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Could Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey displace Republican Gov. Greg Abbotts bid in 2022 for a third four-year term?

According to a Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll taken April 6-13, in a choice between McConaughey, Abbott and an unnamed someone else, the actor got 45% to Abbotts 33%, with 22% for someone else.

Of the 1,126 poll respondents, 37% identified themselves as Republican, 30% as Democrats, and 33% with no party affiliation. The polls margin of error is plus or minus 2.92%.

Abbotts job approval rating was 50% among all respondents, with 36% disapproving and 15% saying neither.

McConaughey got the support of 66% of the Democrats against Abbott and a third party, 44% of independents, and 30% of Republicans.

The actor has said hed be a fool not to at least consider the possibility of running for governor of his home state.

But McConaughey has yet to say which partys banner hed run under, if any, describing himself as an aggressive centrist.

Im a Meet You in the Middle man, he told the Austin American-Statesman in March. He said no single party has exclusive ownership of various political issues and virtues.

Other interesting information turned up by the poll of Texans included that Democratic President Joe Biden has a 52-41 job approval rating.

On abortion, more than half of Texans oppose U.S. Supreme Court repeal of the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that largely left it to women to decide whether they want to carry a pregnancy to term. Opponents of repeal were 61%; 37% wanted it done away with.

House Bill 1927, to allow carrying a handgun in Texas without a permit or training, was passed 87-58 by the Texas House on April 16. But in the recent poll of Texans, 58% are against it, while 26% favor it.

The bill must pass the Senate before it can go to the governor for approval or disapproval.

But Senate presiding officer, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has said the bill doesnt have enough votes to clear that body, and Abbott declined to say his attitude toward the bill until it reaches his desk.

Congress 6 replacement: The May 1 special election to fill the Congressional District 6 seat in southeast Tarrant County, including most of Arlington and Mansfield, and all of Ellis and Navarro counties south of Dallas County, has drawn 23 candidates.

The vacancy was due to the Feb. 7 death of Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Wright from COVID-19.

The 11 Republicans running include Wrights widow Susan, a longtime Republican Party activist, thought to be leading the pack a few weeks ago.

But another GOP candidate is state Rep. Jake Ellzey of Waxahachie, who won his Texas House seat last year after losing a Republican primary runoff to Wright in 2018.

Among the 10 Democratic contenders is Jana Sanchez, who won the 2018 Democratic primary runoff, but lost in November to Ron Wright.

There is also a Libertarian candidate and an Independent.

A runoff is expected, since none of the 23 candidates are likely to top the 50% necessary to avoid one.

The earliest date for which the runoff can be set by Gov. Greg Abbott is May 24.

The runoff winner will begin serving upon being declared, but will immediately face a crowded re-election battle.

Several of the losing candidates May 1 will probably likely just continue running for the 2022 election in the Republican district trending Democratic.

And, this is slated to be the once-a-decade redistricting of legislative and congressional districts.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported figures Monday of the 2020 U.S. headcount. Texas will pick up two new congressional districts from other states for the 2022 election year, due to population shifts. Texas is the only state to gain more than one.

That will boost the number of Texas districts from 36 to 38, which probably will scramble districts in urban areas.

Its entirely likely that some of the candidates may not live in District 6 after the redistricting, but thats OK.

To run for Congress, a candidate just has to be at least 25, a U. S. citizen and a resident of the state. Thats it.

In fact, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram checked candidate data, and found eight candidates four Democrats, three Republicans and the lone Libertarian dont reside within the districts boundaries.

But some did, or have worked in the district for years,

So, some with an eye on a seat in Congress: this might be an ending or a continuation or a beginning.

Let the political contests continue.

Dave McNeely is an Austin-based columnist who covers Texas politics. His column appears Thursday.

Originally posted here:
McNeely: McConaughey for governor? | Opinion | news-journal.com - Longview News-Journal

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Former President Donald Trump has endorsed fellow Republican Susan Wright in the crowded Saturday special election to replace her late husband, U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, R-Arlington.

The endorsement is a massive development in a race that features 11 Republicans, including at least two former Trump administration officials. A number of the GOP contenders have been closely aligning themselves with the former president.

"Susan Wright will be a terrific Congresswoman (TX-06) for the Great State of Texas," Trump said in a statement Monday. "She is the wife of the late Congressman Ron Wright, who has always been supportive of our America First Policies."

