Texas Politics & Government: Ideas and Institutions

Recently, a post on Facebook listed 31 effects of Project 2025, based on the proposals by the project's authors: Mandate for Leadership . The proposals list policy changes that a conservative president should promote. This is the post and the Facebook warning: The fact check was performed by The Dispatch , which boasts that it is "the home for fact-based reporting on politics, policy, world events, religion, culture, economics, and law informed by conservative principles." Meta employs several fact-checkers for content, and The Dispatch is one of them. So, let's check the fact checker. The claim is that the effect of proposals relating to income taxes is to "higher taxes for the working class."   Alex Demas, author of the fact check, rates the statement: “Partly False. Under the plan’s tax proposal, Americans making less than $168,600 would pay a 15 percent income tax. While this rate would be a tax cut for many working Americans, individuals currently in th...

  There are few books whose contents have had as big an impact on my view of politics and government as American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony by Samuel P. Huntington. During graduate studies at SIU-Carbondale in the late 1960s, I used Huntington's book on political development, Political Order in Changing Societies , to guide my master's thesis. Later, teaching at Austin Community College (ACC), I was drawn to American Politics: T he Promise of Disharmony . In teaching, I've always believed that students need a compelling framework or theory on which to hang the concepts they learn in studying politics and government. Huntington provides such a framework. I've written about this framework previously on this blog. In this post, I want to demonstrate how a large portion of the nation has adopted a radical revision of what Huntington described as the American Creed: five ideas that formed the promise and goal of American politics and government. Three of the five ...

  In the contests that I've been following, Governor Abbott picked up four votes for school vouchers, which should be enough to secure the program in the next regular session. Dade Phelan survived his challenge, but others did not. Now, the emphasis turns to what kind of program can pass the legislature. Stay tuned!

  There are several contests that I will be following during the May 28th Republican primary run-off elections. The most important is the contest in which the incumbent speaker of the House, Dade Phelan, is opposed by GOP activist David Covey. In the first primary, Covey bested Phelan but did not receive a majority of the vote. These are all of the contests that I will be following. The future of the Republican Party of Texas hangs in the balance. Will the traditional Republicans win? Or will the MAGA wing win? It's probably also the time to consider why Texas doesn't support Instant Runoff or Ranked Choice Voting in elections that require the winning candidate to receive a majority of the vote.  

  On April 30th, early voting ended for the May 5th local elections in Travis County, Texas. The total vote was 35,683, which is 3.98 percent of registered voters in Travis County. If 60 percent of the total vote was cast during the early voting period, then approximately 6.64 percent of registered voters will constitute the total vote. See the chart below for the cumulative percentage.

  After six days of early voting in Travis County, Texas, only 2.30 percent of registered voters have cast a ballot. For all of Travis County, there are three members of the Central Appraisal District Board of Directors who are up for election in positions created by the Texas legislature. There are also elections for various local offices up for election in other special districts in Travis County. Here are the cumulative results by date of early voting: