Paxton's Trial Wasn't A Uniquely Texan Travesty

It was a funhouse mirror showing us what's to come for the nation writ large.

September 17, 2023

If you didn’t follow the Paxton impeachment trial closely (tell me of your mysterious ways!) I published three in-progress recaps here over the last couple weeks — first one here, second one here, third one here.

Here’s hoping Ken Paxton’s acquittal yesterday, and any necessarily accompanying day-drinking, didn’t leave y’all any worse for wear this morning.

I don’t usually send out stand-alone newsletters purely to hype work I publish elsewhere, but because Home with the Armadillo has been heavy on the Paxton coverage over the last couple of weeks, I wanted to tie things up by previewing my latest for MSNBC.

It goes a little something like this:

The claims against Paxton were serious, even sensational. Among them were allegations that the attorney general had traded favors to secure a job for his extramarital companion, with the details of his affair aired in full view of Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who has been barred from voting on her husband’s guilt or innocence.

But the charges, though dramatic, were a sideshow. Ken Paxton may be the name in the court record, but the real defendant is the concept of democracy itself, and that trial goes on. At issue is not whether Ken Paxton is guilty (or whether a jury of his self-interested Republican peers is capable of finding him guilty), but whether a man with the right politics — right-wing Trump politics — can actually break the law at all.

This was the drum Paxton’s defense team beat throughout eight days of testimony: As duly elected attorney general, Paxton isn’t just above the law, he is the law. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it mirrors the arguments Donald Trump’s defenders are making, and it’s no accident that Team Trump and Team Paxton have backed each other every step of the way. Their aim is twofold: first, to establish that Trump and Trump-aligned politicians are fundamentally beyond accountability, empowered to do whatever they want by virtue of their election to office. And second, to assert that any entity that suggests such politicians can be held accountable is de facto corrupt, having necessarily failed to defer to righteous authority. 

Head over to MSNBC to read the full piece, which I think touches on all the major themes of the Paxton trial — Republican authoritarianism, the (continuing) decline of democracy and a patriarchy in crisis.

Allow me to noodle a bit on a related aside: In the wake of Paxton’s acquittal, I’ve been on the receiving end of less than the usual amount of blue-state liberal crowing about how Texans should “just move,” the South should be carved off and lobbed into the sea, everyone who lives in a “red” state gets what we deserve, etc. This could be for a bunch of reasons, probably the top among them the fact that Twitter, the usual hub for this kind of self-satisfied wankery, is finally gasping its last.

But I also hope that folks across the country — even in “safe” blue geographies — are finally, finally, after years and years of ignoring the folks who’ve been making the argument, starting to understand that Texas isn’t an outlier, it’s a bellwether. It’s a miniature funhouse mirror showing us a terrible preview of what’s to come for our national political situation if we don’t course-correct (or, more terrifying but possible, can’t course-correct).

I’ve been thinking about what that future looks like for the nation while writing my serial + epistolary sci-fi/horror novel, Revival!, which I publish in weekly installments as an imagined newsletter from a laid-off journalist. Without getting into spoilers, the story examines what happens when powerful men become indistinguishable from the office and the power they hold — not just above the rule of law but the law itself. What does the most extreme cult of personality look like in the context of American evangelical politics? What lengths will those thirstiest for control go to to preserve — literally — their positions? We’re a little over two months into the story, and there’s plenty of time to grab a tasty beverage and sit down with the archives to catch up.

Thanks to everyone who hung out for the Home with the Armadillo live-chats during the Paxton trial; it was a real pleasure to get to jibber-jabber with readers and politicos and fellow journalists. Since these chats seemed to be such a success, I’ll definitely be looking for more opportunities to host. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, because this has turned out to be kind of a downer of a post, but I genuinely believe we’re not as fucked as it all seems, I’ll leave y’all with this classic from Molly Ivins:

“So keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Be outrageous... rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through celebrating the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was!”