Former Texas governor Ann Richards has passed. It's early in the morning and I'm not sure I have the words yet but I'd like to say some things about Texas, the source of so many questionable things of late. My mother grew up in rural East Texas before running away to the big city and getting involved with the.. um.. wrong sort.. we tend to produce in this town resulting eventually in the legacy of wrongness I strive each day to live up to. Maybe, then, it's because my blood is so tainted that I feel obligated to say a few words about Governor Richards and Texas politics in general. Ann Richards reminded me a lot of the kind of Texans in Mom's side of the family. Big hearted, loud, extremely sharp witted, but ultimately modest self-effacing and generous.
Richards was the inheritor of a fading strand of folksy progressivism peculiar to Texas politics that I've always admired. For much of the Twentieth Century (at least during the two generations preceding my own) progressives ran strong in Texas and did so with a kind of common sense populist swagger and humor which the left seems almost incapable of harnessing these days. Some Texas progressives of note include former Senator Ralph Yarborough, longtime Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, former Texas state pol, columnist, talk show host, and general wit Jim Hightower, and perhaps my favorite columnist working today Molly Ivins.
The left in American politics today has been silenced and marginalized partially through corporate media hostility and the steady collapse of the Democratic party as an effective (or even willing) advocate for the poor and working classes. But mostly the left has lost its mojo because it has lost its backbone.. something Texas progressives like Ann Richards had in spades. Lets hope she didn't take it with her.
Update: More from Ray
Update 2: Still more from Ian
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