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| A sincere snear? |
How to feel about Wendy Davis' so-called "wheelchair" ad? Given that opinions are mostly divided along partisan lines, let's not forget when Abbott's camp attempted to manufacture similar outrage. Remember James O'Keefe's "fizzle of a scandal"?
In late January, the American-Statesman compared the raw and edited footage of a
Project Veritas video that purported to show Battleground Texas volunteers and
Wendy Davis supporters mocking Greg Abbott’s being in a wheelchair, and found
that the tapes had been edited in a misleading manner, including moving the
sound of laughter to produce the desired effect.
So the Abbott camp is at it again.
That being said, I do think something valuable can come of the attention here. It's an opportunity to talk about the rights of
those in the disability community, some three million people here in
Texas.
I reached out to some leading disability rights
organizations to see what's their take about the "scandal." Some stepped away, being apolitical
not-for-profits unwilling to take sides in what some see as little more than a nasty
political squabble. But I had a very
interesting conversation this morning with Dennis Borel, Executive Director of
CTD, the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, the state's oldest disability
rights organization.
Borel's take on all this is a breath of fresh air.
Sure enough, Borel has fielded many calls, emails and text
messages from the disability community about Wendy's ad. Were they up-in-arms against her as
the Abbott campaign would have us believe?
Hardly.
"I've gotten the same response we had when Abbott had
his wheelchair ad. Now that both sides
have used this, let's get past imagery and get to issues!" Borel said.
Both ads, he says, don't even touch what's important.
Abbott's use of the imagery was to highlight his personal traits. Wendy's ad
just focused on so-called "tort reform." That's a miss on both counts
for Borel.
What would be on target?
Discussing the need for adequate pay for home care workers and getting
clear about Abbott's record and position on what's known as "sovereign
immunity," fighting to exempt state government from the Americans for Disability Act (ADA). I'll be going
into detail about these in Part II.
First, let's just look at who's willing to even address
disability rights issues.
On September 24, CTD offered all the statewide candidates that should have an interest in disability issues an opportunity participate in a forum. The event was held in Austin and some 300 people turned up. What's
most telling is the sharp contrast between the Republican and Democratic
candidate participation. The Democrats running for Governor, Lt. Governor and
Attorney General - Wendy Davis, Leticia Van de Putte and Sam Houston - all
showed up to answer questions in person after filling out candidate
questionnaires detailing their positions on key issues. Their Republican opponents, Abbott, Dan
Patrick and Ken Paxon, were all no-shows. To his credit, Abbott did return the
questionnaire. The other Republicans didn't even demonstrate that minimal interest, much
less respect (check the candidate responses here).
Still, the details of Abbott's no-show are telling. Maybe
the event just didn't fit into his schedule? Not so says Borel.
We had been in conversation for months with his campaign. They
knew the date well in advance. In fact the scheduler said it was too far in
advance as she was not yet scheduling September. After declining to
appear, we offered a Skype live interview, then even a taped interview.
Ultimately, the message was that he had no time at all in September.
So Abbott willfully, deliberately ducked this forum to avoid
exposing himself to questions from disabled Texans. There's good reason for him to do so as we'll examine in Part
II.
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Tips? Suggestions? Ideas? Drop a line to carl (at) inanityofsanity (dot) com
When is part 11 happening.
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