In the wake of Hurricane Harvey (and to quote Stevie Ray Vaughan), “there’s flooding down in Texas, all the telephone lines are down.” Things are bad for a lot of Texans. They need a lot of help.
Being a hotbed of (in the words of a former president from Texas) “compassionate conservatism,” Texas has demonstrated an overwhelming willingness to help others when they’re in similar, dire circumstances, so it’s only fair that the rest of the nation do what it can to provide Texans help in this their hour of great need. Right?
Wait. In 2012, when Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast and huge chunks of the Eastern Seaboard were underwater, disaster aid for those affected was voted on by Congress. And Congress voted to provide funding for Hurricane Sandy disaster relief. The support of congressional Republicans from Texas, however, was conspicuously absent; 23 of 24 Republican Congress members voted “no.” One hundred percent of its senators (both Republicans) voted “no.” Since it wasn’t their constituents’ ox getting gored, they couldn’t be bothered.
So, when disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey is voted on, we can count on the Texas Republicans to remain ideologically pure and vote against it, right? Of course not.
“Compassionate conservatism,” my eye. “Hypocritical conservatism” is a better term.
