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