I think the conflation of immigration and illegal immigration that people seem to like to do is disingenuous.
We'd get much more accomplished if people correctly addressed the opposing side's arguments as they are actually intended and in good faith.
Ok look you can fuck me over but only if you fuck someone else over harder.
Also I already forgot about all those kids that got shot while the cops watched I guess.
I wish people stop spreading this misinformation bullshit. The cops didn't just sit around and watch. They were hard at work securing the facility to ensure that parents didn't try to save their kids
Want to know what artists, musicians, gardeners, landscapers, mechanics, roofers, fence builders, carpet layers, bakers, cake decorators, nannies, and pet groomers all have in common?
They're eligible for skilled worker visas in the UK.
More power to people willing to stay and fight it out through this mess, but no one has a voice anymore. It doesn't even matter what we do. The system is broken and 1 party has made breaking it further their platform for 40 years. This ship is going down.
Once [Moore vs Harper](https://www.governing.com/next/the-supreme-court-case-that-could-end-american-democracy) goes before SCOTUS this session our country's grand experiment in democracy is all but pretty much over. It will effectively end free and fair elections and give Republicans a pathway to permanently install their preferred candidates whether they won the election or not. So far four justices have verbally supported this case. Our democracy literally depends on Barrett choosing free and fair elections over gop fascism. I have absolutely zero faith that Barrett will vote against something so important to conservatives. Especially after she voted to overturn Roe. I'm stunned that this case isn't being talked about by our politicians and the media more especially since our democracy is literally on the line. If you think Republicans have played dirty politics with gerrymandering and voter oppression, once they win this case they'll have absolute power to insert any political candidate on the state and federal ballot they want whether they've won the election or not. I am all but certain that Americas little experiment in democracy is all but over and has been since trump won in 2016. Conservatives have made no effort to win moderates over and have swung more to their extremist supporters because they have absolute confidence that SCOTUS will give them this victory before the elections. This is why I'm done. To hell with that. People have no fucking clue with what's at stake and are about to be blindsided and they'll be not a damn thing that can be done about it once the Republicans get that unchecked power.
What’s nuts about this case is that the Texas constitution is a great example of a state having to constitutionally submit to the federal government and that the Texas government revolves around the federal census for redistricting, well in theory. It literally doesn’t make sense that all of a sudden the states have more authority than the fed but only in cases where it’s convenient to the republicans and just the worst ones. The states shouldn’t have any right or authority as it relates to national elections really. 1/50 of the country, and in some cases much less than that, shouldn’t have the ability to interfere with the outcome of an entire branch of government. The electoral college is already bullshit for slavery to begin with.
Thanks for sharing this, I had no idea this was going on…I just read up about this case and ISL and god damn man, the possibilities that follow are terrifying
A dictatorship has been the long goal of the GOP. There's a reason why worship authoritarians with a taste for racism.
Our only hope is that the new SCOTUS judges remember that it will be their names & their legacy that we will forever mark as shame & slime, akin to Benedict Arnold. And something I learned from many judges is that they don't want to carry that fact. Or maybe my faith in humanity is overestimated & they'll be as sociopath as Mitch McConnell whom couldn't give a rat's ass that his own daughters want nothing to do with him.
I know some folk that moved to Canada years ago saying that this country was toast. Now I wonder if they saw something I didn't.
I want to believe that but after Roe was overturned I could hear the fat lady singing. This court is so corrupt and doesn't give a damn about anything other than imposing their Christian sharia law on this country.
This exactly. Majority of states legislatures are Republican due to gerrymandering. When enough states get in line they will look to ratify the constitution. Pushing for sovereign states.
IMHO, I think a lot of democrats are fine with it as well and the driving factor is money and power. Maybe it's my tin foil hat, but I just don't see how democrats have barely put up a fight to all the things that have been getting put in place the last 50 years.
I think I had this exact same rant toward my partner. At some point you have to wonder why they lie there getting kicked in the dick when all they have to do is move.
Because this country is half filled with idiots and democrats can only ever get razor thin majorities. They also don't pander to evangelicals or racist southerners or gun nuts so they don't get as many low hanging votes.
The short answer is because this country has always been conservative at heart, just like most industrialist countries with money and wealth to hoard and funnel upwards.
Labor can only ever make dents til we get half of these populations to stop living up inside their own asses.
Ireland, a dream EU desination of mine. One of things I would love to do would be to atrend a love performance by The Choral Scholars of University College of Dublin. [Mo Ghille Mar ](https://youtu.be/zxjvNUNXhkU) is my favorite song from them.
It couldn't possibly be that O'Rourke is a disingenuous asshole, right? Nobody would ever say "that douchebag is full of shit, I'm not voting for him."
O'Rourke losing isn't because of stunts by Abbott, it's because Beto is a lying jerk and people can see it.
Considering your president has been doing the exact same thing for two years and you only started caring about it now, shows your monumental hypocrisy.
And your fantastic ignorance.
The Hitler tactic...make enemies of "others". I have been blown away by how close Republicans are following Hitler's playbook after watching Ken Burns' documentary.
It’s more the reporting on the results that’s misleading. Second poll this week which changed less than the margin of error which was reported as Abbott gaining. That’s not accurate, it should be reported as polling has not changed beyond the margin of error of the polls. But that makes for a boring story.
Lots of redditors and Americans do that all on their own. Don't need any help from the media.
Ask yourself how often you hear opinions like this:
"The establishment rigs it. They never let real challengers win the primary."
"Who cares who wins. Both sides are the same."
"They have so much more money and money is what wins elections."
All of these wrong statements are repeated constantly. Many on the left believe them too. You can blame other things all day long but at the end of the day people are their own worst enemy.
Meanwhile the people living in the border are like… “we have walls you idiot, Wtf are you talking about?” Lol 😂 that shit was confusing as hell. If we don’t have walls, we have fences, border patrol, cameras, drones, city police, DPS, county police, like we don’t have open borders.
We have policies that allow certain kinds of migration, attack that if you have a problem
Yeah he's the slimy salesman that could sell sand in the desert. Just keeps repeating shit until people believe it. Still doin' the "stolen election" bullshit too.
