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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 11, 2023

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Ken Paxton acquitted:

On one hand yes. But, only Republicans voted to acquit and a mix of Republicans and Democrats voted to convict. I accept this as a display of partisan power rather than a display of innocence.

The old joke that a politician in a majority district could only lose if they were caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl comes to mind. Corrupt partisan supported by most of his fellows. Nothing more or less.

The fact that some Republicans turned on him is a black mark, but ultimately irrelevant.

some republicans turned on him

Overstates things quite a bit. Two republicans voted to convict on any count(there were 16) in a chamber in which republicans hold a comfortable majority. Both of them were winners of the recent term length drawing(the Texas senate determines the lengths of senators terms by drawing straws; I couldn’t tell you why they do this) and so will not be up for election in the next cycle.

you could do something crazy like look at the presented evidence in his impeachment trial

everyone doesn't need to have a strong opinion on a topic they know next to nothing about

sadly, most responses here are some form of "I know next to nothing about this, but because surface level knowledge about these 3 things means I think X"

I read political news and vaguely have some sense that he is famous for his corruption. But of course the media lies like the lying liars they are. Maybe I fell for their tricks.

But as a terminal political news addict, I refuse to personally review the evidence in this state-level impeachment case. I will bow out of that task and also not take back any claims regarding the power of naked partisanship. Which this might be.

Or maybe the prosecutors were such bumbling morons that only all Democrats and a few select Republicans would lower themselves to performatively vote guilty. And the other Republicans who voted to acquit were honestly voting their conscience.

I guess that's possible. I'm not so invested in Texas state politics that I will be critically evaluating the primary sources.

What is the value in forming opinions based on the 2nd hand summations of agenda-driven liars? I haven't found "political news" to be an accurate reflection of reality beyond a billboard for what the powers that be want you to think today (or think about today).

For a man who is "famously corrupt," it certainly tells us something that despite a lot of motivation, millions of dollars, and subpoena power, the best they could dig up on Ken Paxton was a corruption scheme over a $25,000 political donation 2 years before an alleged "return," and then a kitchen remodel whereby the accusers and investigators didn't even bother to find out if his kitchen was, in fact, remodeled.

A bribe where phrased as someone "paying for your kitchen remodel" doesn't actually require you remodel your kitchen. But there has to be some quid for the quo.