SOUTH TEXAS POVERTY & SOUTH TEXAS POLITICS: A SORDID STORY OF DECEPTION & ABUSE

The town where I live seems to take pride in billing itself as America's poorest city.  Indeed, if one is looking for poverty, it is here.  With 45% of the population living under the poverty line and more than 46% of children reckoned to be poverty stricken, this is a very poor place.

Government programs are big business here.  More than 36% of residents are recipients of food stamps and Medicaid.  The average income for a man runs around $21,000 per annum, while females do somewhat worse at $17,000.

For generations, this has been a one-party town, with the party of hand-outs dominating the courthouse and city/county politics.  How many times the word has gone out from the party bosses that voting the other way will mean drastic cuts in benefits is hard to say.  But, nevertheless, it is a time-proven and effective political strategy that works well with the under-educated and unsophisticated populace of south Texas.

During my almost a quarter century of having a home in south Texas, the same old political cabals have called for more and more public expenditures to mitigate the plight of the "pobrecitos." The predicament of the poor, however, seems never to be alleviated, while the advantage of what is in effect a veritable poverty industry, as always, goes to the established political machine and its various factions.

Meanwhile, the one-party conglomerate  continues to mire itself more deeply in corruption, and the list of indicted and convicted attorneys, judges, commissioners and politicos continues to grow.  The conviction and sentencing of the local district attorney for racketeering, for example,  is a blot which will take a time span of significant proportions to erase.

Local elections do well to attract 15% of registered voters, too many of whom are only too eager to sell their votes cheaply, in some instances for a platter of barbecued chicken and a beer.  Lately, federal law enforcement agents and Texas Rangers have been taking a closer look at the shenanigans at south Texas polling places.  Whether their efforts will appreciably change the regional  political complexion remains to be seen.

In many ways, the local culture is reminiscent of what one encounters south of the border, with the "ricos" doing quite well, while the "pobrecitos" amble along as they habitually have, with the difference being that the poor on this side of the river become more and more inured in a culture of welfare, victimhood and deprivation. In the interim, the politicians and decision-makers on local governing councils more often than not decide to swindle the taxpayers and treat themselves to the spoils of office.

The folly of one-party politics is plain to see. Not only does such a system bring bring on blight and the squandering of human resources, it invariably leads to the cheapening and debilitation of the wider body politic, which, in turn, is victimized by irresponsibility and spreading ignorance.  For certain, Detroit is not the sole example of governance by one party over generations, for that city's example is in the process of being replicated not only in south Texas but, I am sure, in too many other areas as well.

Deo Vindice!

May God bless Texas!