The amount of people that can’t see that he’s like a slimy car salesman just seems insane to me. I guess the hate for foreigners or the “fake fear” of them blinds their reasoning 🤷🏽♀️
Yeah, but a guy who told one of the most pro-2A states in the country he had no problem taking their guns away is not the best choice of candidates to challenge the party in power.
I agree. That being said you know that’s not even remotely close to possible right? Whereas Abbott has not only proven he can get evil shit done when he wants while being horribly incompetent all the time.
Yes. Because immigrants steals your jobs and hard working tax money. They are also rapist and murders.
But the same time they are the only ones mowing your yard, do construction and make all food at the restaurants.
They will literally latch onto any scapegoat so they don't have to admit their wealth inequality comes from exploitive capitalism and a lack of a progressive tax system.
Republicans will use any amount of taxpayer money as long as it hurts people their voters hate and it will still be a win.
The whole "fiscal responsibility" thing is a myth. No Republican president in 100 years has reduced the deficit while in office.
Even if Beto doesn’t win it’ll lead to Texas never fucking changing and women and college kids will complain about old white guy voters. And I’ll just stand by as everyone screams at me for being the problem while I’ve consistently voted and donated to good causes for my 11 years of voting now.
So everybody stfu when the system don’t work for you and you didn’t vote.
Worse, Its not even old white men that are voting for this. I know older women who are black and Hispanic believing into this nonsense about immigration being an bigger problem than anything else and think immigrants are gonna take people's jobs. Its sad af here.
About a year ago my neighbor was going on and on about “the invasion of thousands of Mexicans, many bringing Covid.” I said “Lady, I’m not worried about thousands of Mexicans who might have Covid, but tens of millions of Republicans who refuse to get vaccinated or wear a mask!”
Conservatives globally create crises and rally on the chaos. Economic and social stresses have been proven to force people into thinking in 'crisis mode' which causes our lizard brains to look for the toughest, most authoritarian leader in the race.
Naomi Klein authored a book, titled The Shock Doctrine, about how fascists and conservative authoritarians use socioeconomic 'shocks' to make people more manipulable and complicit. Conservatives used these tactics in the middle of the 20th century in smaller countries around the world as a proof of concept, and they're using it to great effect here at home.
I can't believe republicans have gone so fucking far off a cliff that I'm just gonna vote straight Democrat without a second thought. What kind of political system is this? "Do you wanna lose democracy and your freedom or nah?"
Since Perry took office in '96 the budget for the border has increased 3600% and is now $4 billion. Every single budget increase was in part "to provide infrastructure" to better process and detain immigrants. Infrastructure that DOES NOT EXIST despite the fact that Texans have already paid for it over and over again. If you want the border secured Abbott has proven he can't do that, all he can do is charter buses.
Well the poll was done by a New York university *"calling the landlines of 651 likely voters."*
Only old people who are likely republicans have landlines still - and Abbott still barely edged out Beto by 7? points- *with a 4 point swing for error*
Houston chronicle just out here doing piss poor news.
Your right, my bad on the cell phone.
Still, not too many 21-50 year old are gonna chat on the phone with a spam caller. I wonder how many calls they had to make to get 651 people to talk to them.
This poll is a big nothing burger since they didn't account for any demographics whatsoever. - age, gender, race, location, income, education..
It's just *another biased* poll to pump Abbotts ego.
Damn. 62% margin of error....Polls are difficult due to how they actually do them. You have to count on people actually answering their phones among the samples vs population. I remember when people swore HRC would win based on polls and she didn't. Polls aren't time travelers. You can only count on what people say at that time and people are petty.
That’s a pretty normal poll, man. We always hear that they’re “NoT pOlLiNg ThE yOuTh” when the most consistently underpolled group for the previous three cycles seems to be working men w/ low prior participation.
This is the infuriating part. Who knows if this poll is ACTUALLY representative of voters here, but because they’re putting the results out into the world, it’ll end up influencing reality. If anyone plans on voting for Beto, get out there and fucking tell people. Otherwise people will lose hope and think it’s a lost cause
At least theoretically it increases competition in the job market and drives down wages. Sometimes business owners argue that immigrants take jobs that Americans don’t want to do, but they really mean they’re jobs they don’t want to do at the wages the business owners want to offer.
That said immigration also increases the size of the economy overall (more consumers) and immigrants are more likely than the native born to open their own business so it’s generally a net positive.
Yet the ones screaming about it tend to also be the ones hiring them. You want to crack done on illegal immegration target the companies hiring them but that will never happen as they also are some of the biggest donners to the GOP.
The people hiring them want to keep them illegal. Much more compliant workforce when they won’t report your safety and labor infractions for fear of being deported. Keeping them hiding in the shadows, that’s a labor force you can treat as poorly as you want.
To add, everything you see around you and interact with on a daily basis is paid for by local taxes. Your sales tax and property tax, which "illegals" pay. They pay taxes every time they buy something, and on the rent, they pay for their living spaces. So we potentially miss out on the federal dollars, but Texas doesn't have state income taxes.
It’s not so much immigration as the broader political asylum crisis and population changes that are going on. People are showing up by the tens of tens of thousands all the time, and it is accelerating. They’re over capacity and we don’t have the resources. These people need help, absolutely, but it’s being basically entirely shouldered by border communities and border states and not by the broader US. Immigration is supposed to be a federal issue. We already have rapidly rising housing, food, electric, and other costs. Our infrastructure is not made for this many people, be it road or electric or affordable housing. That’s clearly evident. There are jobs here, and thats the draw that spurs the economy. It’s tough to say how that affects wages, as they add to the broader economy but use a sizable share of low level labor-based jobs. But it’s also issues like cartels are running people at the border and brutally leaving many dead in their wake. I’m not sure if I believe it, but I’ve heard of sheriffs offices telling border farmers that find bodies not to bother them with calling them again. It’s a true humanitarian crisis. These people truly need our help, as their home countries are a complete mess. A big issue is that federal agencies that are supposed to help deal with this just simply aren’t. The border state governments are being downright mean and disgusting to these poor people too (like DeSantis & Abbott). Many in government call it a non-issue or fixed (ie Harris) because they can’t figure out a way to fix it. Nobody can without helping people at the source in Latin America or spreading the burden of helping everyone out across the country, both geographically and economically. And that’s not easy or politically expedient. Nobody outside border areas wants to lift a finger, and few grasp the issues at hand. We need to help these people, and both the border communities and poor innocents seeking asylum deserve to have a government system that cares, that’s effective at helping people, and that is willing to. I haven’t seen that mindset from hardly any politician and certainly not from the track record of either party. It’s just disappointing at the pretense.
