Trans-Stupidity
As Uncle Hugh used to say, “Nothing is more confusing than the things you thought you knew.”
As Uncle Hugh used to say, “Nothing is more confusing than the things you thought you knew.”
Don’t take the death of the Trans-Texas Corridor too seriously; Texans are still, as a group, pretty stupid.
Yet we are surprisingly un-stupid about some things, according to this summer’s opinion poll by the University of Texas government department.
But first, the latest sort of news about the Spanish Trace dreams of Lying Tricky Ricky Perry, the governor Texas didn’t want.
While Cintra-Zachary, the Madrid-to-San Antonio extortion consortium, won’t get all of the $3.5 billion in Texan’s tax dollars to build the full I-35 toll roads across houses, farms and fields, they’re going to get enough.
The contract has been canceled, but no one is saying how much money is already allocated to the Perry providers, those who directly or indirectly plan to profit from the toll road scam, the latter being everyone from Walmart, big businesses which won’t have to pay taxes to build and maintain highways; to rest area builders and operators with all those captive travelers.
Out-of-pocket guesstimates are around $100 million to Cintas-Zachery for work thus far, including Texas 130 (the toll loop around Austin).
Or enough to give a full four-year college scholarship to every graduating senior in Texas next year.
Not that we’d want something like that.
Especially considering that the end of the Perry era is far from certain.
Certain being a small town in East Texas very near Uncertain.
The latest Rasmussen Reports show that Aggie Cheerleader Perry and Texas Cheerleader Hutchison are in a virtual tie among likely Republican voters.
Forty percent for the girl with the megaphone; 38 for the guy with the pom-poms.
Nineteen percent are undecided and the rest support Debra Medina.
The margin is 3.5 percent.
Exactly the same results among Republican voters polled in April who said they thought Tricky had a good idea about seceding from the Union.
And that Pickett’s Charge was a sound military maneuver.
Those are the Perry or Perish Republicans, numerically identical to the 39 percent who liked Tricky Ricky in the last gubernatorial free-for-idiots election.
They will vote for him even if he’s in a coma or the penitentiary.
Considering the margin, all Tricky has to do is convince a handful of Branch Davidians that Medina is an illegal alien, and he’s in.
But the UT poll mentioned earlier may be more telling than Rasmussen.
First, it covers much more ground and measures Texans, not just Texas Republicans with blood in their teeth about the governor’s race.
Only 86 percent of those polled are registered to vote. Thirteen percent were not, and two didn’t know.
Yes, two percent of us do not know whether they are registered to vote.
And drive down the interstate with their turn signal blinking.
The most important issue in America, Texans said, is the economy.
On a scale of the most important issues facing America, health care gets six percent and immigration only four, but gay marriage, education, the environment and abortion are considered important by a mere one percent each.
Fewer people are concerned about gay marriage and illegal immigration than know whether they are registered to vote.
Afghanistan-Pakistan and Iraq incidentally, got zero percent.
When it comes to the most important issues facing Texas, however, 18 percent considered illegal immigration most important and the economy was second. Again, health care got six percent. The morality issues remained below the non-cognitive registered voters.
Now for some surprises:
* “Intelligent” describes Barack Obama well. 70 percent!
* He provides strong leadership. 54 percent.
* Among registered voters, Perry leads Hutchison ten percentage points. No word on those who don’t know whether they are registered.
* 64 percent of Democrats are undecided in the governor’s race.
* Almost 82 percent consider poverty at least somewhat a problem in Texas.
* 54 percent want the legislature to set tuition rates again, rather than college administrators.
* 42 percent favor making college tuition affordable for all citizens and an additional 16 percent favor making it affordable to the most needy citizens.
* We seem about equally divided on bilingual education for non-English speakers.
* Only 32 percent oppose gay marriage or civil unions. 29 percent support same-sex marriage; 32 favor civil unions.
* Only 51 percent are native Texans.
* Only 36 percent know who Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is.
* 90 percent claim some religious affiliation (24 percent are Catholic and 15 percent are Baptist; the rest are in single figures); 33 percent said they are “born again,” but only 18 percent say they attend regular services; 23 percent said they attend a few times a month. Ten percent said they are spiritual, but don’t go to church.
* Three percent don’t know whether they are religious. Presumably, they looked to see if it was listed on their voter registration cards.
And finally, those who consider themselves Democrats or Republicans are equally divided, with 26 percent claiming to be independent. Most of those, of course, tend to vote Republican, although their support is soft when third-party candidates are available. The more looney the candidate, the more available the independents.
So why do Texans vote with such rabid right lunacy?
It’s only a guess, mind you, but I’d say it has something to do with fear.
A majority said they aren’t particularly worried about things politically. We’re probably going to be all right.
To the rest. WE’RE DOOMED TO PERDITION AND ONLY A SUICIDE MISSION TO THE HEART OF THE SUN CAN SAVE US FROM TAX-AND-SPEND NEGRO ZOMBIE ILLEGAL ALIENS!
Or maybe the percentage of those who do not know whether we are religious or whether we are registered to vote is greater than this poll indicates.
INFO
UT Poll
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/poll/files/200906-summary.pdf
