Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
Gov. Greg Abbott is spending $10 million on TV ads to remind Texans that Democrats are scary socialists.
Apparently, after more than a decade in the Governor’s Mansion, that’s the best argument he has left.
The Republican incumbent’s massive new ad buy rolls out the same tired culture-war script Texans have heard for years: Democrats are radical. Democrats are socialists. Democrats are coming to destroy the Texas way of life.
It’s tired bullshit, and, more importantly, it has remarkably little to do with what Texans are worried about.
They’re worried about whether they can afford groceries, housing and healthcare. They’re worried about electricity bills and a power grid strained by massive data centers. They’re worried about public schools. Increasingly, they’re also asking whether state government works for them or for wealthy donors who pour millions into Abbott’s campaign coffers.
And we’re not talking about theoretical concerns here. A University of Texas poll found 64% of Texas voters were “very concerned” about food and consumer prices, 63% said the same about healthcare costs and 56% about housing.
Meanwhile, Abbott’s Democratic challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, has centered her campaign on affordability and corruption — an approach that appears to be resonating. A recent Texas A&M Bush School poll put Abbott at 46% and Hinojosa at 45%, well within its margin of error.
“It seems to me that Abbott is just playing to the base with these ads, and that’s not enough to win,” said University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor. “He’s running on last season’s playbook, and it seems completely out of touch.”
To be sure, there’s a rich irony in Abbott warning voters that Democrats will ruin Texas.
Republicans have controlled every statewide elected office since 1999. The party has dominated both chambers of the Legislature for more than two decades, and Abbott himself has been governor since 2015.
So, if Texas is the dystopian hellscape his ads suggest needs saving, who the fuck does he think has been running the place?
If property taxes are crushing homeowners, if electricity is unaffordable, if schools are struggling and if ordinary Texans increasingly believe their government listens more closely to billionaires than working people, Abbott can’t credibly campaign as the outsider arriving to clean up the mess.
It’s his mess.
After 11 years in office, this bloviating assclown owns Texas government — its successes and its failures. Spending $10 million yelling “socialism” won’t change that fact.
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