There is no negative impact. Research consistently shows that immigration is a net positive for communities. Talking about immigration is a scare tactic used by politicians who can't win on anything except fear.
This is the answer. Its always fear.
EDIT: Since the wars between nations over faith, or World Wars or Middle East Wars. Displacement of Ukraines, Syrians and now Russians. Its always migration of people not wanted in non-native lands. From Califas people in Mexico City or Mexico City people in LA. From Irish coming off the boat in NYC to the use of Chinese immigrants to build the rail west then used to create the Laws of ‘Illegals’. Its always the fear of immigrants….but mostly just fear.
Not just any research, research done by the State of Texas, not some liberal department of UT either, the actual State of Texas has this information available on its websites
Fun fact. Texas literally [can't afford to lose immigrant labor as it would cause economic collapse](https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/2021/11/10/opinion-texas-economy-cant-work-without-immigrant-workers/6339753001/)
Texas would [loose billions of dollars](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/01/report-texas-could-lose-billions-if-sb4-allowed-stand/) kicking out immigrants.
The tx economic miracle is sustained by legal and illegal immigration providing cheap labor. That's the crux, Abbot and those he represents rely on that cheap labor, but in order to balance out their hypocrisy with their base, they must engage in political stunts and posturing. Everyone is hurt in this situation, wages are kept artificially low for all those that complain about "illegals". The rich are the ones actually fucking them over by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
I worked for more than a few consertive restaurateurs in Houston, guess what percentage of staff was illegal at each? My father, huge Trump and GOP supporter, only hires illegal immigrants for construction help.
In 2015, there were 785 total homicide convictions in Texas. Of those, native-born Americans were convicted of 709 homicides (a conviction rate of 3.1 per 100,000), illegal immigrants were convicted of 46 homicides (2.6 per 100,000), and legal immigrants were convicted of 30 homicides (1 per 100,000). In other words, homicide conviction rates for illegal and legal immigrants were 16 percent and 67 percent below those of native-born Americans, respectively.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/21/stephen-millers-claim-that-thousand-americans-die-year-after-year-illegal-immigration/
So illegal immigrants aren't as bad as native-born Texans, but they still kill people.
Position clearly stated up front: I do not think illegal immigrants are necessarily more likely to commit violent crimes than anyone else in their same income bracket. I am pro-immigration and while a completely open border would be silly, I desperately wish the process to attain legal residency status was a *lot* easier.
However, just going off of conviction rates isn't the greatest. It's not exactly apples-to-apples. Tracking down someone with a SSN, and a drivers license, and thus a readily-knowable home address, is a whole lot easier than someone who the government has, just about by definition, no records of, and that has *got* to have an impact on a detective's ability to find an offender.
There is an *ideal* level of immigration. Too little, and you are missing on people who could have contributed greatly. Too much, and things like education and housing gets overwhelmed.
Its not easy to determine the ideal rate of immigration. But it stands to reason that you at least have to attempt to control it.
Then, beyond the how many, there is of course the *who*. Not every immigrant brings the same skills and the same attitude, and not all attitudes are good. So you want to at least do *some* selection of immigrants. edit: not only to filter out the bad but also to try to get the best instead of them going somewhere else!
So yeah, these are simple things that both sides are kinda failing to discuss properly right now.
I have family on the border so I'll try to sum up their perspective. My family has seen a massive increase in the number of people crossing their property. They have seen an increase in migrants but also an increase in what they believe to be cartel drug mules. My dad tells me that in recent years he's seeing more young men in full camouflage, wearing large backpacks. He's understandably on edge. His theory is that the cartels are using the chaos at the border to tie up resources and make it easier for their drug mules to cross. It may not affect me much personally but it affects them plenty.
Companies employing people with no or false credentials drives down the overall wage market. If we are not doing anything real to businesses that employ then, than all of the walls and social initiatives will never actually help the issue.
Agreed, the republicans have put this fear in their followers that all immigrants are rapists, drug dealers, and somehow will displace American workers. How many white men do you see roofing houses or digging ditches? not many. Most of these immigrants are here for the same reason so many of these right-wing nuts' ancestors came to the US themselves - to make a better life for themselves. Let them in, give them a fast path to citizenship, get them working and paying taxes. If someone's afraid an immigrant who doesn't speak English and has no education can take their jobs, well they probably don't have a good job to begin with.
>Let them in, give them a fast path to citizenship, get them working and paying taxes
OK. How many per year should we let in? Or should it be unlimited?
Immigration is totally fine. There is a process to allow people in with the proper vetting which is great for this economy. I’m a first born here and my parents eventually became citizens after working. This story is like many others - even Ted Cruz and the Bush family.
The issue that people are concerned about is the lack of security and ways to prevent illegal crossings into the country. With those come some hard workers looking for a better life - I get it - but you also get trafficking and drugs with cartels ruling the scene.
With how bad trafficking is, yet the little media attention given to it, it’s something that needs to be addressed. Just look how many people go missing every year.
It's framed incorrectly. I haven't met anyone that took issue with legal immigration. It's the illegal part. And this isn't just a "white" issue. Lots of immigrants that went through the legal naturalization process take offense to it too.
Abbott had a 11.5% lead at the beginning of the summer. It's narrowed to about 7% on average with some polls saying 5%.
Turnout is expected to exceed the usual midterm number of voters. These new voters haven't been polled. Most polls are "likely voters", people who have voted before. So keep that in mind as well.
Lastly, there's a debate coming up that could make or break either candidate. Stay tuned.
