If you’ve scrolled social media, watched TV or checked your mail in the weeks leading up to the May 26 primary runoff — that is, if you are in any way sentient — you’ve been subjected to the upside down of American politics.
Mudslinging and meanness are nothing new to tough campaigns. But some of the entries this round have so little basis in reality that we have to ask just how stupid these guys think we are. Because if they are relying on voters to actually be persuaded by this garbage, either they’re crazy or we are worse off than we thought.
In this land of nod, we are supposed to believe that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is a communist leftie and, oh, Sen. John Cornyn is against President Donald Trump. Or that state Sen. Mayes Middleton is a secret supporter of Shariah or U.S. Rep. Chip Roy is actually part of the pro-transgender lobby.
Apart from the departure from anything related to truth, there is a new low of cruelty that is detached from how any normal person would treat another human being.
Take, for instance, Cornyn’s attack on Paxton, a man this Editorial Board thinks doesn’t belong in public office.
Cornyn’s campaign Facebook page recently posted a set of fake notes referencing the AG’s alleged infidelity that could only be read as humiliating to Paxton’s estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.
One note reads: “to the most special woman in my life.” The word “woman” is crossed out and replaced with “women.” It’s signed Dave P, an alias Paxton allegedly used for Uber rides associated with an affair. That name, too, is crossed out and replaced with “Ken.” In another addressed to “Angela” Ken says “Sorry for the affair (s)” and then wishes her “Happy Mother’s Day.”
Paxton has held himself up as the moral arbiter for us all, so his alleged infidelity is fair game. But dragging his wife into it by posting fake love notes addressed to her, on Mother’s Day? It’s indecent.
Then there is the constant stream of distortions that add up to outright lies.
In the Republican runoff for Texas Attorney General, Roy’s campaign has dubbed Middleton “Mecca Mayes,” saying he sponsored a bill that will allow “Sharia cities” in Texas. Middleton, in fact, has been a lead scaremonger about Shariah.
Meanwhile, Middleton’s campaign wrote in the description of an ad posted to YouTube that Roy “sided with the radical transgender lobby,” because he authored “an amendment that allows child transgender surgeries.”
Roy was actually doing what he always does, attempting to limit any expansion of federal power. Pretending Roy supports gender transition surgeries for children is about as believable as calling Middleton “Mecca Mayes.” But truth, nuance or even basic respect for the recipient of these ads has no place in Texas politics now.
Back in the U.S. Senate primary, a political ad from Paxton claims that Cornyn “joined Joe Biden to take away our gun rights,” a reference to Cornyn’s role in passing a bipartisan gun safety law. That measure came in the wake of the Uvalde massacre and was so tepid it barely amounted to an acknowledgement of the reach of gun violence. No difference. Cornyn made the mistake of attempting to address an actual problem. That’s all the Paxton team needs.
If you believe most of the ads circulating in this GOP runoff, you’d think some of the staunchest conservatives Texas has to offer have somehow become left-wing extremists intent on destroying America.
We don’t know what’s scarier: the fact that these guys think some of us will believe this nonsense or the reality that some of us will.
Have thoughts about this?