Christopher Hooks
By Christopher Hooks:
Winning Isn’t Enough. The Next President Needs to be a Doer.
Why Don Huffines’ Destiny May Depend on Other Districts (and ‘Dragon Ball Z’)
Don Huffines won state Senate District 16 from incumbent John Carona in a bitterly contested Republican primary in 2014, when no Democrat ran, so this will be Huffines’ first general election. His district covers much of suburban North Dallas. If … Read More
Will Sarah Davis’ Odd-Duck District Keep the Legislature’s Most Moderate Republican?
The Republican Party of Texas was born in places like House District 134, which covers Houston’s Bellaire and West University Place — educated, wealthy, professional. This is part of the district that George H.W. Bush was elected to represent in Congress … Read More
The Soul-Crushing Emptiness of the Texas Governor’s Race
Greg Abbott was frustratingly vague and dodgy in the one and only gubernatorial debate, delivering the tacit message that he has little to do with the governance of the state.
The race for Texas governor this year is a deadening absurdity between two low-energy politicians with spotty records. An empty suit with a gargantuan checking account versus an empty campaign run by a candidate who is filling the slot for … Read More
The Violence of Trump’s Words
How do we assess blame for the consequences of dehumanizing rhetoric?
From the start, the essence of Donald Trump’s political project has been the dehumanization of others. When he descended the gilded escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 to kick off his presidential campaign, he famously told a national TV … Read More
Why is Texas’ Leading GOP Think Tank Suddenly All-In on an Anti-Wind Crusade?
The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s latest PR blitz is the kind of thing you’d expect to see from a seedy advocacy group, not a would-be policy braintrust.
If you were a newcomer trying to figure out how Texas politics works, a good start would be to look at the state’s two leading think tanks. The center-left Center for Public Policy Priorities, consigned to an office in North … Read More
Will Alex Jones Pay for Peddling Far-Right Sandy Hook Conspiracies?
The Austin judge presiding over two defamation cases against the InfoWars founder indicated there’s a solid chance Jones will have to go to trial — again.
Illustration/Sunny Sone Few people in our era would seem to have as unbalanced a karmic checkbook as Alex Jones, the loudest man in Texas. For years, long before “fake news” was a thing, Jones, who started his career as the … Read More
I Watched Dinesh D’Souza’s New Movie with the Travis County GOP
D’Souza is lying to his audiences on a vast scale, making them more immune to a shared reality.
Dinesh D’Souza’s first words in his new movie, Death of a Nation: Can We Save America A Second Time?, have the unmistakable ring of accidental truth. “When I was a boy,” he says in voiceover, “I was curious about the … Read More
On the Road With Beto: Is O’Rourke’s Personality-Driven Campaign Reaching the Right Voters?
On the Road With Beto: Is O’Rourke’s Personality-Driven Campaign Reaching the Right Voters? The next several months will be an experiment at break-neck speed to see if O’Rourke can overcome low name recognition and build a rapport with non-white voters. … Read More
Dan Patrick, the Person, is Trying to Save the World from Dan Patrick, the Politician
When Patrick is presented with collective problems, his response is inevitably to respond in terms of individual action.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick announced last week that he would personally donate “up to 10” metal detectors to Santa Fe ISD, the school district where eight students and two teachers were killed by a mass shooter in May. As a … Read More