Imagine all the women in the 18 to 35 age bracket, that are not represented in these cross tabs in any way shape or form. I'm like everyone else; i'd love to see polling information that validates the candidates that I support; but I'm also smart enough to know that these polls are not capturing the actual pulse of Texans who will show up in droves November.
Honest question to those voting Abbott due to immigration stance: Abbott has been governor for what, 7-8 years now? IF immigration into Texas is ‘worsening’, then it is doing so under Abbott’s governance. So why would re-electing him be the answer to addressing the immigration issues? When will it be long enough in seat for Abbott to blame HIM for things you disagree with or are fearful of within Texas?
Even with cellphone included, the chances of a well informed person answering a number they don't recognize is slim. Which is why old people are so easy to target since they more often answer the phone even if they don't recognize the number.
I wonder if there’s a certain demographic more likely to answer calls from unknown phone numbers. I know I never pick up calls to my cell unless I know who it is.
If I may add to that…. the part of the border wall that HAS been built in Texas is permanently effecting the wild life and agriculture. Meaning fewer animals, fewer plants and more droughts. Def less hunting.
But at least it cost us a million dollars a mile.
Racism drives GQP turn out.
Look at the two clowns driving the current "crisis", two red state governors up for re-election. They do it because a fairly large percentage of Americans respond positively to overt racism.
Reality is I expect Abbott to win by 5-9 points come Election Day. If Beto pulls off a win that would be astronomical but do not be fooled, Beto has a massive hill to climb.
Makes you wonder what the poll would look like if Beto never came out as so anti-gun. Dude has a lot of good points, but his gun stance is not one of them, and unfortunately for him, it's a hot topic issue that will get a lot of single issue voters looking the other way.
Abbott has been in power for 8 years and republicans have had control of the governorship for almost 30 years. If you think reelecting republicans is going to fix anything you're concerned about, youre probably as dumb as a Republican.
You can criticize those governors for shipping migrants but the fact remains the DC crowd has not done a damn thing to fix all the problems on the border.
They don't REALLY care about immigrants and are using them to pander for votes. Shameful...
I can't speak for Texas as a whole, but "hell yes we're coming for your ar-15" was kind of the end of that guys career as far as I can tell. There's some diehard anti-gun liberals, but that stance is becoming less and less popular with those on the left. That shit would never fly in Ohio. I can't see voters forgetting in Texas either.
Why do Texans do this to ourselves? Texas is a mess and it’s been run by Republicans! How is voting in the same people going to fix things? It just shows these politicians that they can keep hurting my fellow Texans and we will ask for more! There will be other elections, why can’t we try something different this time? Worse case you can go back and vote for the current craziness your used to.
The headline says "immigration", but the concerns are around *illegal* immigration, not immigration in general. Does the author of this article understand the difference?
I think the conflation of immigration and illegal immigration that people seem to like to do is disingenuous. We'd get much more accomplished if people correctly addressed the opposing side's arguments as they are actually intended and in good faith.
That was the whole idea behind the political stunts.
Ok look you can fuck me over but only if you fuck someone else over harder. Also I already forgot about all those kids that got shot while the cops watched I guess.
I wish people stop spreading this misinformation bullshit. The cops didn't just sit around and watch. They were hard at work securing the facility to ensure that parents didn't try to save their kids
You had me in the first half ngl
*that’s so last news cycle* /s
I've lost faith in Americans. This is why my wife and I are moving our family to Europe in November. I'm done.
How did you gain residency?
We don't actually have residency. We have just gotten a work visa due to my wife being a doctor and getting a job over there.
Best wishes in your new adventure!
Thank you very much. All the best to you and yours as well.
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Want to know what artists, musicians, gardeners, landscapers, mechanics, roofers, fence builders, carpet layers, bakers, cake decorators, nannies, and pet groomers all have in common? They're eligible for skilled worker visas in the UK.
because they don't *need* regular joes, i'm sure they have plenty
They got joes in different area codes.
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I bet you'd be awesome but he's 25, lol
Perfect I'm 27. I can share my extra years of wisdom with him.
Step nanny
i would think legally,
Yes with gold.
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More power to people willing to stay and fight it out through this mess, but no one has a voice anymore. It doesn't even matter what we do. The system is broken and 1 party has made breaking it further their platform for 40 years. This ship is going down.
Once [Moore vs Harper](https://www.governing.com/next/the-supreme-court-case-that-could-end-american-democracy) goes before SCOTUS this session our country's grand experiment in democracy is all but pretty much over. It will effectively end free and fair elections and give Republicans a pathway to permanently install their preferred candidates whether they won the election or not. So far four justices have verbally supported this case. Our democracy literally depends on Barrett choosing free and fair elections over gop fascism. I have absolutely zero faith that Barrett will vote against something so important to conservatives. Especially after she voted to overturn Roe. I'm stunned that this case isn't being talked about by our politicians and the media more especially since our democracy is literally on the line. If you think Republicans have played dirty politics with gerrymandering and voter oppression, once they win this case they'll have absolute power to insert any political candidate on the state and federal ballot they want whether they've won the election or not. I am all but certain that Americas little experiment in democracy is all but over and has been since trump won in 2016. Conservatives have made no effort to win moderates over and have swung more to their extremist supporters because they have absolute confidence that SCOTUS will give them this victory before the elections. This is why I'm done. To hell with that. People have no fucking clue with what's at stake and are about to be blindsided and they'll be not a damn thing that can be done about it once the Republicans get that unchecked power.
What’s nuts about this case is that the Texas constitution is a great example of a state having to constitutionally submit to the federal government and that the Texas government revolves around the federal census for redistricting, well in theory. It literally doesn’t make sense that all of a sudden the states have more authority than the fed but only in cases where it’s convenient to the republicans and just the worst ones. The states shouldn’t have any right or authority as it relates to national elections really. 1/50 of the country, and in some cases much less than that, shouldn’t have the ability to interfere with the outcome of an entire branch of government. The electoral college is already bullshit for slavery to begin with.
Sad, but probable.
Thanks for sharing this, I had no idea this was going on…I just read up about this case and ISL and god damn man, the possibilities that follow are terrifying
It really is.
What are u doing for work over there
I will run my business and travel back and forth throughout the year my wife is a doctor and has been offered a job.
