Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants you to know he’s totally opposed to pandemic restrictions.
The most surprising component of Gov. Greg Abbott’s largely unsurprising slate of emergency items this session is a prohibition on COVID-19 restrictions and directives — not because of what the governor hasn’t done, but because of what he did.
During the pandemic’s height, Abbott, like many other GOP governors across the country, issued his own executive orders closing businesses, restricting the ingress and egress of persons, and mandating masks — the lattermost of which was announced only weeks after the office’s official position stated that “no jurisdiction can impose a civil or criminal penalty for failure to wear a face covering.”
A similar instance occurred in 2021 relating to vaccine mandate bans when Abbott’s spokesman stated that “private businesses don’t need government running their business.” A couple of months later, the governor expanded his vaccine mandate ban to include private companies along with governmental entities.
Abbott is now embroiled in a legal fight — to be featured at the Texas Supreme Court this week — with school districts who tried to preserve their own mask mandates well after the state ended its own.
The goalposts of pandemic policy across the country have moved constantly over the last three years, including in Texas — attributable in part to the giant uncertainty about the situation, especially early on. Mixed messages from officials were a common theme in the first few months.
“People didn’t know what we were dealing with with COVID, so there’s some grace that has to be extended,” state Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler), a frequent critic of the governor’s emergency response, said at The Texan’s 88th Session Kickoff in January. “I think there’s some grace that is extended to our leaders for getting through a chaotic period of time.”
Some grace is fine. After all, Flu Manchu was new and potentially deadly, and no one knew just how deadly at the start. It became evident very early on that Mao Tse Lung was not remotely as deadly as Ebola, yet Abbott still took six weeks of two weeks to bend the curve before he even started lifting the lockdown by a magnanimous 25% (remember the absurdity of tapped over restaurant tables you couldn’t sit at), markedly slower than many other Republican governors. Florida’s Ron DeSantis was notably faster at lifting all his markdown restrictions than Abbott was.
Finally, keep in mind that just renewed his own Flu Manchu disaster declaration February 13th. There’s never been a good explanation of how Flu Manchu lockdown restrictions were compatible with basic constitutional rights. So why has Abbott kept that disaster declaration going years after everyone else has moved on with their life?
The first target of Greg Abbott’s 2023 ire over “COVID-19 restrictions and directives” should be the Greg Abbott of 2020.
Tags: coronavirus, Greg Abbott, Regulation
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reminds me of this sketch from Jon Stewart in 2004 – Bush vs Bush
https://youtu.be/4MC9bXPmWvI
… and hey! That also featured the governor of Texas.
2004. Wow. Such potential and hopes we had then.
If only the constitution provided for another branch of government to have oversight of executive action…
Maybe the legislative branch could get off it’s ass and pass a law and/or amendment that requires legislative approval for executive actions that last longer than 60 days. declares a climate emergency and shuts down all new oil and gas drilling.
I mean, unless the State Reps and Senators just ran for office so they could get a 4 month vacation in Austin every two years.
Except the legislature cannot call itself into session. 2020 was not a year the legislature meets without Abbott calling them into session. By 2021 all the restrictions were over (though the emergency declarations weren’t).
well said. Abbott is a timid conservative. But in fairness Texas doesn’t need a lot if conservative “innovation”. It just needs to leave well enough alone. And unlike the Blue Boobs, he seems to be capable of learning from his mistakes.
His other crushing blunder back in 2020 was allowing the various County Judges to set their own rules, resulting in the fascist edicts of Little Lina. He allowed this insanity to continue for months, crushing many small businesses and throwing many out of work, long after it was plain that the virus was not anywhere near what it was sold as.
Has he proposed banning the use of Digital ID/Vaccine Passport in Texas yet?
The legislature can pass a law or put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to force the governor to call them into session to weigh in on extended emergency orders, or else his orders are null and void until the legislature passes actual legislation. Such a bill was making it’s way to the conference committee at the end of the last session, but the legislatures were too busy swapping peach cobbler recipes to send it to the governor’s desk.
Otherwise, the legislature can just sit back and watch while the state is run by the governor and the courts. Just like jagoffs in DC. And I guess they can hope that the next governor to wield unlimited power doesn’t make long for the good old days of rock-ribbed-republicans like Greg Abbot.
I mean, it’s only the foundation of constitutional rule. They may want to trade a republican democray for a monarchy, but I’d rather not.
[…] 2023 Greg Abbott Declares War On 2020 Greg Abbott […]
The number of politicians that have remained consistent throughout their careers can be numbered on the head of a sewing pin in six-inch numerals.