Turning Texan

Ronnie Dugger is the founder of The Texas Observer. In the magazine's 50th anniversary edition, Dugger writes that instead of Texas continuing on a course of progressivism, it has dragged the rest of the nation down to its level. Tragically, it's a level on par with most of the South. Here's how Dugger puts it:

"Could it be, I thought, that instead of what we’re working for — Texas growing into a more just, less racist place—the opposite will happen? The United States will become just like greedy, reactionary, racist, poverty-blighted, religion-ridden Texas? It was one of the clichés among us on the Observer that we were dragging our state, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century. But lo and behold, as of November 2nd this year, Texas has dragged the United States back into the 19th."