to their control.

The Trump-era Republican Party has fully embraced this model. From Trump’s election lies to the relentless fabrications of his sycophants in Congress and Austin, we have to be honest about what we are witnessing: this is textbook fascism.

The Republican Party’s descent into fascist falsehoods.

Lying to consolidate power isn’t new, but the modern GOP has refined it into an art form. Just like their fascist predecessors, today’s Republicans:

• Rewrite history to justify their rule. Whether it’s downplaying slavery’s role in the Civil War, denying the January 6th insurrection, or pretending the 2020 election was stolen.

• Fabricate enemies to distract from their failures. Targeting immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, public school teachers, and “woke corporations” instead of addressing actual economic and social crises.

• Repeat lies until they become truth to their base, whether it’s the “radical left” conspiracy theory, the myth that Biden was an authoritarian, or the constant falsehoods about crime rates and elections.

These tactics mirror the strategies used by fascists throughout history.

And if Trumpism is fascism, Texas is ground zero.

The Trump loyalists in Washington and their ideological clones in Austin are not just engaging in standard political rhetoric. They are following a well-worn fascist script.

This is not conservatism.
This is not populism.
This is not “just politics.”

This is fascism, and we need to call it what it is.

Brian Harrison is a clown, but his lies are not a joke.

It’s easy to laugh at Brian Harrison. His desperate need for attention, performative outrage, and laughably bad attempts at propaganda make him seem more like a joke than a serious political figure.

Harrison isn’t just some random backbencher screaming into the void. He is a symptom of a much larger disease. A Republican Party that has abandoned any pretense of governance in favor of a relentless cycle of lies, culture wars, and authoritarian creep. His constant misinformation isn’t just an attempt to make headlines. It’s part of a broader effort to undermine faith in government while paving the way for full-scale privatization and corporate control.

And what about the people who prop him up? The ones who flood his replies with praise, calling him a “fighter” while swallowing every lie he tells?

That’s where the real danger lies. Harrison’s lies would be meaningless if people didn’t believe them. But they do because they want to. Because the modern right doesn’t value truth. It values rage. Harrison gives them an enemy to hate, a false reality to live in, and a comforting delusion that all their problems are someone else’s fault.

We’ve seen this before. Fascist movements have always relied on propaganda, grievance, and blind loyalty to maintain their grip on power. Today’s GOP and people like Brian Harrison follow that script to the letter.

So, while it’s tempting to dismiss Harrison as an unserious man, his brand of propaganda is serious, and the people who believe it are even more so. The lies he tells today will shape the policies of tomorrow. The false narratives he spreads will be used to justify future attacks on democracy, public services, and fundamental human rights.

And That is why we have to keep calling him and his entire movement what they are. Dangerous frauds, wrapped in fascist rhetoric, selling an authoritarian future to an audience that is all too eager to buy in.

• March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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