With 649 days left until the 2012 election, welcome to Lone Star Left!

This is the very first post, so let’s get started with a number that will make even the staunchest Corporate Republican pour their tea on themselves!

$27,000,000,000.00

That’s the amount of money Texas is in the hole for. Boss Perry and the other Corporate Texas Republican’s ran their most recent elections on how great the economy was here in Texas and how our conservative policies have kept Texas’s unemployment numbers lower than other parts of the country. Those are great talking points, but what will happen to Texas when our legislature has to deal with a twenty seven billion dollar reality?

With education already in their cross hairs, the same good ol’ boys that brought us tuition deregulation(and the skyrocketing college costs to follow) are now ready to cut pre-school programs across the state!

Talk about a slippery slope! If educating Texans early isn’t important, then do you really think that Boss Perry will have a conscience when it comes to teacher salaries or programs like art, “One Act Play”, band or,dare I say, FOOTBALL?

As the son of a football coach, I can say that school sports programs are one of the most venerable areas to cuts after they have stripped everything else out of a district. With those cuts, hard working Texan educators and building staff will be out of work; do you really think that they are just going to stay here in the Lone Star State waiting patiently for Boss Perry and the rest of Stupor Majority to brainstorm a plan? WRONG!

At some point Texans are going to have to suck it up and start funding education in this State, but instead Corporate Republicans are pushing through Voter discrimination legislation, mandated Perrycare which force sonograms into the decision of how a woman should handle her body, and the ever popular attempt of getting guns in the hands of Texas students instead of new, cheaper, and unbiased text books. So as we head into this new session remember that Boss Perry and his compatriots in the Corporate Republican party have a vision for Texas:

POOR AND STUPID!

I’m writing today to tell you why the Mid-term elections are important, especially to me.  As some of you may know, I’ve done a lot of theatre in my life, and I’ve really enjoyed those experiences.  In theatre, it takes many hours of rehearsal to get things right, from the technical elements, costumes, acting, etc.  As an actor, when I get a difficult scene, I rehearse it over and over.  I grab the people in the scene with me, and we rehearse it over and over and over.  Yet, each time we do it, we get more and more of the lines right, and we learn more and more about how we want our performance to look on stage.  In rehearsal, we get more than one chance to decide what we want to show our audience and what we want them to take away from the play.  Yet, on the night of the performance, we only get one chance to show the audience what we want them to see.

That’s how I see these elections, as the opening night of a theatrical performance.  These elections are a chance to think of what we as Democrats want to show the audience (the citizens of Texas and the United States). When we fight for Democrats, we’re showing the public that we still care about Student Aid, Health Care, and the Environment.  When we ask our audience to come back to the polls, even after all the hard work they’ve done in the past two years, we’re asking them to stay a part of something great for our country.  And, when a show is really good, you don’t want to see it just once.

The Mid-term election is our time to show the State of Texas and the USA what powerful accomplishments have been achieved in these past two years. We need to remind the audience of how good the show they saw last time was, and if they want it to stay this good, we need their help.  We need everyone to step up and block walk, donate, and phone bank for Democrats. More importantly, we need everyone to vote and vote for Democrats. Because when the curtain closes on November 2^nd, there is no changing what’s happened.

TCD President Emeritus
Andy Jones

College Democrats Across The Lone Star State Gear Up For Election Season

AUSTIN, TX – Students are beginning classes and already attending their first College Democrats meetings of the year. If you’re one of the many chapter Presidents across the state or are interested in starting a chapter at your school here is an extremely helpful link from the College Democrats of America: http://bit.ly/dx8qWX

Here are some best practices from TCD President Emeritus Andy Jones:
1. Solidifying membership is key. A high profile speaker at the first meeting is awesome, but the second and third have to be about keeping members, not talking at them.
2. Motivate the base. Get student organizations that have helped your chapter in the past motivated to work with you again.
3. Fun, fun, fun. We’re not the West Wing campaigning for Santos. Food at events, contests, rewards, etc. Fun, fun, fun ’til her Daddy takes the ballot away…

Here is the first three weeks of state strategy from TCD President Ryan Lofton Payne:
Week one
• Contact local election office and schedule a time to deputize your group.
• Start registering people in high traffic areas of campus.
Week two
• Make sure you have contacted local candidates and inform them of where you will be registering on campus.
• Contact professors that teach the largest classes and ask if you can come in and register the class at the beginning of class.
Week three
• Start getting ready for the fall conference in Dallas and really start focusing on what you have implemented in the first two weeks.

Also, this just in! Sneak peek at the Texas College Democrats’ fall conference trainings:
1. College registration and GOTV (get-out-the-vote)
2. Old & New: Effective media for college campuses
3. Issue advocacy: making a statement at your school
4. Tools for success: fundraising & chapter development

Mark your calendars! The conference is set for September 18th and will be held at the Progressive Center of Texas in Dallas. Expect more details in the next week.

