Texas GOP Platform Makes It Clear They Want To Go Back to the 1840s

Events at the Texas GOP conference the weekend of July 16–17 in Houston are all over the news. In addition to booing Senator John Cornyn over saying he wanted to make “sure that violent criminals and the mentally ill cannot buy firearms” and trying physically attack Senator Ted Cruz and House Representative Dan Crenshaw, the members of the party from across the state met to formalize an even-farther-right direction for the Texas GOP in the party platform.

For those who never participated in student government, Model UN or Model Arab League, a resolution is a formal declaration adopted by a committee. So, all resolutions that pass in a conference like this are then adopted by the Texas Republican Party as priorities until the next meeting. This is supposed to be something to hold members accountable, and the language offers a guide to writing real legislation. The full 40-page party platform document revealed 273 political “issues” that the Texas GOP hopes to address, and 2 formal resolutions.

Some of the biggest news came from the fact that, in formalizing their position on these issues, the members of the Texas GOP stated that life begins at fertilization and want to include Christianity teaching in schools, declare porn a “public health crisis,” abolish the Department of Education, and only recognize two biological sexes (despite the science on the contrary). They also rejected the fact that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election, via one of their two formal resolutions.

While many high-profile Republicans timidly rebuked this farce or stayed silent, former President Donald Trump applauded them on the backwardly named app Truth Social. If you’re half paying attention, this is not surprising. Across various polling, 30% of Americans believe the same kind of things the Texas GOP is saying, and when you account for political affiliation, it’s overwhelmingly Republicans. Texas is the second-most populous state, without accounting for the many undocumented people and the reshuffling due to COVID-19 that happened during a census year.

Who gets to be an American and the right to vote

Another alarming element that’s been under-discussed is that the platform calls for the repeal of the 14th and 17th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Regarding the 17th Amendment, the Texas GOP wants U.S. Senators to be picked by state legislatures instead of direct elections by voters. So, instead of giving us citizens the right to vote out Ted Cruz in 2024 and John Cornyn in 2027, Texas GOP wants to consolidate power by delegating that authority to the state legislature, which comes from very gerrymandered map drawing, and we’re hardly alone in that. Right now, they can only do that temporarily, if something happens to the sitting senator, and only until an election can be called.

The 14th Amendment states (in section one) that citizenship is guaranteed to every person born in the U.S. The Texas GOP wants to amend the 14th to only include those with “at least one biological parent who is a US citizen.” This is an obvious attempt at population control and a step towards acting on the Great Replacement Theory popularized by white Supremacists through the years, including prime-time Fox News and internet forums. Known as the first major immigration legislation (this was before the Chinese Exclusion Act nearly 15 years later), the 14th Amendment was a part of a trio of amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) to clarify Black Americans’ new place in the U.S.

Speaking of the right to vote, the platform also demands the repeal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While I’m personally very torn on this because the legislation needs major updates and enforcements (including around Houston, where the GOP convention was held, such as Harris, Galveston, and Waller Counties), this repeal doesn’t come with new legislation to improve things. It’s purely a step backwards, not a good-faith attempt to address lingering issues with voting rights. That’s hardly the only instance of Texas Republicans giving the middle finger to marginalized groups in their platform, including a push to “repeal hate crime laws” and restore all Confederate monuments.

The Nuclear option

Lots of the resolutions and issues are more of the same diluting of voter power and stripping of rights. Because they know they can’t get their way on everything, the Texas GOP has successfully established a nuclear option, a.k.a. Issue 224—a possible option to just remove Texas from the rest of the U.S. by demanding a 2023 referendum on whether or not to secede.

I don’t have much to add to this because it speaks for itself. Texas’ original independence battle was in the name of white supremacy and bringing back slavery. Its first break from the U.S., when it joined the Confederacy in the Civil War, was more of the same. Just the imagined threat of an organized Democratic base interested in being proactive on equality is too much for those that stand to lose power if the world gets a little better for marginalized groups.

While I doubt the secession would pass on a referendum, I think the margin would be too close for comfort, and the Texas GOP is going nowhere good with this platform.

(featured image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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