Texas is showing the future Republicans want: One in which they respond to large public challenges by retreating into their alternate information universe and insulating themselves from accountability with redoubled countermajoritarian tactics. My latest: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/texas-republicans-abbott-power-shortages/

Unsurprisingly, Rep. Lauren Boebert succeeded in taking the phony anti-elite posturing to towering heights of stupidity.

And Rick Perry did a bang-up job exposing the utter bankruptcy of the conservative response to Texas as well:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/texas-republicans-abbott-power-shortages/

On Fox News, Gov. Greg Abbott blamed wind and solar for the Texas disaster.

But the thing is, he *knows* this is nonsense. He admitted elsewhere that the problem was natural gas and coal!

The rub is that the pull of the Fox News vortex is irresistible:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/texas-republicans-abbott-power-shortages/

Texas, the pandemic and the economic collapse herald a future that will demand more empiricism, better government and a recommitment to democracy/public service.

But the GOP is retreating deeper into Foxlandia and ramping up the anti-democratic tactics:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/texas-republicans-abbott-power-shortages/

Here @ryanlcooper develops the point, noting that GOP lies about Texas aren't just typical Foxlandia lies. They also reveal the hollowness of conservative ideology and show that "whining is the beginning and end of Republican governance":

https://theweek.com/articles/967583/texas-blizzard-nightmare-republican-governance-nutshell?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter