The values expressed by the party that often got 40 to 45 percent of the statewide vote could find no expression. They could not be playacted or validated by anyone with more power than a mayor. This was painful to many Texans in a way that probably sounds a little silly to outsiders, and it’s warped public life here. Liberal Texans grow up hearing stories, passed down like samizdat, of the liberal Texas that existed and often held power through the end of the last century. It didn’t use to be like this.

Pretty decent quick-take think piece, and one that tells the story from a very Texan perspective, which will be important for any national blue operators assigned to help ensconce last night's wins. Now, in a globalized world it's less pronounced, but the threads of thought that John Steinbeck saw in the early 60s endure:

“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.”

Texas lefties have our own versions of these myths, that aren't necessarily much more true than the right's, but they're more hopeful. They focus on De Zavala and Texas Chili Queens, black cowboys, on the word Texas meaning "friend," on regional pride that can conveniently omit the Confederate battle flag, and a million other little tweaks. The heroes of the story are Sam Houston telling the other slaveholders that slavery wasn't worth seceding over (that's really the best I can do, LOL, he was better than his peers but ol' Sam was a man of place and time and class), LBJ learning as a schoolteacher that brown kids are alright and eventually big-dicking Republicans to get the Civil Rights Act passed, Ann Richards calling out Clayton Williams and George W. Bush, and Willie Nelson doing Willie Nelson things. This is national mythmaking you can use to spur people to follow their better angels, rather than raw machismo that lashes out at anything new or different. It can even hold up to --gasp-- teaching history truthfully and trusting people to learn from it and do better. We need more Hank Hill, less Elon Musk.