r/politics • u/SpaceElevatorMusic Minnesota • 15d ago
No Paywall Republicans won’t moderate if Democrats gain ground in the Texas House, hardline leader says | “None of us are willing to go backwards and say, ‘Oh, well, we lost a few seats, so our policy agenda is going to change,” state Rep. Mitch Little said at last week’s Texas Tribune Festival.
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/29/texas-legislature-2027-session-house-gop-midterms-mitch-little/154
u/The_Lost_Jedi Washington 15d ago
And this is just one part of what's absolutely broken with the Republican party.
The way our government/politics is supposed to work is that if the voters signal displeasure, politicians are then supposed to respond accordingly. Republicans instead have been saying "fuck you, we're doubling down" instead for nearly 20 years or more now.
And yet voters have been rewarding them for that, rather than punishing them. A political party that does this sort of shit ought to be punished by voters, yet thanks to propaganda, sports team mentality, and "but I hate Democrats" thinking has led to them continuing to get away with doing whatever the fuck they want. Blatant Open Corruption, Flagrantly Illegal actions, etc - it's only going to get worse if people don't wise up and start punishing them.
And by this point, it's probably not enough for it to be one or two elections. The whole party apparatus is rotten.
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u/omnicious 12d ago
But the bending is also what makes Dems lose support as well. They end up compromising so much that voters don't see them as actual alternatives to Republicans and don't think voting matters.
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u/The_Lost_Jedi Washington 12d ago
I mean, now, sure. We're 40 years past that point, yet Schumer and his ilk still act like it's 1986 or 1996 and we should be trying to figure out how to co-opt Republican talking points, completely fucking ignorant of the fact that Republicans stopped even feigning to address real problems 20+ years ago, and instead just make shit up.
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u/eskimospy212 11d ago
Let’s not forget that the system is designed to advantage them.
I found it funny how Republicans were bragging that Trump won the popular vote in 2024 because everyone just generally accepts that Republicans will get fewer votes than their opponent.
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u/Uhhh_what555476384 15d ago
Whereas the Democrats have the instincts of a normal political party, moving right when they lose general elections and left when they win.
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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 15d ago
They have the instincts of a party that always intended to move right, anyway.
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u/Uhhh_what555476384 15d ago
That's a statement that thinks the last 4 years is reflective of the last 40.
Read US political history. Look at the actual size of the political coalitions.
Don't let your own sense of moral superiority blind you to the reality of the world.
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u/Tsakax 15d ago
Both party's have moved right every election since fdr.
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u/The_Lost_Jedi Washington 15d ago
And that's part of the problem, because that signaling has completely broken down. We don't see any movement to the left because voters keep rewarding Republicans and punishing Democrats.
The Democrats in the last 40 years have only gotten power because Republicans managed to fuck things up so badly - and then voters promptly start giving power BACK to the Republicans!
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u/CMidnight 10d ago
Really? Do you think that FDR supported civil rights? Abortion access? Gay rights?
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u/Uhhh_what555476384 15d ago
From 1968 to 2006 the Republicans had a 55% majority. Of course they moved to the right. They were chasing the voters.
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u/Tsakax 15d ago
Thats more of a design flaw in our "Democracy" that slave states were granted equal power via the senate. The broader electorate is not rightwing and pandering to the rightwing brings losses IE 2016 amd 2024.
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u/Uhhh_what555476384 15d ago
Go look at every Presidential Election since 1968 and then explain how the US electorate isn't right wing.
Even the New Deal was an alliance between white progressives and proto-fascist segregationists.
What collapsed the New Deal majority and gave the conservatives a political majority? Kicking the segregationists from the party. Not something to be lamented, but the numerical political reality of that defines American politics.
Wishing a progressive political majority in a country that has never truly had one, isn't the path to change.
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u/ChanceryTheRapper I voted 14d ago
The past four years? The Dems completely capitulation on the Patriot Act doesn't count?
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u/normalice0 Iowa 15d ago
Their goal is to give more money to the rich. That will not change no matter how many times they lose.
