Title-calling. Imply tweets. A governor’s quick-draw veto pen.
What does any of that must do with the newest batch of migrants swept up in a pink state and deposited in California?
The cargo arrived final week courtesy of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Forty-two individuals — and let’s not neglect they’re individuals — arrived in downtown Los Angeles, presumably famished in addition to frightened after a 23-hour bus journey with hunger rations.
It’s all politics, after all.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who spent Monday in California hustling money for his presidential bid, superior his go to by dumping two planeloads of asylum-seekers earlier this month in Sacramento.
They had been lied to — promised jobs and attorneys to hasten their bid for authorized standing — however not less than DeSantis obtained what he wished: A number of days of nationwide information protection to spice up his enervated marketing campaign and an opportunity to stay it to his blood enemy, Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Abbott isn’t working for president.
A minimum of not in 2024.
However he’s caught up in an more and more nasty feud with fellow Republicans in Texas, most distinguished amongst them the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who’s turned an uneasy relationship with the state’s chief government into all-out conflict.
So how higher to remind people who’s in cost than for Abbott to stoke the immigration concern and decide on some helpless, unwitting victims, packing them off to that most hated of liberal quarters.
“Immigration is the good unifier amongst Republicans, particularly in Texas,” stated Jim Henson, who leads the Texas Politics Mission on the state’s flagship college in Austin. “At a time Republicans within the state are at every others’ throat, it’s a certain rating with the broadest swath of the bottom.”
An immigration an answer has vexed Congress for many years largely due to the rising chasm between the events and the 2 sides’ most fervent supporters. (Immigration is a matter that must be addressed on the federal stage, as we’ve seen from the strain amongst states.)
Worsening the battle are partisan media and the pernicious observe of gerrymandering.
The drawing of district traces to make sure that one occasion or the opposite prevails has diminished competitors for congressional seats; the best worry many lawmakers have is dropping a major to somebody thought-about extra ideologically “pure.”
In that atmosphere, compromise is just not a advantage, however a “sellout” to the opposite aspect.
And plenty of Republicans, particularly, discover nice achieve in taking part in to partisan animosities, proving their “toughness” via stunts akin to transport hapless migrants from pink state to blue.
“It’s a race to the underside,” stated Jeronimo Cortina, who teaches political science on the College of Houston.
Just a few issues to find out about Texas politics:
• It’s, for all intents, a one-party Republican state.
• The lieutenant governor is elected individually from the governor, not as his or her working mate.
• The place is a strong one. The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate and wields appreciable affect, not least over the state price range.
Patrick and Abbott — fellow Republicans — differ in temperament, Patrick being a former talk-radio host and Abbott having served on the state Supreme Court docket.
They’ve additionally disagreed on coverage, with Patrick being the extra pugnaciously conservative — or Trumpier, if you’ll — of the 2.
Regardless of that, the governor and lieutenant governor labored collectively and obtained alongside moderately effectively till the newest legislative session, when a struggle broke out over how finest to chop the state’s hovering property taxes.
As tensions escalated, Abbott and Patrick started overtly feuding.
Patrick fired off a sequence of taunting tweets.
Abbott spent the weekend vetoing scores of payments, most of which originated within the Senate, saying lawmakers wanted to first resolve the struggle over property taxes and do it his manner.
Patrick responded with a tweet saying the “Abbott/Home Property Tax Aid Plan” was “Lies Masquerading because the Reality.”
So along with his authority being challenged throughout the GOP and his political standing beneath assault, Abbott grasped for a well-known playbook, the one concentrating on California and attacking border coverage beneath the Biden administration.
Stuffing migrants on a bus and transport them out of state is a method to remind individuals, Henson stated, that the governor wields preeminent energy in Texas.
It’s additionally reassuring to the bottom of the state Republican Occasion, Henson instructed, “like tuning to a traditional rock station” to catch an previous acquainted tune.
“The governor,” he stated, “is aware of what individuals need to hear.”
By no means thoughts the voices of these 42 individuals being performed as political pawns.
Mark Z. Barabak is a Los Angeles Instances columnist.
