IF YOU THINK THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SUCKS NOW, WAIT TILL WE HAVE ELECTORAL COLLEGES IN THE STATES

Texas Republicans have been meeting in Houston for the past few days, in their first in-person convention since 2018. You may know that the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay and lesbian organization, was denied an opportunity to participate in the convention. You may also know that Congressman Dan Crenshaw and his staff were assaulted by critics, at least one of whom said he should be hung for treason.

Texas Republicans produced a platform document that includes virtually every right-wing grievance, some of them expressed in ways I haven't seen before:

They approved measures declaring that President Joe Biden “was not legitimately elected” and rebuking Sen. John Cornyn for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. They also voted on a platform that declares homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and calls for Texas schoolchildren “to learn about the humanity of the preborn child.”

... the party platform vote on Saturday by roughly 5,100 convention delegates would argue that those under 21 are “most likely to need to defend themselves” and may need to quickly buy guns “in emergencies such as riots.”

I know that Kyle Rittenhouse was young, and that Fox-watching Republicans think that what happened in Kenosha on the night Rittenhouse killed two people happens every night in "Democrat-controlled cities," but do these people actually believe that unrest of this kind disproportionately poses a danger to 18-to-21-year-olds? Apparently so.

In addition:

Texas GOP Platform also calls for full repeal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as for the state to hold a referendum on whether Texas should secede pic.twitter.com/oeiGjB0nys

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 19, 2022

And here's one I didn't see coming:

The Texas GOP platform also calls for a state electoral college to elect statewide office holders instead of the popular vote pic.twitter.com/evU1tSQdDN

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 19, 2022

What's the point of this? Oh, it's a brilliant ploy for a purple state: First you gerrymander the state legislature, so that even if there's a year when Democrats win the most votes overall in legislative elections, the districts are draw so that Republicans always win the most seats. Then you devise this system whereby each state senate district elects a member of a board that chooses the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and any other officials elected statewide. Permanent GOP control of the state legislature means districts will always be gerrymandered in the GOP's favor, and also means that the majority of members of this body will always be Republican. No risk of Governor Beto or Governor Castro -- forever.

I've always regarded Texas as a rebuke to the arguments in favor of the federal Electoral College. Texas is full of liberal-leaning big liberal-leaning cities -- Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso -- but somehow Republicans in Texas haven't needed an electoral college in order to win. They can still win the statewide popular vote.

But Texas GOP convention delegates fear a future when that's no longer the case. I don't know if they'll ever manage to get this enacted, but I won't be surprised if the idea surfaces as a serious legislative proposal in Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, or anywhere else where non-right-wing city-dwellers threaten GOP control of everything everywhere forever