Not Even 'Angry Conservatives' Likes 'Watching Grass Wilt' Because Of State Cuts
Ross Ramsey made Friday's National edition with 'Message of a New Crop of Republican Candidates: It's Not Just About Cuts,' a liberal pro-spending editorial in the guise of a news story showing even Texas Republicans (i.e. "angry conservatives") starting to regret 'watching grass wilt' and government not functioning allegedly due to brutal state budget cuts. Ramsey is executive editor of the Texas Tribune, a left-leaning nonprofit news organization based in Austin that has a content partnership with the Times.
Two years ago, the Republican primary was teeming with angry conservatives stirred up by federal fiscal policy. Not all of them were Tea Party members, but all of them seemed to get labeled that way. Whatever the description, their effect on last year's legislative session was clear.
Nobody was going to talk positively about spending, and nobody was going to lift a finger on a new tax.
That's what the voters apparently wanted, and that's what they got.
It didn't suit all the conservatives in Texas government and politics, and some of them are betting that voters, now that they are seeing the results, won't like it, either. The hypothesis here - and an election is a fast way to test it - is that even conservatives want government to function. Maybe they don't like the state's cuts in education and health and human services, or sitting in crowded traffic on underbuilt highway systems, or watching grass wilt in the face of a record drought in a state whose government won't finance its water plan.