Wright, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, said in a statement that she was "so proud to be the only candidate in this race President Trump trusts to be his ally in our fight to Make America Great Again."

The special election was triggered by Ron Wright's death in February after he was hospitalized with COVID-19. In addition to the 11 Republicans, Saturday's ballot includes 10 Democrats, one Libertarian and one independent.

Wright's Republican rivals include Brian Harrison, the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Trump, and Sery Kim, who worked at the Small Business Administration under the former president. There is also Dan Rodimer, the former pro wrestler who moved to Texas after an unsuccessful congressional campaign last year in Nevada that had Trump's support.

The candidates' efforts to show their loyalty to Trump has gotten so intense that a Trump spokesperson had to issue a statement last week clarifying that he had not yet gotten involved in the race.

Early voting for the special election started a week ago and ends Tuesday.

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Susan Wright endorsed by Donald Trump in Texas congressional election - The Texas Tribune

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to cut $2.1 million from the 2021-22 higher education budget cuts designed to curb social justice programs at the states four-year public institutions.

The budget would earmark $313.1 million of state tax dollars for higher education. Gov. Brad Little requested $315.2 million.

Here are thumbnail reactions to the budget proposal:

Idaho Education News has also requested comment from Idaho State University, which is facing a $500,000 cut, and the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a libertarian-leaning group which has vocally decried social justice and diversity initiatives on state campuses.

Check back for updates.

Senior reporter and blogger Kevin Richert specializes in education politics and education policy. He has more than 30 years of experience in Idaho journalism. He is a frequent guest on KIVI 6 On Your Side; "Idaho Reports" on Idaho Public Television; and "Idaho Matters" on Boise State Public Radio. Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KevinRichert. He can be reached at [emailprotected]

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'The best budget we can hope for?' Higher ed budget reactions - Idaho EdNews

Say No to Vaccine Passports

The Libertarian Party opposes 'vaccine passports' and any government mandated documentation, surveillance, restrictions, mandates, or laws which tread on the rights of the people.

With vaccination progressing across the US and internationally, there is a growing danger that 'vaccine passports' of some type will become reality. As the Washington Post reported last week, "the Biden administration and private companies are working to develop a standard way of handling credentials often referred to as 'vaccine passports' that would allow Americans to prove they have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus as businesses try to reopen" and Reason.com had a long list of efforts to establish some form of 'vaccine passport'.

After a year of ever expanding government overreach justified by the Covid Pandemic, and which the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts opposes, 'vaccine passports' are among the most dystopian measures to be added. They represent egregious violations of privacy and are nothing less than an attempt to establish mandatory vaccination by restricting the lives of non-vaccinated persons, regardless of any actual infection and risk of spread. This is a power the government should not have.

The Libertarian Party at the National level, of which the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts is the local state affiliate, has adopted a resolution, rejecting vaccine passports. It states that the Libertarian National Committee stands in stark defiance of all attempts by government to interfere with the private sector response to COVID19 as well as the degradation of civil liberties and livelihood at the hands of legislators. We oppose vaccine passports and any government mandated documentation, surveillance, restrictions, mandates, or laws which tread on the rights of the people. We stand in service of those seeking freedom in the United States as the centrifugal force of liberty.

See more here:
Libertarian Association of Massachussetts

One new frontier of libertarianism: mining for Ethereum.

Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

A little more than a year ago, a lifelong libertarian (quotes very much necessary) took stock of the movement and declared it pretty much hollowed out. For one thing, he wrote, it cannot solve or even very well address a number of major problems, most significantly climate change. For another, Internet culture encouraged smart and curious people to seek out and synthesize eclectic views, making capital-L Libertarianism pass.

Its successor was something he called State Capacity Libertarianism an ideology that acknowledges both the power of markets and the need for government. To quote from the article: Strong states remain necessary to maintain and extend capitalism and markets.

As it happens (spoiler alert), I happen to know the author here: It was me. And given the importance of Operation Warp Speed in getting the U.S. out of the pandemic, I remain happy with what I wrote. Still, not all libertarians liked my approach, especially the state capacity part of state capacity libertarianism.

Fair enough! And given all thats happened in the past year, its worth considering the question anew: What does it mean to be libertarian now? I would say that the purer forms of libertarianism are evolving: from a set of policy stances on political questions to a series of projects for building entire new political worlds.

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To understand this path, some history is necessary. American-style libertarianism in the 1970s was a novel movement that had many useful (and I would say correct) policy recommendations. Libertarians complained about high inflation, excessively high marginal tax rates, airline regulation, extreme protectionism and labor union privilege (especially in the U.K.), among other issues.

