OK, a little commentary about last night’s election results in Texas.

Governor’s race. Not surprised that Abbott won. I had hoped a better showing for the Democrats, but not surprised.

L.Governor: Bummed heavily that our new L.Gov will be a tea party talk show host idiot. This is really not a good thing for the state. Am I surprised? Not really. I think that mid-term elections draw a certain kind of voter, and a lot of them are straight party voters.

George P. Bush is going to be the new Land Commissioner. Great. Another goddamned Bush coming into office. He’s the son of the “smart one” — gaaaah!  Whatever. He’s yet another silver-spoon rich boy, born not only on 3rd base but halfway to home plate. A real “man of the people”, I’m sure.

While I’m not smart enough to really express this very well, I think that the weird conservative religiousity of this state is just so detrimental to moving forward. It really permeates everything. I have some religious friends who are actually pretty liberal, and I really am glad that they exist and I respect them very much, but I have to say that overall the religious environment of Texas is of a conservative hillbilly grade-school dropout variety. That’s most of the South, actually. I’m a southerner. I know.

It is strange to feel completely disconnected from the prevalent cultural identity of your state and/or city, but the truth is this: I am not alone. It isn’t like the Republicans got 90% of the vote. They just won enough to win the election. Texas is not as monolithic R as it would appear. If it were, I would already be gone or be quite insane.

Small steps though, can be meaningful. My employer just recently extended full benefits to same-sex couples. Full equality. It is recognized as not only being the right thing to do, but good business. And we are in a very conservative area.  So I view this as a very positive development.