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December 08, 2005
Paul Begala: DeLay Country...or not
I grew up in Tom DeLay's district. If you want to get a feel for what it was like back then, rent "The Sugar Land Express." It's a prison break movie, made in 1974, based on a true story - the time in 1959 when a woman convinced her husband to break out of the Beauford H. Jester Correctional Institute. The movie was the biggest thing ever to hit Sugar Land. It starred Goldie Hawn and Ben Johnson, and was directed by a young nobody called Spielberg. Don't know whatever became of him, but they let us out of school to watch `em film it.Back in the 70s I knew people who could recall when Sugar Land was a company town - the company being the Imperial Sugar Company. In the old days, the oldtimers would say, the dry goods store, the grocery store, even the Palms Theater (complete with "COLORED" entrance, which went straight up into the balcony) - all of them were owned by Imperial, a company which traces its roots in the area way back to 1843. ...
Fort Bend County, Texas had one of the largest slave populations in Texas in the 1850s and 60s, with slaves outnumbering whites by two-to-one. Needless to say, it was pro-Confederacy during the War of Northern Aggression. After Reconstruction, local racist Democrats formed the Jaybird Democratic Association - a "private" organization that held white-only elections, pledging itself to the "protection of the white race, "honest and economical government" and opposing the black-white coalition of Reconstruction Republicans. The winner of the Jaybird primary was guaranteed victory both in the Democratic primary and the general election. The Supreme Court outlawed the Jaybird Primary in 1953. More than a half-century later, Fort Bend County gave 57 percent of its vote to Republicans George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
The schools had already been integrated when I went there, but almost everyone used the N-word. (My parents, who were from New Jersey, were aghast and banned the word from our home and our mouths.) There was a daily, fundamentalist morning devotional, read over the loudspeaker by the principal. The school's only two Jews - the Lavine twins - stood out in the hall. Students who didn't call their teachers "Sir" or "Ma'am" were beaten with paddles (we called the experience "getting pops"). A boy's hair could not extend below the natural hairline on the back of his neck - which may sound harsh, but forbade the adoption of the mullet.
From the County Fair to Friday night football, the attitude was small town and rural. Today, Sugar Land is decidedly suburban. Houston has overwhelmed the area, which is today littered with Chili's and golf courses and strip malls and mega-churches. My brothers and my dad have moved in to Houston; the last time I tried to visit the old hometown, in 2000, I got lost. Except for the prison, all the old landmarks are gone. It's just another soulless suburb. If you ask me, the prisoners have the better of the bargain.
A new CNN-USA TODAY/Gallup poll says that 52 percent of the residents of Tom DeLay's district in Texas have an unfavorable opinion of him. Just 37 percent view him favorably.
My question is: who are the 37 percent?
Posted by Perry Dorrell at December 8, 2005 05:09 AM | Permalink
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Comments
My paternal great grandparents moved the family from Brownsville to Fort Bend County during the Mexican Revolution and are buried in San Isidro cemetary. The Imperial Cane Sugar Company established the cemetary because Mexican Americans were not allowed to be buried alongside Anglos. Now my great-grandparents have very nice views of the expansive homes and immaculate landscaping of Oyster Creek!!
Posted by: Marie at December 8, 2005 06:55 PM
DeLay's district isn't just Sugar Land. He, and others, seem to forget that it encompasses Clear Lake. Sure, like any good Southern Democrat (wait, it's Republican now) he brings home the goodies to NASA. But he also supports two projects that are abhorrent to most in Clear Lake: the Bayport expansion and the railroad clipping Bay Oaks, both bringing Lord knows what cargo adjacent to our yards, playgrounds and schools. I hope he has a primary opponent so I can take the pleasure of voting against him twice in one year.
Posted by: jimmyev at December 8, 2005 08:22 PM