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As a lifelong Texan who now lives in California— Texas has absolutely no problem overriding municipal and county governments, the biggest of which are solidly b
by thebradbain 3y ago
As a lifelong Texan who now lives in California— Texas has absolutely no problem overriding municipal and county governments, the biggest of which are solidly blue. It’s a pattern they’ve repeated for over 20 years, often more so as a show of force than anything that affects things at a state level:
- Local “bag charges” and “bag bans” on non-reusable plastic bags at grocery stores were outlawed in 2018.
- Anything that has to do with attempts at gun restrictions in cities (auditoriums/malls/etc) gets overridden every year.
- Just this year, the state passed a law with explicit language exclusively targeting its biggest county, Harris County (Houston), disbanding its election commissioner position and that the state AG has the ability to re-call elections in the county if he believes there was “enough fraud”.
There’s so much more, but “local control” is not a term which holds much water in Texas. The other side of the coin is that, unlike California, this philosophy is also reflected in Texas’ zoning codes, and as such it’s much easier and much more consistent across cities to build — developers in cities begin to bemoan when permits take more than 3 months in Texas cities, whereas in Los Angeles years would be the norm
- vb6sp6 3y ago[dead]
- bob1029 3y agoI am curious what your experience was like moving TX=>CA. I've been considering the same.
- ESTheComposer 3y agoDid the reverse after living in CA. The amount of homeless drugs and crime in the Bay made me immediately regret moving, but stayed for the $$$ for a bit. Texas does many stupid things but so does CA and on top of that CA is expensive as hell to live in
- flangola7 3y agoBetween being queer and having a trans daughter, I feel far less worried that the government will arbitrarily impoverish, imprison, or kill me, or kidnap my children. Or that one of the locals will take it upon themselves to do so. I don't care if the rent in Texas was negative.
- ESTheComposer 3y agoDo you have any evidence whatsoever of this randomly happening without a crime being committed?
- Timon3 3y agoSince they are trying to make "receiving trans healthcare" a crime, technically no. Functionally it's the same thing.
- ESTheComposer 3y agoCan you provide a link to the law where it says receiving trans healthcare is a crime? Or are you talking about providing hormone blockers to kids?
- Timon3 3y agoPuberty blockers are a part of trans healthcare.
- ESTheComposer 3y agoI don't personally think blocking puberty is a good thing for kids but I also think it's disingenuous to equate that with what the OP was posting. If you think that is Texas being anti trans then so be it I guess
- Timon3 3y agoWhat do you think the state will do if you give your children proper trans healthcare? Will they let them stay with you? Luckily it's not your opinion that is important regarding what healthcare should be done and what shouldn't. The medical consensus is that puberty blockers are an important part of trans healthcare. Denying this to children is equivalent with denying them other healthcare.
- thebradbain 3y agoI have complex relationships with both states, and family roots in each, so my entire life has been spent between the two, and I often visit Texas still. Both are dysfunctional in completely different ways, and both succeed in very opposite AND similar ways, too. Regarding “homelessness and crime”, though— I have not noticed a significant difference feeling in safety in either. And in both I lived in the “city” (Dallas and Los Angeles) rather than sprawling suburbs. I do feel actually a lot more worried in Texas about gun violence when I go back, and find myself always mentally making a note of exit plans in e.g. concert venues or malls back in Texas. I personally prefer the people in California more than in Texas, but that’s a subjective value judgement. That’s ultimately what keeps me here.
- hef19898 3y agoElection stuff like that would be simply outright unconstitutional in Germany.
- trilbyglens 3y agoTexas is probably the least democratic of all the states.
- hef19898 3y agoFrom the outside looking in, the whole of the US is, despite pretty decent split between the executive and legeslative branches, a lot less democratic the at least I believed for a very long time.
- throw0101a 3y agoBut in what other country can you be elected as dogcatcher? * https://www.vermontpublic.org/vpr-news/2018-03-16/meet-the-countrys-only-elected-dogcatcher-vermonter-zeb-towne https://www.vermontpublic.org/vpr-news/2018-03-16/meet-the-c... * https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/600482792/you-couldn-t-get-elected-dogcatcher-no-seriously https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/600482792/you-couldn-t-get-el...
- hef19898 3y agoAh, the true purpose of democracy right there! Also, TIL...
- avgcorrection 3y ago> Local “bag charges” and “bag bans” on non-reusable plastic bags at grocery stores were outlawed in 2018. Most “bag bans” are a propaganda campaign to frame the last participant in the supply chain as the culprit of everything. I’ve heard of stores that let you bring your own glass jars to fill up on e.g. almonds. That sounds more practical.
- Yoric 3y agoI live in Paris, France, and there are at least 5 shops within walking distance from my house that allow that. Not quite as many within walking distance from my work, but still I know one. Whenever I order takeaway food, I also try to bring my containers.
- Volundr 3y ago> Most “bag bans” are a propaganda campaign to frame the last participant in the supply chain as the culprit of everything. I doubt you meant it this way, but this is the thing that peeves me most about the Republican party continuing to spout on about local control, small government, and personal freedoms. As soon as a locality makes a choice they don't like (bag bans), or a person uses their freedom in a way they don't like (marrying the wrong person, consuming the wrong plant), suddenly the same people are scrambling to explain why those things are exceptions to their principles, because, well they're bad. There's never a stronger argument for why it should be an exception just "we think it's bad". Yet the whole point of these supposed principles is that these decisions should be made locally or personally. Otherwise it's just as valid for someone to say <Republican pet issue> should be decided locally because it's bad.
- TheNewsIsHere 3y agoVery well put.
- avgcorrection 3y agoYou’re right that I meant none of those things since I didn’t mention them. An aside.
- systemvoltage 3y agoHonestly, this sounds like an advertisement for Texas to me. Kind of want to move there (I live in California).
- jackmott42 3y ago[flagged]
- kleton 3y agoRed light cameras are also banned state-wide in Texas.
- BaseballPhysics 3y agoSure, if you don't like local communities being able to make decisions on behalf of their citizens (or put another way: democracy), it must sound great.
- systemvoltage 3y agoI prefer balanced federalism. You obviously can't have local nut jobs passing insane laws but same applies to top down federal powers – IMO this is the real problem in USA across all states. Federal agencies are in some ways more powerful and have unchecked powers – congress leaves a lot of leeway as they can't exactly dictate every single rule/regulation. Unelected people dictate vast majority of the day to day rules/regs. In regards to freedom, New Hamsphire/Florida ranks #1 or #2 usually in the freedom index across the board: https://cdn.freedominthe50states.org/download/2021/print-edition-2021.pdf https://cdn.freedominthe50states.org/download/2021/print-edi... Texas is midway down the line and California is abysmally at 48th. Folks here are saying "Fascism!", I just find that very funny and ironic; if anything California tramples on people's rights more than any other state. Just look at the cases put forth the 9th circuit. We should encourage various levels of federalism in different states instead of hurling insults and shutting down the conversation (not you per se, but generally in liberal circles). Everyone is so dug in. Honestly as a Californian, I want to encourage more competition from other states. It feels like a giant monoculture destroying itself here.