[taeric]

I'm not sure I understand the apparent surprise here.

Firstly, there is a reason why, when driving through small towns, the names you see on the car dealerships are among the richest (if not the richest) around. Further, it is far from shocking that they have leveraged the power they have to entrench themselves.

What is so special about Texas that you would think they would be unique?

[jonknee]

Texas likes to boast about smaller government and more personal freedom. Except with cars apparently.

If the tea party were a state it would be Texas and Austin would be forced out.

[cobrausn]

Austin is not near as special and 'weird' as it thinks it is. I say this living in the largest city in the U.S. with a gay mayor, also located in Texas.

You know nothing jon knee.

[theevocater]

Yeah Houston (I'm assuming you are talking about Houston) is a really progressive place. I do love Austin (its a young city and I'm a young person) but its not some shining light in the center of Texas. It's really not that different than any other big city in Texas.

[jonknee]

Houston was just about split in the last election (Obama won Harris County by 585 votes). Austin went heavy for Obama (60.2% to 36.2% or just under 100k votes). Houston has quite a ways to go before being liberal. The hispanic vote makes Texas as a whole pretty interesting though.

[jff]

"Liberal", "good", and "Democrat" are not necessarily synonyms.

[cobrausn]

I don't care if Houston is 'Liberal'. I prefer pragmatic and reasonable. If the two go hand and hand, so be it, but I don't think that's always the case.

[Daniel_Newby]

> If the tea party were a state it would be Texas ...

You appear to have internalized the meme that Tea Party is a synonym for Country Club Republican. This is probably not accurate.

[onedognight]

> You appear to have internalized the meme that Tea Party is a synonym for Country Club Republican.

What does "Country Club Republican" mean to you? To me it means one who goes against their core values for the sake of a rich special interest at the expense of the masses. Here[0] every single House Tea Party member votes to protect oil subsidies despite this contradicting their core beliefs[1] in: "Protecting Free Markets", "Eliminating Excessive Taxes" and "Eliminating the Deficit Spending". In this case using taxes and/or debt to fund a non-free market.

[0] http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/01/147597/house-go...

[1] http://www.teaparty-platform.com/

[jonknee]

No, the tea party as a group lines up with Texas on immigration, guns, taxes, gays, science, religion, etc etc. Country Club Republicans stay in the enclaves.

[cobrausn]

I still can't figure out why you think 'lives in Texas' means something other than 'Texan', other than successful left-wing advertising and right-wing propaganda. Texas is pretty much a microcosm of the US with an independent streak and a strong geographical affinity.

[revscat]

But the Venn Diagrams for the two have significant overlap.

[jlgreco]

I am guessing because Texas is infamously a red state, and Republicans are perceived as claiming to be against government regulation.

[warfangle]

Probably.

Family was surprised that the anti-Tesla legislation in NC was spearheaded by some R's.

Hasn't stopped 'em from voting red, though.

[sdfaf]

Stupid is as stupid does.

[warfangle]

Hey.. they's my family. This is what HN sinks to?