Best first post by a new member since forever.Bottom line up front, the time for TSRA playing footsie under the table with the opposition is over and done.
I will reserve judgement until we see if Mike Cox is another fudd elitist, like Alice was,
but I do sincerely encourage the new lobbyist for TSRA to bring his "A" game next session, and leave the fudd tradition in the dust bin where it belongs;
to be clear -- the individual right to possess and use firearms for self defense is what is at stake now, endless lame excuses for more "compromise" are no longer going to work anymore, like they used to.
We can all see that the 2018 session was a chit show, the crowning achievement of 25 years of RINO control,
more antigun bills were filed in the 2018 session than ever before in the history of TX, the RINO speaker Bonnen openly working to deny the conservative platform, working with democrat leadership to screw over the conservative base.
This November, the consequences of RINOs enabling that overt misrepresentation is expected to be severe, and rightly so.
Redistricting is bringing at least three new district reps incoming, all hard left democrats, hand picked, with no competition in sight.
The house is being handed over to democrat control, quite possibly also gaining majority in the senate as well.
The 2018 session push for gun control was a test run, a probe to determine where the gaps are for the decisive 2020 push, where the weakest links are to exploit (and there are many).
In the 2020 session we can expect easily twice as many anti gun bills as in 2018, simultaneously in BOTH chambers this time, a tidal wave of more antigun measures in one session than all of Texas history combined.
All relevant committees in both chambers are going to be chaired by militant progressive democrats, or else RINOs sympathetic to the progressive agenda, and they are going to use every cheap/dirty trick they have at their disposal to push their bills through, with the help of their pals Bonnen and the LT gov.
Imposing decisive gun control is going to be their top legislative priority, for the purposes of getting revenge for 25 years of having to wait to grab power.
That means that gun control is certain to pass in 2020,
only a question of how much, how bad,
that also means that TSRA is necessarily going to be a key part of that outcome.
The TSRA of 2019 is not ready to deal with any of that, not even close.
The opposition is motivated, determined, well funded, tech savvy, and they are down there every day demanding that they get their way, and are willing to do whatever it takes to win.
The commie mommies are still pissed that she lost, and they are out for revenge, and they smell the blood in the water, they will not be denied.
So, is TSRA ready for that? Or not?
What is the plan to deal effectively with what is coming in the 2020 session?
Is TSRA going to commit the substantial resources now necessary to be relevant? to manage the defensive situation?
or not?
Is TSRA ready to make the painful changes that are required to adapt, to be relevant in the outcome that is on the table now?
Let's start with messaging:
yep, Mike does a great job there.
Looks really neat and tidy-- for say, back in 1998.
and completely irrelevant in 2020.
No one, on either faction, wants to listen to another old white man drone on about "guns again"; that is a pure non starter, that message may have worked once upon a time, but the opposition have adapted, overcome.
You TSRA guys are going to have to face the way things are today, and do a complete marketing/image restart, 100% from the ground up, you have to get it right,
you are going to need considerable help, and you do not have much time left to get it done.