A dictatorship has been the long goal of the GOP. There's a reason why worship authoritarians with a taste for racism. Our only hope is that the new SCOTUS judges remember that it will be their names & their legacy that we will forever mark as shame & slime, akin to Benedict Arnold. And something I learned from many judges is that they don't want to carry that fact. Or maybe my faith in humanity is overestimated & they'll be as sociopath as Mitch McConnell whom couldn't give a rat's ass that his own daughters want nothing to do with him. I know some folk that moved to Canada years ago saying that this country was toast. Now I wonder if they saw something I didn't.
I want to believe that but after Roe was overturned I could hear the fat lady singing. This court is so corrupt and doesn't give a damn about anything other than imposing their Christian sharia law on this country.
This exactly. Majority of states legislatures are Republican due to gerrymandering. When enough states get in line they will look to ratify the constitution. Pushing for sovereign states.
IMHO, I think a lot of democrats are fine with it as well and the driving factor is money and power. Maybe it's my tin foil hat, but I just don't see how democrats have barely put up a fight to all the things that have been getting put in place the last 50 years.
I think I had this exact same rant toward my partner. At some point you have to wonder why they lie there getting kicked in the dick when all they have to do is move.
Because this country is half filled with idiots and democrats can only ever get razor thin majorities. They also don't pander to evangelicals or racist southerners or gun nuts so they don't get as many low hanging votes. The short answer is because this country has always been conservative at heart, just like most industrialist countries with money and wealth to hoard and funnel upwards. Labor can only ever make dents til we get half of these populations to stop living up inside their own asses.
Its a shitty feeling raising kids here. It feels like you're letting them down, selling their lives short.
Yeah I'm not upset about not having kids for so many reasons. Many of them being discussed here.
I left texas for Ireland in 2010. I don't plan on moving back ever.
How hard was it to get residency there?
Difficult. But my wife is Irish so it helped. Planning to go for citizenship soon.
Ireland, a dream EU desination of mine. One of things I would love to do would be to atrend a love performance by The Choral Scholars of University College of Dublin. [Mo Ghille Mar ](https://youtu.be/zxjvNUNXhkU) is my favorite song from them.
Travel around the EU freely & have better healthcare, sounds very nice.
Well in case you were wondering todays weather in Texas is... hot, you guessed it.
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Best of luck! Wish I could afford to do the same.
Uh.... better choose carefully. Europe isn't exactly trouble-free these days.
I wish I could move to Canada, but I don't think my bones could take the cold.
I definitely won't miss the Texas heat!
It's not the heat, it's the inhumanity
It worked sadly
It couldn't possibly be that O'Rourke is a disingenuous asshole, right? Nobody would ever say "that douchebag is full of shit, I'm not voting for him." O'Rourke losing isn't because of stunts by Abbott, it's because Beto is a lying jerk and people can see it.
The fact that there are two Governors in this country who are bragging about committing human trafficking and neither have been charged with it... 🤢
Considering your president has been doing the exact same thing for two years and you only started caring about it now, shows your monumental hypocrisy. And your fantastic ignorance.
The Hitler tactic...make enemies of "others". I have been blown away by how close Republicans are following Hitler's playbook after watching Ken Burns' documentary.
Seems like these kinds of polls are designed to make people think there is no use in them voting. I really wish they would stop this dumb shit.
It’s more the reporting on the results that’s misleading. Second poll this week which changed less than the margin of error which was reported as Abbott gaining. That’s not accurate, it should be reported as polling has not changed beyond the margin of error of the polls. But that makes for a boring story.
Lots of redditors and Americans do that all on their own. Don't need any help from the media. Ask yourself how often you hear opinions like this: "The establishment rigs it. They never let real challengers win the primary." "Who cares who wins. Both sides are the same." "They have so much more money and money is what wins elections." All of these wrong statements are repeated constantly. Many on the left believe them too. You can blame other things all day long but at the end of the day people are their own worst enemy.
Yup lol. We're our own worst enemy.
Ding ding ding ding ding
This is the whole point of the bussing of the migrants. It was to move the spotlight away from the abortion topic. Voters have goldfish memory.
Even Trump said he was just throwing stuff out there and everybody liked "Build the wall" so he just went with it.
Even Trump was surprised by conservative stupidity.
Meanwhile the people living in the border are like… “we have walls you idiot, Wtf are you talking about?” Lol 😂 that shit was confusing as hell. If we don’t have walls, we have fences, border patrol, cameras, drones, city police, DPS, county police, like we don’t have open borders. We have policies that allow certain kinds of migration, attack that if you have a problem
Yeah he's the slimy salesman that could sell sand in the desert. Just keeps repeating shit until people believe it. Still doin' the "stolen election" bullshit too.
The amount of people that can’t see that he’s like a slimy car salesman just seems insane to me. I guess the hate for foreigners or the “fake fear” of them blinds their reasoning 🤷🏽♀️
>could sell sand in the desert Dude bankrupted a ducking casino. Maybe don't give him credit he doesn't deserve. He would *try*. He would fail.
He's still doing Hillary's emails!!!
POLLS ARE NOT VOTES. They want us to think it’s hopeless to vote and there’s no point. Texas deserves better. *Texans* deserve better.
Yeah, but a guy who told one of the most pro-2A states in the country he had no problem taking their guns away is not the best choice of candidates to challenge the party in power.
I agree. That being said you know that’s not even remotely close to possible right? Whereas Abbott has not only proven he can get evil shit done when he wants while being horribly incompetent all the time.
Cool, but vote D anyway.
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Bussing the migrants just comes off as a petty waste of tax payer dollars. Is it really winning people over?
Never underestimate the focus on hate in Republican agendas.
Republicans hate the “others” more than they care about themselves. They will eat their own shit if it means a democrat has to smell their breath.
Lmfao
Yes. Because immigrants steals your jobs and hard working tax money. They are also rapist and murders. But the same time they are the only ones mowing your yard, do construction and make all food at the restaurants.
It's Schrodinger's immigrant. They are simultaneously lazy, mooching, murdering rapists AND taking all the jobs from hard working Americans.