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u/Oleg101 15d ago
And to hurt “the right people”
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u/normalice0 Iowa 15d ago
that's the voters. The politicians are generally indifferent to hurting people. They just want to give the rich more money. But they happened to have noticed that promising to hurt people is pretty much the only way they can reliably get anyone to vote for them.
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u/kittenTakeover 15d ago
I think there's something to what you're saying, but I also think that the authoritarian oligarchs cooperation with serious sexists, racists, and christian nationalists has crossed a threshold where the oligarchs aren't fully in control of the insane asylum.
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u/AceofKnaves44 District Of Columbia 15d ago
Republicans don’t have any actual policies. They have “BE AFRAID OF THOSE PEOPLE” and “let’s give as many tax cuts to the rich as we can.”
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u/AdHopeful3801 15d ago
Karl Rove suggested "moderation" and a bigger tent in the 2013 autopsy of Romney's loss. Three years later GOP voters decided "fuck that, let's elect a guy who is far more crooked and far more of an asshole than any previous Republican."
Texas Republicans are being completely rational here - moderating is just going to cost them their base on one hand, while failing to win over a left that has become completely revolted by the GOP's shrimping Donald Trump for a decade, and failing to win over moderates who are not engaged by bloodless triangulation.
You can see this play out in the opposite direction too. Gavin Newsom's decision to "moderate" by vetoing the billionaire tax and blocking any attempt to protect trans people has done jack shit to get Republicans on his side, and pissed off a lot of Democrats.
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u/Uhhh_what555476384 15d ago
It's much less well known but Steve Bannon and some of his fellow media figures produced a counter autopsy in response to the RNC's famous "we need to moderate" autopsy.
The conclusion of the counter autopsy was basically "We just need white people in the rest of the country to be as politically racist as white people in the South."
Clearly, we know which two of those documents won.
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u/Greedy-Basil9619 15d ago
Imagine if people more moderate than Mitt Romney were running the Republican Party. Life would be much more boring in the best way possible
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u/BoneTemplePilot 15d ago edited 14d ago
The thing is they really did grow the Republican tent. Trump's power is comes from motivating people that basically never voted before at all. There was also a big re allignment of new agey types.
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u/AdHopeful3801 14d ago
True, and the Democrats need to come up with their own plan to reach otherwise disengaged voters, or the MAGA coalition of billionaires and angry white folks is going to be the biggest thing in electoral politics for a while.
Personally, I think that means showing up with more people like Mamdani who not only campaign on progressive values, but then actually deliver. How well that works in Congress is another story.
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u/EE-420-Lige 15d ago
Newsome is extremely pro Trans its top 1 or 2 in the United States. Like Newsome isnt the best but this is one issue where cali is ahead of like +95% of America lol
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u/AdHopeful3801 14d ago
Percentages don't matter. Either you have a principle and you follow that, or you follow the polls. Newsom follows the polls, and that means not being particularly inspiring, or trustworthy.
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u/CMidnight 10d ago
Right, no politician should ever be response to the changing views of their voters. No politician should ever be allowed to change their views given new information.
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u/AdHopeful3801 10d ago
If you can’t figure out the difference between “having principles and sticking to them” and “not allowed to change your mind based on new information” it’s probably just that you haven’t tried thinking very hard about it.
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u/Mostmessybun 15d ago
Newsom vetoes significant legislation that would improve the lives of trans people. First he vetoed a law that would have allowed trans people to stockpile a 12 month supply of life saving hormone medication. He said it wasn’t fair to the insurance companies. Next he vetoed a law that would have prohibited California from extraditing medical providers to hostile states for providing gender affirming care. In both cases he shows he won’t lift a finger for trans people. California is the weakest west coast state for trans rights because of him.
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u/Waste-Time-2440 15d ago
It's a great reminder to Democrats - a moderate approach designed to gain bipartisan appeal has been firmly rejected before you even think about it. So DON'T. If the GOP is determined to destroy democracy, the middle class, science, heaalth, the environment, and our international standing - take a hard stance in the other direction.