Let’s get to work,

Texas College Democrats

Southern Methodist University Democrats, who won the bid, is the home of the George W. Bush Presidential library and is on first glance in a conservative area. In 2008, SMU was named #3 among all U.S. colleges for “Most Conservative Students” by the Princeton Review. However, SMU Democrats was one of only two college chapters to qualify for the full five delegates at the TYD 2010 Convention, was the second largest Texas delegation to the CDA 2010 Convention, and SMU Students for Bill White is the third largest SFBW chapter in North Texas, only behind Austin College and UNT.
Former YDA President David Hardt and current YDA Vice President Renee Hartley are from Dallas. The Dallas County Young Democrats is one of the largest Democratic activist organizations in Dallas County, and one of the largest Young Democrats groups in the nation. With almost 600 members, the DCYDs are able to provide strong volunteer support to local Democratic and community events including parades, campaigns and rallies.

Dallas County has been the most productive county in taking back the state house with 4 gains. Also, a Democrat running county-wide in Dallas County hasn’t lost since 2004. More importantly, there are more recognized vulnerable Republican state house members in Dallas County than any other county in 2010.

The Metroplex represents a very real prospect for Texas to turn blue. Texans are folks who love common sense and aren’t afraid to swim upstream. In a time when Texas Republicans are in the news shouting about “terror babies”, stealing taxpayer money for personal expenses, and being recorded to work part-time for a full-time salary—people from across the Lone Star state will look at their ballot and do the only thing a reasonable, rational, logical person would: vote Democratic.

Let’s get to work,

Texas College Democrats

Related show

• Artist: Texas College Democrats
• Date: Saturday, September 18th 2010
• Time: 9:30am
• City: Texas College Democrats in Dallas, TX
• Venue: The Progressive Center of Texas
• Address: 1409 S. Lamar Street
• Country: United States
• Admission: $TBA
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Austin, TX – Living in Texas, we are often told that Republican victories are inevitable. We buy into the lie that because we are young and because we are Democrats our votes don’t really matter. We don’t get excited for our elections, we don’t get involved, and sometimes we don’t even vote. Republicans would have us believe that they will always be in power and that there is nothing we can do about it.

“If you want to make something happen, tell a Texan it can’t be done”

However, statistics show that our generation trends in the opposite direction. In 2008, if 18-29 year olds had decided the election the Lone Star state would have been blue on the electoral map. Within the Democratic Party, Texas continues to lead in national youth roles:

David Hardt, YDA President (2007-2009)
Katie Naranjo, CDA President (2008-2010)
Renee Hartley, YDA Vice President (2009-Present)
Alejandra Salinas, CDA President (2010-Present)

Democrats have an incredible opportunity to win big this November starting at the top of the ticket of great candidates by electing Bill White to be the next governor of Texas. White represents our best opportunity to win back the Governor’s mansion since Ann Richards while Perry represents the greatest vulnerability. People often forget that he won re-election in 2006 with only 39% of the vote.

Rick Perry has proven his corruption and incompetence to voters across the state through murky land deals, a dropout crisis in our public schools, a $18 billion budget deficit, a rental mansion that is costing taxpayers $10,000 a month, claiming that the BP oil spill was “an act of God”, or seriously talking about how Texas should secede from the Union.

“Shouldn’t we be the state the leads the nation, not that leaves the nation?”

The eyes of Texas are upon you. Organize your campus, register people to vote, and volunteer for our candidates. America is watching us—waiting to see if we will allow for Rick Perry to have an unprecedented 3rd term and the Texas GOP to remain a source of national shame. We must do everything in our power to take back our state.

Let’s get to work,

Texas College Democrats

John Adams has arguably one of the toughest places out of all of the United States Presidents having served after George Washington and before Thomas Jefferson. While Adams presidency ended after only one term in one of the most controversial elections in U.S. history, his legacy spans pre-revolution until his death on the 50^th anniversary of the founding of America on July 4^th, 1826. Adams is best remembered for his contributions to the revolution cause by being one of the most influential leaders in his calls for independence from Britain, his Thoughts on Government, and his efforts to ensure that the Declaration of Independence was adopted by a sometimes hesitant Continental Congress. However, were it not for Adams many years spent as an ambassador in Europe during the early years of the United States building crucial alliances and securing needed loans, the U.S. may not have been able to survive as a newly independent nation.

Upon returning to the United States, Adams was elected to serve as Vice President to George Washington, though he would find his role to be rather underwhelming. After being elected as the 2^nd President of the United States in 1796, Adams focused his efforts on avoiding war with France but much of his Presidency would become marred by his signing of the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts. As political parties began to take shape, Adams found himself siding with the Federalists despite his political independence often putting him at odds with his party. His lack of popularity among the Federalists led to his defeat to his good friend and Democratic-Republican opponent Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1800. Adams would spend the rest of his life living a simple life of farming, free of the political turmoil Adams came to despise. Adams legacy lives on as an integral piece of the formation and survival of the United States, and as a man who lived out his creed that “Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.”