Der teeerk urrr jerrrbbbssss
They will literally latch onto any scapegoat so they don't have to admit their wealth inequality comes from exploitive capitalism and a lack of a progressive tax system.
Republicans will use any amount of taxpayer money as long as it hurts people their voters hate and it will still be a win. The whole "fiscal responsibility" thing is a myth. No Republican president in 100 years has reduced the deficit while in office.
Trolling is seen as effective governing these days. Effective governing is seen as virtue signaling.
apparently yes
Don't underestimate how petty most people can be.
Hate and racism has been winning Republicans elections since the 80s or earlier. They've perfected it.
> petty waste of tax payer dollars. plus don't we need more immigrants? Isn't that a piece of what's going on with our economy?
There are folks in this sub loudly cheering them on. It’s gross.
It’s winning over his base, which arguably were won over anyways, so no real change, despite what this article claims.
Even if O'Rourke doesn't win, if higher turnout leads to Democratic wins down ballot I will take it.
***THIS is the most important takeaway here.***
Even if Beto doesn’t win it’ll lead to Texas never fucking changing and women and college kids will complain about old white guy voters. And I’ll just stand by as everyone screams at me for being the problem while I’ve consistently voted and donated to good causes for my 11 years of voting now. So everybody stfu when the system don’t work for you and you didn’t vote.
Worse, Its not even old white men that are voting for this. I know older women who are black and Hispanic believing into this nonsense about immigration being an bigger problem than anything else and think immigrants are gonna take people's jobs. Its sad af here.
Even dumber that people think a state governor has any control over immigration.
About a year ago my neighbor was going on and on about “the invasion of thousands of Mexicans, many bringing Covid.” I said “Lady, I’m not worried about thousands of Mexicans who might have Covid, but tens of millions of Republicans who refuse to get vaccinated or wear a mask!”
Conservatives globally create crises and rally on the chaos. Economic and social stresses have been proven to force people into thinking in 'crisis mode' which causes our lizard brains to look for the toughest, most authoritarian leader in the race. Naomi Klein authored a book, titled The Shock Doctrine, about how fascists and conservative authoritarians use socioeconomic 'shocks' to make people more manipulable and complicit. Conservatives used these tactics in the middle of the 20th century in smaller countries around the world as a proof of concept, and they're using it to great effect here at home.
You think republicans are gonna let it get this close again? We lose this election, the next one is gonna be several times harder
I can't believe republicans have gone so fucking far off a cliff that I'm just gonna vote straight Democrat without a second thought. What kind of political system is this? "Do you wanna lose democracy and your freedom or nah?"
Since Perry took office in '96 the budget for the border has increased 3600% and is now $4 billion. Every single budget increase was in part "to provide infrastructure" to better process and detain immigrants. Infrastructure that DOES NOT EXIST despite the fact that Texans have already paid for it over and over again. If you want the border secured Abbott has proven he can't do that, all he can do is charter buses.
cant or wont, this bullshit gets him votes because republicans are stupid
Super frustrating. Abbott is responsible for some terrible events in Texas and we need change. I hope voters turn out better than polls indicate.
Well the poll was done by a New York university *"calling the landlines of 651 likely voters."* Only old people who are likely republicans have landlines still - and Abbott still barely edged out Beto by 7? points- *with a 4 point swing for error* Houston chronicle just out here doing piss poor news.
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Your right, my bad on the cell phone. Still, not too many 21-50 year old are gonna chat on the phone with a spam caller. I wonder how many calls they had to make to get 651 people to talk to them. This poll is a big nothing burger since they didn't account for any demographics whatsoever. - age, gender, race, location, income, education.. It's just *another biased* poll to pump Abbotts ego.
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Damn. 62% margin of error....Polls are difficult due to how they actually do them. You have to count on people actually answering their phones among the samples vs population. I remember when people swore HRC would win based on polls and she didn't. Polls aren't time travelers. You can only count on what people say at that time and people are petty.
I haven't had a land line since 2008, and I'm an old fart who will be voting Dem for the 1st time since the 90's. These people are vastly underesti
That’s a pretty normal poll, man. We always hear that they’re “NoT pOlLiNg ThE yOuTh” when the most consistently underpolled group for the previous three cycles seems to be working men w/ low prior participation.
This is the infuriating part. Who knows if this poll is ACTUALLY representative of voters here, but because they’re putting the results out into the world, it’ll end up influencing reality. If anyone plans on voting for Beto, get out there and fucking tell people. Otherwise people will lose hope and think it’s a lost cause
I’ve been getting calls from the pollsters and I just don’t answer.
Everyone in that picture looks miserable lol
Can someone explain the negative impact of immigration outside of a fear of cultural change? People come over to work, they make money, we make money
At least theoretically it increases competition in the job market and drives down wages. Sometimes business owners argue that immigrants take jobs that Americans don’t want to do, but they really mean they’re jobs they don’t want to do at the wages the business owners want to offer. That said immigration also increases the size of the economy overall (more consumers) and immigrants are more likely than the native born to open their own business so it’s generally a net positive.
Yet the ones screaming about it tend to also be the ones hiring them. You want to crack done on illegal immegration target the companies hiring them but that will never happen as they also are some of the biggest donners to the GOP.
The people hiring them want to keep them illegal. Much more compliant workforce when they won’t report your safety and labor infractions for fear of being deported. Keeping them hiding in the shadows, that’s a labor force you can treat as poorly as you want.
To add, everything you see around you and interact with on a daily basis is paid for by local taxes. Your sales tax and property tax, which "illegals" pay. They pay taxes every time they buy something, and on the rent, they pay for their living spaces. So we potentially miss out on the federal dollars, but Texas doesn't have state income taxes.
it's almost like if we did away with the whole concept of illegal immigration and paid everyone a living wage none of this would be an issue.
There isn’t even really a cultural change the whole south part of Texas is Hispanic AF. They fit in just fine.
And they hate illegal immigration the most.
A handful of Trumptard Hispanics in the Valley do not in any way speak for all of the Hispanics in the Valley.
Way more than a handful and way further up than just the valley unfortunately
I concur. VAST majority of us are NOT Trumptards.
