Kinky Drops Out

I no longer have a candidate in the governor's race that I can support in good conscience. The choice is now down to a rich man who wants to buy the office, a rabid blue dog and an unknown teacher with no name recognition and no money to get any. That's because the last candidate with any redeeming features dropped out of the race yesterday.

On Monday, Kinky Friedman announced that he is dropping out of the race for governor in the Democratic primary. To my great dismay and shame, Kinky is tucking his tail between his legs and running away from a fight that I still think he could have won with a good campaign. Like Hank Gilbert a couple of weeks ago, he has let Houston Mayor Bill White scare him out of the race. Kinky and Hank will now be facing off against each other now in the race for Agriculture Commissioner.

I had hoped that this year the Democratic Party would run either a true progressive (Hank Gilbert) or a maverick that would shake up things in Austin (Kinky Friedman). To help in that goal, I even made monetary contributions to both of those campaigns. But they needn't ask for any more money. After their gutless actions, my pocketbook is now closed to both. I guess if there's a silver lining, it's that I'll have more to spend on myself.

And once again, the Texas Democratic Party has shown it is not worthy of the proud name and tradition of the national party. It's as though the party is afraid to run a true progressive that might have coattails that would help down-ballot, even though the one time they did run a progressive (Ann Richards) they actually won.

No, they continue to nominate and run business-oriented, pseudo-Republican blue dogs. And they're doing it again this year with Bill White. It's as though they don't believe their own ideals and beliefs are good enough to win a Texas election. That's sad. And it's going to cost them another election in 2010.

The people of Texas are craving a real choice between a progressive and a conservative, and with some money and an agressive campaign, I believe the progressive could win. But instead they are offered a Democratic conservative (blue dog) and a Republican conservative (teabagger). What's the point in voting Democratic when all you'll get is a faux-Republican and business as usual in Austin.

I expect Democrats will lose again in Texas next November, and there will be much weeping and wailing among party regulars who won't understand why. But the why will be because Texas voters won't vote for a party that won't even stand up for its own beliefs. When Democrats are brave enough to fight for progressive values by nominating a real progressive, that's when they'll once again have a chance. Until then, they deserve to lose.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out if it's even worth my time to vote in the Democratic primary. The only real race is between Friedman and Gilbert, and I don't particularly care to make that choice.