The good news is that many of these battles were won, at least partially. Libertarian views had significant influence on the mainstream. The paradox is that they were no longer defining issues for libertarians.

Principled opposition to central planning and communism was another defining stance. But the real world did us the remarkable favor of dismantling most of the major communist regimes, and at least moving China toward significant and growth-enhancing market reforms.

Libertarians promoted other ideas too, such as a critique of major government involvement in health care and indeed of the social welfare state. These ideas have not gone anywhere. Many countries have reformed in market-oriented directions, but they have not dismantled their social welfare states.

The U.S. in particular has moved in the direction of greater government involvement in these areas, both with Affordable Care Act a decade ago and the Cares Act last year. Countries such as Chile and Singapore, both successful reformers in earlier times, have moved toward a greater reliance on social welfare programs.

Past instantiations of libertarianism have emphasized the anti-war roots of the movement. Half a century ago, it drew energy and inspiration from the ongoing failures of the Vietnam War, which every day reminded people that the American state could be a force for great evil. Nowadays, however, even unpopular wars tend not to stoke outrage for very long. The current tactic of frequent drone strikes may well be a huge mistake, but it is hard to get the American public very upset about it.

More recently, the American Institute for Economic Research attempted to make resistance a central feature of the libertarian movement resistance to lockdowns. But its Great Barrington Declaration was fatally flawed. More important, with vaccinations rising, most lockdown issues are likely to recede.

The failure of the libertarian movement to generate public opposition to or even public interest in government overreach is more than a transitory defeat. It has resulted in a kind of tectonic shift: Instead of emphasizing the failures of current systems, libertarian energies are now focused on the possibilities of entirely new ones. Much of the intellectual effort in libertarian circles is concentrated in two ideas in particular: charter cities and cryptocurrency.

Very recently a charter city was inaugurated in Honduras, with its own set of laws and constitutions, designed to set off an economic boom. Entrepreneurs are seeking to create such cities around the globe, typically as enclaves within established political units. The expectation is not that these cities would reflect libertarian doctrine in every way, but rather that they would be an improvement over prevailing governance, just as Hong Kong had much better outcomes than did Maos China.

A milder version of the charter cities conceptis the YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) movement, which is not founding new cities but seeking to transform existing ones by deregulating zoning and construction and thus building them out to a much greater extent.

Another area attracting energetic young talent is cryptocurrency. Bitcoin gets a lot of the attention, but it is a static system. The Ethereum project, led by Vitalik Buterin, is more ambitious. It is trying to create a new currency, legal system, and set of protocols for new economies on blockchains.

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum can be managed to better suit market demands. Imagine a future in which prediction markets are everywhere, micropayments are easy, self-executing smart contracts are a normal part of business, consumers own their own data and trade it on blockchains, and social media are decentralized and you cant be canceled. The very foundations of banking and finance might move into this new realm.

Consistent with these developments, the most influential current figures in libertarianism have a strong background as doers: Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Buterin and Balaji Srinivasan, to name a few, though probably none would qualify as a formal libertarian. All of them have strong roots outside the U.S., which perhaps liberated them from the policy debates that preoccupied American libertarians for so long.

All this said, it is far from certain that these movements will succeed. Will many governments give up partial sovereignty to charter cities, and will these new political units maintain their credibility and integrity? Will consumers find sustainable and generally accepted uses for the products of an Ethereum-based commercial ecosystem, or will blockchains prove too cumbersome?

In essence, the new versions of libertarianism are seeking to act where action is possible. They are scaling up the vision rather than winnowing it down. Those visions probably wont be enough to arrest climate change, but they nonetheless could be transformative for peoples everyday lives.

The most radical form of the new libertarianism combines the two visions. Imagine a series of autonomous, competing cities, replacing the old nation-states. These cities are built on crypto institutions, cannot rely on resource confiscation, and they are more like start-ups than the large, centralized governments of the mid to late 20th century.

It is fashionable these days to claim that libertarianism is dead. Instead, before our very eyes, it has reinvented itself to focus less on policies than on projects. In this sense, it hearkens back to the Pilgrims and a much earlier set of ideologically driven projects that helped to build the current Western world.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Tyler Cowen at tcowen2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Read more from the original source:
Libertarian Ideas Are Evolving in Response to Covid and Recession - Bloomberg