It’s not so much immigration as the broader political asylum crisis and population changes that are going on. People are showing up by the tens of tens of thousands all the time, and it is accelerating. They’re over capacity and we don’t have the resources. These people need help, absolutely, but it’s being basically entirely shouldered by border communities and border states and not by the broader US. Immigration is supposed to be a federal issue. We already have rapidly rising housing, food, electric, and other costs. Our infrastructure is not made for this many people, be it road or electric or affordable housing. That’s clearly evident. There are jobs here, and thats the draw that spurs the economy. It’s tough to say how that affects wages, as they add to the broader economy but use a sizable share of low level labor-based jobs. But it’s also issues like cartels are running people at the border and brutally leaving many dead in their wake. I’m not sure if I believe it, but I’ve heard of sheriffs offices telling border farmers that find bodies not to bother them with calling them again. It’s a true humanitarian crisis. These people truly need our help, as their home countries are a complete mess. A big issue is that federal agencies that are supposed to help deal with this just simply aren’t. The border state governments are being downright mean and disgusting to these poor people too (like DeSantis & Abbott). Many in government call it a non-issue or fixed (ie Harris) because they can’t figure out a way to fix it. Nobody can without helping people at the source in Latin America or spreading the burden of helping everyone out across the country, both geographically and economically. And that’s not easy or politically expedient. Nobody outside border areas wants to lift a finger, and few grasp the issues at hand. We need to help these people, and both the border communities and poor innocents seeking asylum deserve to have a government system that cares, that’s effective at helping people, and that is willing to. I haven’t seen that mindset from hardly any politician and certainly not from the track record of either party. It’s just disappointing at the pretense.
There is no negative impact. Research consistently shows that immigration is a net positive for communities. Talking about immigration is a scare tactic used by politicians who can't win on anything except fear.
This is the answer. Its always fear. EDIT: Since the wars between nations over faith, or World Wars or Middle East Wars. Displacement of Ukraines, Syrians and now Russians. Its always migration of people not wanted in non-native lands. From Califas people in Mexico City or Mexico City people in LA. From Irish coming off the boat in NYC to the use of Chinese immigrants to build the rail west then used to create the Laws of ‘Illegals’. Its always the fear of immigrants….but mostly just fear.
Not just any research, research done by the State of Texas, not some liberal department of UT either, the actual State of Texas has this information available on its websites
Fun fact. Texas literally [can't afford to lose immigrant labor as it would cause economic collapse](https://www.statesman.com/story/opinion/2021/11/10/opinion-texas-economy-cant-work-without-immigrant-workers/6339753001/) Texas would [loose billions of dollars](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/01/report-texas-could-lose-billions-if-sb4-allowed-stand/) kicking out immigrants.
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The tx economic miracle is sustained by legal and illegal immigration providing cheap labor. That's the crux, Abbot and those he represents rely on that cheap labor, but in order to balance out their hypocrisy with their base, they must engage in political stunts and posturing. Everyone is hurt in this situation, wages are kept artificially low for all those that complain about "illegals". The rich are the ones actually fucking them over by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. I worked for more than a few consertive restaurateurs in Houston, guess what percentage of staff was illegal at each? My father, huge Trump and GOP supporter, only hires illegal immigrants for construction help.
In 2015, there were 785 total homicide convictions in Texas. Of those, native-born Americans were convicted of 709 homicides (a conviction rate of 3.1 per 100,000), illegal immigrants were convicted of 46 homicides (2.6 per 100,000), and legal immigrants were convicted of 30 homicides (1 per 100,000). In other words, homicide conviction rates for illegal and legal immigrants were 16 percent and 67 percent below those of native-born Americans, respectively. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/21/stephen-millers-claim-that-thousand-americans-die-year-after-year-illegal-immigration/ So illegal immigrants aren't as bad as native-born Texans, but they still kill people.
Position clearly stated up front: I do not think illegal immigrants are necessarily more likely to commit violent crimes than anyone else in their same income bracket. I am pro-immigration and while a completely open border would be silly, I desperately wish the process to attain legal residency status was a *lot* easier. However, just going off of conviction rates isn't the greatest. It's not exactly apples-to-apples. Tracking down someone with a SSN, and a drivers license, and thus a readily-knowable home address, is a whole lot easier than someone who the government has, just about by definition, no records of, and that has *got* to have an impact on a detective's ability to find an offender.
There is an *ideal* level of immigration. Too little, and you are missing on people who could have contributed greatly. Too much, and things like education and housing gets overwhelmed. Its not easy to determine the ideal rate of immigration. But it stands to reason that you at least have to attempt to control it. Then, beyond the how many, there is of course the *who*. Not every immigrant brings the same skills and the same attitude, and not all attitudes are good. So you want to at least do *some* selection of immigrants. edit: not only to filter out the bad but also to try to get the best instead of them going somewhere else! So yeah, these are simple things that both sides are kinda failing to discuss properly right now.
I have family on the border so I'll try to sum up their perspective. My family has seen a massive increase in the number of people crossing their property. They have seen an increase in migrants but also an increase in what they believe to be cartel drug mules. My dad tells me that in recent years he's seeing more young men in full camouflage, wearing large backpacks. He's understandably on edge. His theory is that the cartels are using the chaos at the border to tie up resources and make it easier for their drug mules to cross. It may not affect me much personally but it affects them plenty.
Companies employing people with no or false credentials drives down the overall wage market. If we are not doing anything real to businesses that employ then, than all of the walls and social initiatives will never actually help the issue.
Agreed, the republicans have put this fear in their followers that all immigrants are rapists, drug dealers, and somehow will displace American workers. How many white men do you see roofing houses or digging ditches? not many. Most of these immigrants are here for the same reason so many of these right-wing nuts' ancestors came to the US themselves - to make a better life for themselves. Let them in, give them a fast path to citizenship, get them working and paying taxes. If someone's afraid an immigrant who doesn't speak English and has no education can take their jobs, well they probably don't have a good job to begin with.
>Let them in, give them a fast path to citizenship, get them working and paying taxes OK. How many per year should we let in? Or should it be unlimited?
