Again? New York Times Can’t Quit Scary ‘Hard Right’ Texas Republicans

These are the new faces. New York Times Houston bureau chief J. David Goodman made Monday’s paper with this apparently newsworthy criticism of the Republican Party in Texas, “For Texas Governor, Hard Right Turn Followed a Careful Rise.”  

It’s the Times’ latest entry in a series of repetitive, fearmongering stories the paper has been constantly running for a decade, warning its easily frightened liberal readership that Texas is running ever-scarily to the right. Are there any remaining seats? Republican Governor Greg Abbott has made the absurd trend worse. Greg Abbott.

Back in September, Goodman penned “Texas Lawmakers, After Shift To Right, Plan More of Same.” In July, reporter Reid Epstein pondered “Can Texas Turn Further Right? Top 2 Republicans Say It Can.” Less than two weeks before that, a headline read “Texas Governor Pushes State Further to the Right On Voting Rights and Race.” We get it, guys: Texas is full of right-wing nuts!

Every story has been laced by the ridiculously extreme ideological labeling of conservatives.

Gov. Greg Abbott surprised many of his staff by arriving at his office in the fall with plans for a brand new pandemic declaration: A ban on mandatory vaccinations from private employers within Texas.

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The governor’s sudden change of heart drew strong criticism from Texas business organizations, including American Airlines, and Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a prominent player in Republican politics. It also prompted frustration among some of the governor’s staff.

People who know Mr. Abbott personally and have seen his rise to the position of lawyer, state court judge, attorney general, and finally to governor have been stunned at his sudden alignment with the Republican Party’s most strident activists.

Of course, big on the list of heresies is Abbott’s refusal to mandate masks:

His rightward shift will be tested next year as he faces his most well-known and well-funded Democratic challenger yet, Beto O’Rourke, who announced his run late last month. This contest poses the question “Who is going to win?” how far right a Texas governor can go and still hold on against a rising tide of Democrats in the state’s largest cities and suburbs.

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Ultraconservatives were not satisfied with his ban on vaccine mandatesThe group has been calling for a special legislative session that would codify his order. According to industry groups, hospitals and businesses are moving ahead with their existing and planned vaccination requirements while the state is doing little or nothing to enforce it.

….as Republicans have strengthened their hold on state government, Mr. Abbott has seen challenges from his party’s animated base. This year, Mr. Abbott has joined with the firebrand lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, Supporting one of the most conservative sessions of Texas legislative history.

Goodman called the Texas governor by a random critic.

“Greg is an arch, arch far-right conservative, which remains a shock to me,” said Pearson Grimes, a partner at the law firm where Mr. Abbott worked in the 1980s after a falling tree paralyzed him from the waist down….

Following that are some sympathetic paragraphs about Abbott’s personal tragedy, losing his ability to walk after a freak accident. Then it’s back to the scary labeling.

Before the pandemic was, Mr. Abbott managed to unify the business-oriented party wing with the fringe.….