March 24, 2022
Greg Abbott will rot in hell. For those who have not checked the news in the past twelve years, Greg Abbott has managed to be on the wrong side of every issue, in homelessness, gay marriage, children’s healthcare, adoption, public health, democracy, climate change, and criminal justice, among others. In almost every decision, he has chosen the path that harms more people; being wholly unconcerned for those who do not fit his narrow view of citizens.
256/702/2,418/87,134. In 2020, 256 homeless people died on Austin’s streets. In 2021, 702 Texans died in Winter Storm Uri. In the most recent statistics, 2,418 Texans committed suicide. And, as of today, 87,134 Texans have died of COVID. Their deaths are on Greg Abbott hands. A person could argue that no, not all these deaths are on Abbott - and I do not think the governor could have prevented all of these deaths - but in each of these categories, he chose to not act at all, or actively do more harm. If even 1% of these deaths were preventable, he has nine hundred lives that he must account for. People often talk about politics in the abstract, about percentage points in precincts, turnout, and margins; GIS and VAN and VAP. All of these abstracts from that we are putting people in charge of people’s lives; one person can harm millions, choose to further hurt the most vulnerable in our society, and kill hundreds. If one is to work in politics, this is the reality of the outcome.
I do not think one can be held accountable - legally - for abstract deaths in this world; while we can prosecute someone for firing a gun or stabbing with a knife, it is much more difficult to prove that central policy leads to a person’s death, though in aggregate it does. This also deals in the killing/letting die dichotomy that I detest; they are functionally the same, and if one were to liken this to the trolley problem, in that Greg Abbott will cause harm no matter what, it is blatantly obvious that he has chosen to pull the lever that runs into the most people - especially those that he considers lesser-than. The only comeuppance possible for these actions, in this life, are social; he should not be a part of any part of society. Hell is other people, but life is more unbearable without. In ostracism, the Athenians had it right.
“Well, what about $x politician?”, sure. Any politician who has taken the worse option, killing more people, deserves the same fate. We should not look kindly upon others who fit this description; but I live in Texas, so I choose to talk about Texas. “You’re talking about hypotheticals! You only have the privilege of looking at Abbott’s actions from the future!”, one cries. In response, do you really think that Abbott had lives in mind when trying to ban gay couples from adopting children, when attempting to ban homeless people from having adequate shelter, or when refusing to institute public safety measures? When a treatment lowers the chance of death, and a doctor decides not to apply it, it is usually considered malpractice; the governor has done the same on a statewide scale.
Greg Abbott should not be in charge of Texas. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to change. And frankly, I do not see a solution to this one. The governor will keep his hands wet with blood, the state of Texas will vote for him, rinse, and repeat. In the meantime, we can try to survive, building alternatives to state support when we can, winning legal battles other times, and bracing ourselves for the hits. Things happen until they stop, and we do not know when that is. I want to work for a better Texas, I hope to wake up in it one day.
On February 27, 2022, I thought it would be a great idea to create some sort of content - writing, art, coding, etc. - every day of the next month. Luckily, the alliteration worked out. This should be the twenty-fourth post in the series.