Breaking news yesterday that the collective IQ of Texas voters is about to be reduced by 10 points....
Patrick and Van de Putte agree on Sept. 24 debate. David Saleh Rauf, Chron.com
This is going to be hailed endlessly as good news for "Texas voters" and as a wonderful example of the political process at work.
In truth, what we're getting is an on-stage snark-fest between Texas number one demagogue and a politician with a fundamental misunderstanding of most key issues moderated by the Ego-in-Chief of the news-ish Texas Tribune.
Hopefully we'll only be subjected to one of these displays. Unless you're living under a rock you know that Van de Putte is going to decry Patrick as "out of touch" with Texas voters and trying to execute a 'war on women' by disallowing them subsidized female hygiene products (meanwhile, ISIS in Iraq is executing a real war on women which makes the Davis/Van de Putte histrionics look silly and petty by comparison) while Patrick is going to seek to paint Van de Putte as a "tax and spend liberal" who is trying to burn every copy of the Bible and outlaw Patrick's The Second Most Important Book You Will Ever Read using both to build shelters and provide heat for disease-ridden illegal immigrants.
One only hopes that Patrick's outsized sense of importance can be reigned in long enough to allow his staff to ignore Van de Putte's request for FOUR ADDITIONAL DEBATES.
I'm not really sure the State of Texas needs to see this. Instead of our best and brightest the Lite Guv race is shining a light on everything that's wrong with Texas politics. The collapse of the Democrats have led to Republican incumbents not being held accountable which has led to a group of squishy incumbents in leadership roles. The moderation, and downright unlikeable nature, of David Dewhurst allowed Dan Patrick to win in the primary while the lack of bench strength for the Democrats has allowed a candidate with a name that fits the "demographics is destiny" meme to get the nod despite very little evidence of competency, a basic understanding of good governance or any semblance of knowledge regarding what it is the State actually does.
Sept 24th is going to provide Texans with a showdown between a demagogue and a demographic darling.
The Ego in Chief is going to have a field day with this.
