Tag Archives: Texas Leftist

Houston, Houston Politics

Texas Leftist 5-year Anniversary

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A voice for the rest of Texas.  

TL 30k

Honestly, the slogan, like the name was just something I came up with on the fly.  I mean, who is the “rest” of Texas anyway??  I never intended to actually start a blog, much less have it run on its own website.

The origin of Texas Leftist is actually quite simple.  My Facebook page was mired in a sea of comments from people that agreed or disagreed with me, and I finally decided that rather than lose like 100 friends over politics, it would be much easier to just start a blog and have an outlet for my thoughts. The national debate was becoming so divisive (newsflash… it still is), that it seemed like we forgot how to be civil and actually listen to each other.

Some read the word “Leftist” and assume an extreme ideology, but that has never been the intention for this blog. In fact, the very first post was actually an appeal for moderation and common sense in the raging healthcare debate. After just a couple of posts in 2010, I stopped blogging for a while, but came back in 2012 when I just couldn’t deal with all of the misinformation circling the wagons out there… especially in Texas.  So once again, I tried to at least counter the lies with some fact-based assessment.

Since then, blogging has become a regular and treasured activity.  From political interviews and election “analysis” to music and cultural events, Texas Leftist has nearly taken on a life of its own.  A new ad-free website (and help from a great, tech-savvy friend) has made posts easier and better than ever before.  Never could I have imagined that this blog would lead to coverage on the Chronicle website, an op-ed via CultureMap, references on Forbes.com and even panel punditry on Houston radio.  Every bit of it still seems unreal.

So have I succeeded in being “a voice for the rest of Texas”?  Not sure, as it seems a very huge task for any singular individual to achieve.  But at least something can be said for adding another unique perspective to the state and national conversation… one that hopefully helps readers along their way.

5 years strong.  Thank you for reading!

Or is it 3??

Houston Politics

Why I’m Starting Donations

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As some readers may have guessed, Texas Leftist is a volunteer enterprise that I started back in 2010. At the time, I had hoped to cover some municipal issues, and focus on the Texas Gubernatorial elections. As Houston mayor Bill White was running for Governor at the time, it seemed like a good idea. But besides just rants on a page, it was important to me to express my thoughts in the context of a fact-based argument. To do that consistently requires a lot of time researching, fact-checking, calling people for clarification about things, trying to go to a crazy number of events, etc. Which is why after exactly 4 blog posts, I was done, realizing that the whole endeavor was way over my head.

But at the beginning of 2012, I couldn’t be silent any longer. The Presidential election (and all of the lies that surrounded it) just seemed too critical to not at least try to keep up. In the midst of doing posts like Operation Think Swing Texas or The ABCs of the GOP, I realized that this is something that was important to me. Though there are many outstanding bloggers throughout Texas covering a wide range of important issues, I felt that my voice was needed… is needed as well.

After some prayerful consideration, I’ve decided to add a donations feature to Texas Leftist (via PayPal). These donations are to help keep Texas Leftist going, and hopefully provide for future expansion of the blog and its coverage abilities. Here are my basic goals for this expansion so far…

– Increased coverage, opinion and analysis of important issues

– Interviews with politicians, public figures and newsmakers

– Enhanced capability to collect and disseminate information

– Additional perspectives from guest writers

So there you have it. If anyone has any feedback, you are welcome to contact me at texasleftist@gmail.com. Thanks for reading, and for your consideration.