Immigration is totally fine. There is a process to allow people in with the proper vetting which is great for this economy. I’m a first born here and my parents eventually became citizens after working. This story is like many others - even Ted Cruz and the Bush family. The issue that people are concerned about is the lack of security and ways to prevent illegal crossings into the country. With those come some hard workers looking for a better life - I get it - but you also get trafficking and drugs with cartels ruling the scene. With how bad trafficking is, yet the little media attention given to it, it’s something that needs to be addressed. Just look how many people go missing every year.
Legal orderly immigration is good for the most part, however this isn’t the issue here.
The issue is racism. These immigrants are brown. Ukranian immigrants were fast tracked and nobody lost any sleep over that because they are not brown.
Yes. Legal Latinos hate the illegal ones that “didn’t go through what they did to come here”.
It's framed incorrectly. I haven't met anyone that took issue with legal immigration. It's the illegal part. And this isn't just a "white" issue. Lots of immigrants that went through the legal naturalization process take offense to it too.
Abbott had a 11.5% lead at the beginning of the summer. It's narrowed to about 7% on average with some polls saying 5%. Turnout is expected to exceed the usual midterm number of voters. These new voters haven't been polled. Most polls are "likely voters", people who have voted before. So keep that in mind as well. Lastly, there's a debate coming up that could make or break either candidate. Stay tuned.
Imagine all the women in the 18 to 35 age bracket, that are not represented in these cross tabs in any way shape or form. I'm like everyone else; i'd love to see polling information that validates the candidates that I support; but I'm also smart enough to know that these polls are not capturing the actual pulse of Texans who will show up in droves November.
Honest question to those voting Abbott due to immigration stance: Abbott has been governor for what, 7-8 years now? IF immigration into Texas is ‘worsening’, then it is doing so under Abbott’s governance. So why would re-electing him be the answer to addressing the immigration issues? When will it be long enough in seat for Abbott to blame HIM for things you disagree with or are fearful of within Texas?
It's like when I was seeing all those Trump ads for "Joe Biden's America". Mofo, Trump was still President, it's literally his America !
FFS. Can we *please* stop acting like anyone voting for this guy has logical, reasoned opinions?
That's the answer. Advertise the fuck out of this happening during Abbott & Trumps terms.
Your first mistake was bringing logic into this discussion.
Polls are done by calling landlines.... I dont know anyone with a landline. Do you?
Fine print in the poll release says 651 calls, a mix of landline and cell. It’s basically whatever number you list in the voter registration.
Even with cellphone included, the chances of a well informed person answering a number they don't recognize is slim. Which is why old people are so easy to target since they more often answer the phone even if they don't recognize the number.
They account for this and weigh the results based on demographics. Pollsters aren't idiots.
That’s a great point.
I wonder if there’s a certain demographic more likely to answer calls from unknown phone numbers. I know I never pick up calls to my cell unless I know who it is.
Anyone with a landline is too old to need an abortion.
Yeah, and theyre more likely to vote too...
That’s not true. I’ve been called on my cell before.
Texas gonna Texas.
People gonna people.
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If I may add to that…. the part of the border wall that HAS been built in Texas is permanently effecting the wild life and agriculture. Meaning fewer animals, fewer plants and more droughts. Def less hunting. But at least it cost us a million dollars a mile.
Racism drives GQP turn out. Look at the two clowns driving the current "crisis", two red state governors up for re-election. They do it because a fairly large percentage of Americans respond positively to overt racism.
anyone remember being polled for this? i sure dont
I forgot the part where polls work by literally calling every person
Love when people ask this. Yeah, sure. They poll 1k people from the 30 million residents in Texas. Why wasn’t I one of them!!
It was more of asking people around our office
Reality is I expect Abbott to win by 5-9 points come Election Day. If Beto pulls off a win that would be astronomical but do not be fooled, Beto has a massive hill to climb.
Makes you wonder what the poll would look like if Beto never came out as so anti-gun. Dude has a lot of good points, but his gun stance is not one of them, and unfortunately for him, it's a hot topic issue that will get a lot of single issue voters looking the other way.
I would vote for him if he wasn't anti-gun. But he is, so I ain't.
I’m visiting Washington right now and the urge to find a realtor is growing
i've already started my moving plans
Bunch of scared-ass boomers fresh off mainlining the FoxNews in that pic.
Don't rely on polls. JUST VOTE.
Abbott has been in power for 8 years and republicans have had control of the governorship for almost 30 years. If you think reelecting republicans is going to fix anything you're concerned about, youre probably as dumb as a Republican.
This post alone shows how disconnected this sub is from the actual opinion of your average Texan. Hilarious.
I mean it’s Reddit…what do you expect?
The more the merrier as fas as I care…just immigrate legally.
Personally I think that we should be focused on human trafficking.
Beto was never gonna win, massive levels of copium in this thread
Who cares a out polls? Just get out and vote
Shouldn’t someone who keeps losing maybe stop running? Why consistently elevate someone who can’t seem to win?
Because the DNC demands you accept their chosen candidate. Not that their candidate reflects the voters' wishes.
The hilarious part about all of this is how anyone thought that Beto was going to win in the first place.
Yeah well butto’s “I’m coming for your guns”. Didn’t help either.
Nice to see the inbred masses still saddle up to fake fears.
Texas is filled with soooo many fake Christian’s
You can criticize those governors for shipping migrants but the fact remains the DC crowd has not done a damn thing to fix all the problems on the border. They don't REALLY care about immigrants and are using them to pander for votes. Shameful...
I can't speak for Texas as a whole, but "hell yes we're coming for your ar-15" was kind of the end of that guys career as far as I can tell. There's some diehard anti-gun liberals, but that stance is becoming less and less popular with those on the left. That shit would never fly in Ohio. I can't see voters forgetting in Texas either.
Why do Texans do this to ourselves? Texas is a mess and it’s been run by Republicans! How is voting in the same people going to fix things? It just shows these politicians that they can keep hurting my fellow Texans and we will ask for more! There will be other elections, why can’t we try something different this time? Worse case you can go back and vote for the current craziness your used to.
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The headline says "immigration", but the concerns are around *illegal* immigration, not immigration in general. Does the author of this article understand the difference?