Make the results of this election COUNT.
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u/CMidnight 10d ago
To accomplish anything in a democracy requires broad coalitions which are impossible when you write off 40%+ of the population.
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u/AffectionateTown7453 15d ago
Good, let them continue to be exposed aS do-nothings for the average Texan. THERE'S NO TRICKLE, THERE NEVER WAS. YOU'VE BEEN HOODWINKED, SHITHEADS
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u/ajawizard 15d ago
Cool! Surely now dems will recognize that moving to the right every time they lose is an ineffective strategy right? Right?
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u/Vegetable-Error-2068 15d ago
Nope. Democrats take every win or loss as a signal to move further right.
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u/bejammin075 Pennsylvania 15d ago
"Hell will freeze over before we respond to the wishes of the voters!"
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u/NewMidwest 15d ago
Republicans hate America and want it to collapse, so they can replace it with a white/republican-christian/feudal utopia.
How do you moderate a pile of shit?
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u/freelanceisart 13d ago
“You know what? We’re just gonna Nazify and commit brazen crimes even HARDER!”
I sincerely hope that, if they are able to pull this off and turn Trump’s last 2 years into the lamest lame duck session in history, that they use their powers to actually do what Congress and the Senate are supposed to do and balance the goddamn powers again, impeach and imprison some of the outright criminals in this admin, and bring some semblance of faith back to the name of the United States of America.
But I also know full well they are fucking useless at doing that, so whatever.
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u/theclansman22 13d ago
When have republicans ever moderated? After 2008 they had a post-mortem that begged them to try to appeal more to minority voting groups. Instead they doubled down with the Tea Party and eventually Trump. The next guy will be even worse. I don't know who it will be, but it will be something worse than Trump.
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u/mattjf22 California 12d ago
That's fantastic. Continue to do the opposite of what voters want.
This is what happens when politicians are allowed to choose their voters. Gerrymandering is just one of the massive problems needing correction in our government.
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u/ShitBirdingAround 15d ago
Even the delusional, entitled shit-heads are bigger in Texas? The GOP is Garbage On Purpose.
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u/Raise_A_Thoth 15d ago
No one thought they would. The problem remains for them that if they won't moderate, other candidates may, and then they might win some elections rather than the christofascists.
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u/SeaworthinessLow6636 15d ago
You don't really have an agenda beyond getting rich and you're not gonna stop trying to get rich. Have you heard about the Lindbergh baby?
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u/Apprehensive_Sand343 15d ago
Hey, keep doing what your doing. If Texas flips in a Presidential election, it's game over.
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u/IJourden 15d ago
Just out there saying "no, we aren't going to represent our constituents" with their whole chest.
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u/Wretchro 15d ago
i love Mitch Little... he does a great Carson impression... and have you heard him do Bogart?!
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u/ericl666 Texas 15d ago
All we need is Gina Hinojosa or Vikki Goodwin to win, and then we can tell him (politely) to get fucked.
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u/hikealot Montana 15d ago
I’m old enough to remember when California was a reddish purple state. Californians didn’t move left so much as the CA Republican Party lost their collective minds.
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u/Depressed-Industry 15d ago
Good. Actually I hope they get more extreme. Means less people will vote for them.
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u/All_Hail_Hynotoad California 15d ago
Did anyone expect them to? The goal is to defeat them, not to win them over. They’ve already shown they can’t be reasoned with.
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u/fpcoffee Illinois 12d ago
why would they? Just wait for Dems to move closer to the right as the new normal
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u/JohnnyPaloonky58 12d ago
I am indifferent to corporate pain. Idk if this is relevant. I do not care if corporations suffer. Is there a more badass sufficient way to put this? In Texas terms? Oh, come and try to take it you fascist swine.
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u/Square-Weight4148 11d ago
Republicans are to ignorant to govern. How can anyone not realize this is a better question at this point.
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u/Stunning-Thanks-4226 11d ago
Won't matter. They will be locked up. We are cleaning house and they will enjoy the prisons they have inadequately funded.
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