Libs Fleeing Austin?
Maybe, Maybe Not
Good Morning Friends,
Just a short one today. We’re starting on it late, and we expect a pile of paid work later this morning.
One of the things that caught our eye over the weekend is a piece in NYMag.com saying liberals are fleeing Austin— that the enclave is being invaded by the rest of Texas.
On the face of it, it seems like the kind of bait that would arouse all kinds of clapping and cheering in some parts of the state, but let’s be real: Who the hell could afford to live in Austin? And who the hell would want to in its current state—overrun by homeless, crime, and well on its way to having streets literally covered in excrement like various California metros.
Anyway— here’s the piece, titled: The People Fleeing Austin Because Texas is too Conservative. Just a heads up— there’s some potty mouths getting quoted. We’re going to leave it intact.
“Tell him he can’t leave,” whispered a woman seated under an umbrella. “There are too many Republicans.”
To hear Stettin tell it, that is precisely why he is moving out of what Rick Perry once described as the “blueberry in the tomato soup,” a predominantly Democratic city full of liberal expats like himself seeking progressive politics and an urban lifestyle at a red-state cost-of-living discount. “It was easy to just be in Never Neverland, floating with a bunch of other transplants having a good time,” said Stettin, who relocated from Dallas to Austin five years ago.
But then 2020 happened. As the pandemic raged, Governor Greg Abbott banned municipalities including Austin from implementing COVID measures such as mask mandates. The following year, amid a brutal winter storm, the state’s electric grid failed, killing hundreds and leaving millions freezing in the dark, and it has yet to be fixed. That summer, Abbott codified permitless carry and further restricted voting access. This past February, he ordered investigations into the parents of trans children for child abuse. By June, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas was ten months ahead, having already effectively banned abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest and topped it with a $10,000 reward for informants.
“It’s like how a frog boils one degree at a time,” Stettin said. “They trigger-banned all abortion and they’re offering a bounty! What more do you need if you are a remotely liberal person to get the fuck out of here?” His destination was Massachusetts. “At least if I’m going to get into an argument with a guy in Boston,” he said, “he’s probably not carrying an AR-15 in his trunk.”
The reporter behind the piece is a young lady named Casey Quackenbush. We’re not familiar with her, but she seems to do a perfectly credible job of running this one down. Not that it’s hard to find some libs leaving Austin— but getting anyone on the record tends to require some effort. It may help that the piece is actually quite short.
There’s not much to the piece— it doesn’t really document any kind of conservative Texan incursion into Austin. Probably because there really isn’t one. See what we said earlier about the cost of living. In this case, the invasion seems to be one of ideas and customs.
The dirty little secret about Austin, that few people actually acknowledge— is that it’s not actually as weird as its advertised as, especially when its compared to places like Portland. The rest of the state tends to keep the place vaguely anchored and tethered, to the point of resembling a glassed in zoo enclosure that the rest of the state can visit— point and laugh at—and return home to relative sanity.
And— liberal true believers and others have been quietly slipping out of the town for as long as we can remember. Indeed— one of our first roommates in Austin many years ago (everyone has roommates— it’s a stupidly expensive town) was closeted gay and hiding it from the folks back home, while trying to live his best life in Austin.
Couldn’t quite do it. He was always uncomfortable in ways we didn’t know of at the time. Consequently, he wound up dropping one of the cushiest jobs we’ve ever heard of, and moving away to California. Lost track of. Fell out of touch. We’ve heard he’s doing well. Good for him.
Point is— the phenomenon being described in Ms. Quackenbush’s article is nothing new. And while it may serve as some red meat for folks who want to do an end-zone celebration and bathe in lib-tears, it doesn’t really amount to a very definitive piece. It’s anecdotal all the way down.
Read it. Enjoy it if you’re inclined to do so. But, don’t expect Austin’s character or nature to undergo any major changes any time soon, despite the efforts to document the raging homelessness and criminality. One imagines that for every individual leaving the place, another 5 are arriving— believing the hype and the advertising.
That’ll do it for this morning. We’ll be back again tomorrow, election day.
As always, this newsletter is published without oversight and exists as independently as possible from our day job at the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office. We mention this fact in the spirit of full-disclosure, and to avoid running afoul of the County’s guidelines regarding social media.
Biggest problem in Austin is trying to drive through the place on I-35 in less than an hour. I avoid it whenever possible. Traffic is horrendous. From what I've seen over the years, capital cities are a magnet for freeloaders.