TX GOP plays games with rural Texans, again

Throwing rural folks under the bus just to spite Dems

Several years ago, I was block walking in Lampasas, a small rural Texas town. The town had been having nearly ritualistic Internet outages – though it wasn’t just the Internet that crashed. Once the Internet fell, the cell towers, after a surge of folks using their phones instead of their broadband, crashed too. No emails. No texts. No calls. Once they went, businesses could no longer accept credit cards (they require Internet access to work). The town basically went back into the stone age.

But the issue is bigger than that. One lady told me that when all connectivity was lost (phones, Internet, etc.), she was at work but had a bad feeling about her husband. She ran back to her home to find her husband was in the early stages of a massive heart attack – but because all connectivity had crashed, they were not able to call for help. She had to load him into their truck and drive him to the hospital. Doctors told her that her actions saved his life. She told me that the lack of connectivity almost killed her husband.

Rural Texas ain’t known for its high Internet speeds, or its ability to even get a cell signal. The problem is that Internet and phone connectivity are no longer mere luxuries. They are business necessities, and, yes, they can even save lives.

You would think that in a democracy, our government would **do something** about this. Sadly, we don’t live in a democracy, we live in Texas.

Lampasas’s very own, Rep. David Spiller, dropped the ball by VOTING AGAINST a measure that would help.

During the budget debate, there was an amendment from Rep. Yvonne Davis (D-HD 111), which would help expand and secure broadband to rural and low-income communities.

And what did the Trumplicans do? Why, the voted the measure down of course!

Currently, 7 million Texans across 2.8 million households lack broadband access, with rural communities disproportionately affected. 33% of rural Texans do not have internet access at adequate speeds, hindering opportunities for education, healthcare, and economic security.

3 million Texans are rural, which is more people than 18 states. 100,000 live in a county without a primary care doctor. Internet price gouging can be a very real thing.

It’s not just a vote. It’s a signal. It’s a signal that the GOP doesn’t give a damn about rural folks and only care for this billionaire-backers. They aren’t loyal to their voters, only to their owner-donors.

This is the state of the current TX GOP. Were this a battlefield and the Parties were soldiers, Texas Democrats would be the soldiers who would never leave any of our brothers or sisters behind, meanwhile the Texas GOP would be the ones who are just there for the photo op.

So to all of my fellow rural Texans, if you don’t like the way things are going, just remember the TX GOP has been the party in power for the last 20 years. If you really want things to start changing, it’s time to bust their monopoly on political power. It’s time for a change. You in?

Click here to contact your State Rep to demand action on this issue.