The takeaway from last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decisions and our leadership’s reactions to them show just how far Texas has slipped away from the mainstream. Same-sex marriage? Republicans are against it. Health care for everyone? Against it. Discrimination in housing projects? We’re on the wrong side of that too.
Texas needs to take a long look at itself in the mirror. Bright young people are not going to come here if the state continues to support values that only the most extreme of our residents embrace. Even the state’s vaunted business climate is at risk due to our hostility to ideas that are accepted almost everywhere else. This is going to be the number-one problem in this state going forward. That attitude cannot last without dire consequences for the future.
Now it appears that Ken Paxton is willing to play the role of George Wallace when it comes to same-sex marriage. It’s not going to work. No doubt the rest of our leaders will go along, but all it will do is make Texas look ridiculous in the eyes of the rest of the country. There are few things more isolating than to be on the wrong side of history.
