Opinion: For All Their Wins, Abbott, Patrick, and Paxton Have Lost So Much More

As an election clerk (for the first time ever!) during the early voting in late October and early November just passed, I was not allowed, nor did I want, to advise voters as to which candidate (or proposition) they should vote for. I was there to assist them with the voting process: signing in, how the voting machines worked, using the ballot scanner, and lastly (and the most fun, especially if a kid was along), giving them an "I Voted" or "Yo Voté" sticker to put on their shirt or blouse.

But if I could have advised them, I would have literally shouted, "Don't vote for Abbott, Paxton, or Patrick!"  That Turgid Trio – like DeSantis in Florida, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, and No. 45 everywhere – have weaponized bigotry and dis- and misinformation, and they are all big-time losers. (Just as an aside, I have vowed never to say or write No. 45's name until he is locked away in a federal prison for the rest of his natural life, for multiple crimes, including treason, since organizing and inciting an insurrection is a treasonous act against the government of the United States.) The Turgid Trio may have won their races on Nov. 8, 2022, but they are still losers, in my humble opinion.

And what have they lost? Compassion, empathy, inclusivity, tolerance, the way of Jesus of Nazareth, and any pretense of being truly representative of Texas and Texans. I believe they are terrified of losing the votes of the 25% or so of Texans, and U.S. citizens, who are white nationalists/supremacists and Second Amendment fanatics. So they support the banning of books and teaching of anything about race or slavery in our public schools; accuse parents of transgender youth who are trying to get their kids gender affirming care of child abuse; pass an anti-abortion law that bans it at six weeks, when most pregnant women don't even know they are pregnant, and turns public members into vigilantes who can collect up to $10,000 from anyone who even gives an abortion seeker a ride to the clinic; pass a so-called "constitutionacarry" measure that allows anyone 21 years or older to carry a handgun concealed with no permit and no training; and fight any attempt to raise the age to buy any firearm to 21 (18-year-olds can now buy two AR-15s on their 18th birthday, as the shooter in Uvalde did); plus oppose any measures that would take assault-style weapons out of the hands of anyone who is not active-duty military or in law enforcement. I am a lifelong hunter and gun owner, but also a Vietnam veteran, and I know those guns were designed with one purpose: to allow someone to kill multiple human beings as quickly as possible. Also, just for good measure, the Turgid Trio has done nothing substantive to fix the electrical grid. They blamed the deadly disaster of February 2021 on some ERCOT executive and fired him, with great fanfare. But if we have another killer storm like that one, the same disaster will happen. 

Wake up, Texans.

Dr. Al Lindsey is an 82-year-old native Texan; husband, father, grandfather; retired family doctor; Vietnam veteran; volunteer teacher’s aide at elementary schools; and “Yellow Dog” Democrat. The sentiments expressed in this op-ed are strictly his own; and he neither pretends nor wants to be speaking for either the Elections or any other division of the Travis County District Clerk’s Office.