Dan Patrick needs to hear from you.
As Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick relentlessly pushes a bill that would restrict the public restrooms transgender people can use, opposition to the measure is pouring in to his office.
Patrick’s office received more than 10,000 calls, emails or letters opposing the bill and just over 200 cheering it on within the two weeks after it was filed, according to a tally provided to the San Antonio Express-News in response to a Texas Public Information Act request.
A spokesman attributed the lopsided communications to an “orchestrated phone and email campaign organized by the left wing.”
Patrick did not release copies of correspondence from the Texas residents, citing a part of the public information law that allows the lieutenant governor and lawmakers to keep communications confidential in the interest of privacy.
The level of opposition and support was evident in more than 800 emails, letters and messages to Gov. Greg Abbott and nearly 200 to House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, stretching back through last summer and obtained under the open records law.
The communications to Abbott, who has been fairly non-committal on the need for a new law, were about evenly divided on the issue of transgender bathroom restrictions. Those to Straus, who has voiced concern over the potential economic effect of a bathroom bill, were heavily against such restrictions.
Several who contacted officials to oppose restrictions said they are Republicans, as are the three leaders and a majority of lawmakers. Many residents said there are more important issues for the state to worry about.
“I was voting Republican before you could spell it. This is stupid. Do I wear my birth certificate and drivers license on my shirt before I make a bathroom call or do I just drop my pants before I go in so that someone can check the plumbing,” asked a Sinton rancher in an email to Abbott’s office. “I don’t vote for stupidity. Don’t expect another vote from me if you support this.”
[…]
People also are less likely to write to an official with whom they agree on an issue, Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones said.
Jones said it is telling that there is no evidence of a similar campaign on the pro-SB 6 side that would have pumped up communications to Straus.
“One thing it could demonstrate is that the opposition to the bill is far more intense than the support for the bill,” Jones said.
Well good, because we could use some intensity. Patrick’s office is of course claiming that this is an “orchestrated campaign” against them, because that is what one says when the calls and emails are overwhelmingly against you. When everyone agrees with you, then The People Are Making Their Voices Heard, and when they don’t it’s a bunch of paid astroturf outside agitators. It’s not a surprise that Patrick has received far and away the most feedback on the bathroom bill, since he is by far its biggest proponent. None of it will change his mind, of course, but it’s still good for him to get an earful. As foe his claim that a poll shows a large majority of people oppose having men in women’s bathrooms, well of course people don’t approve of that. It has nothing to do with his bill, but that won’t stop him. As a wise man once said, good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance. But if that’s all you’ve got, then that’s all you’ve got.
I’m considering writing Patrick’s office to express my displeasure with this bill, and to tell Patrick to focus his efforts on property tax relief instead. Perhaps I shouldn’t mention that I didn’t vote for him, though.