Growth, Diversity & One Party Politics? These Not So United States (TX Part 3)

The Purple Principle

Is democracy still democracy when one party wins all the elections? That’s a question we’ll be asking around the country on our state-level identity and polarization series, since 37 state “trifectas,” or one-party governments, are now in office. It’s also a major point of discussion with Dr. James Henson, Director of The Texas Politics Project, in our third episode on the biggest and proudest of the Republican trifectas: Texas.

“The Democrats have gone from being the disadvantaged party to a structurally hobbled party," observes Henson, who’s been analyzing and polling on Texas politics for over 15 years at UT Austin. "You get in a position where you're just so structurally disadvantaged that it almost changes the fundamental nature of political competition.”

Which might cause one to believe that political identity in Texas is as uniformly red as this legislation. But according to a major recent research project by the group More In Common, there is far more diversity of viewpoint in Texas, even among those with strong Texas identities than would be expected from its politics.

TPP speaks with Global Research Director Stephen Hawkins about the origin of More in Common’s first state-level identity project and with the report’s co-author, Paul Oshinski, on the finding of seven distinct social “Threads of Texas,” from far left “Lone Star Progressives” to far right “Heritage Defenders,” with five interesting gradations somewhere in between.

Think Texas is a ruby red state? Well, yes, if you look only at election results and legislative output. But not if you look beyond, to the rapidly growing, changing and diversifying society beneath one-party rule.

Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests

James Henson, Director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin

Stephen Hawkins, Global Director of Research at More in Common

Paul Oshinski, Research Fellow at More in Common and co-author of the Threads of Texas report

More in Common and Hidden Tribes US on Twitter

Additional Resources

Listen to our full Texas series: fluentknowledge.com/texas-series

• Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks goes into effect as the U.S. Supreme Court takes no action (Texas Tribune)
• Gov. Greg Abbott signs bill to allow Texans to carry handguns without a permit (Austin American-Statesmen)
• 2021 Bum Steer of the Year: The Texas Democratic Party (Texas Monthly)
• Partisan Ideological Identification (Texas Politics Project)
• Negative Partisanship in Texas Stifles Potential Crossover Voting (Texas Politics Project)
• How Well is Democracy Working in Texas Today? (Texas Politics Project)
• Direction of Texas Trend (Texas Politics Project)
• State government trifectas - Ballotpedia
• Henry Cisneros Biography
• Threads of Texas - Key Issues
• Hidden Tribes of America Report
• Threads of Texas - The 7 Segments
• Texans used mutual aid to help their communities (Texas Tribune)
• These Americans Are Done With Politics (New York Times)
• Nearly half of all Texans support abortion ban after 6 weeks, new poll finds (KXAN)
• Few Texans believe voting fraud is common, UT/TT poll shows (Texas Tribune)
• The Brief: Straus' retirement announcement reverberates through Capitol (Texas Tribune)
• Barbara Jordan - U.S. House of Representatives

Join Us for Premium Content:

Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple

Patreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcast

Find us online!

Twitter: @purpleprincipl

Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast

Instagram: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast

Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQ

Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja